The Duel (2000)

The imperial palace is to play host to a fight. And it's set to be a big one. White Cloud City Master Cool-Son Yeh (Andy Lau), or plain old Pingnan for short, is slated to clash swords with Simon the Snow Blower (Ekin Cheng) on the summit of the Forbidden City. The two are God of Sword and Sword Saint (ever heard that before?) respectively and they're ready to see who's number one. Each hold tricks up their silken sleeves; Simon can slice enemies without spilling blood and Pingnan can let fly with his Hovering Heavenly Fairy Stance as a warmup trick. Keeping in the swordplay tradition, both can fly really well. Imperial Agent Dragon 9 (Nick Cheung), who also can fly, is charged with distributing spectator tickets to the climactic event which turns out to be more than mere swordfighting.

Of course, few Hong Kong swordplay flicks are spared from a complicated script. With three love interests, extraneous rivalries and a twist thrown in, a much messier whole is revealed for The Duel. Dubious asides interrupt sporadically, including a digital stomach trick from Dragon 9 and some large-scale scorpion slaughter. For the sake of this review, the first paragraph is ample plot description.

The biggest surprise in The Duel is also the biggest letdown. Posters and lobby cards offer images of Andy Lau and Ekin Cheng as stars yet it's Nick Cheung who takes the lead. Cheng, in particular, is rarely seen. Though Cheung lacks the skills to carry a film like this, the ragged script lets him fall into more familiar territory - dull chatter, jokes and innuendo. And it's amid this cheap, distracting din that the script keeps losing its way. More interesting aspects come and go or stay completely unexplained. Just see how long Princess Phoenix (Vicki Zhao) takes to forget her search for the medicinal Tian Shan Snow Lotus to heal ailing Pingnan. And then there's Kristy Yang's character; at one moment she's suicidal in her allegiances to bad guy Lin Yunhe and in the next she's happily baking Wife Cakes with her new man, and former foe, Simon.

The action is not up to much either - another surprise considering the movie title is as blunt as Fist Power's. The martial arts (directed by Tony Ching Siu-tung) are blurred beneath digital effects, lost in comedic asides and are generally very short. Sure, the characters fly and all. But I'd prefer to see some high kicks land on faces and swords actually clash with swords. With not enough quality action to hold it together, as well as a patchwork script and far too little of the top-billed stars, The Duel returned poor value for my Chinese New Year box office dollars.

The Newport Theatre's painted billboard for The Duel.

Credits:

Director: Andrew Lau
Screenplay: Wong Jing and Manfred Wong
Starring Nick Cheung Ka-fai, Vicki Zhao, Andy Lau Tak-wah, Ekin Cheng Yi-kin, Kristy Yang, Tien Hsin and Patrick Tam
Cameos: Elvis Tsui Kam-kong and Ng Chi-hung