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 The
Duel is the latest offering from the BoB production company who
also gave us the The Storm Riders and A Man Called Hero. These trio
of films is the effect Hollywood has had on the Hong Kong film industry.
As the West looks to the East for inspiration, the East looks to
the West for ideas to plagiarise. Fortunately for Hollywood, they
have the resources to succeed; whereas Hong Kong does not.
Andrew
Lau Wai-keung is again on the helm as director for The Duel, just
as he was for StormRiders and Hero. This time, however, he fails
to bring out the grand spectacle that graced StormRiders, or the
rich storyline that embodied Hero. The Duel is a mismatch of an
idea, and even the special effects doesn't save it from being a
missed opportunity. Unlike StormRiders and Hero, which were more
serious in tone, The Duel doesn't pretend to be a traditional martial
arts movie. It is simply a comedy within a martial arts film, but
it fails to be funny. Instead, it comes across as annoying. It's
a pity because without the gags, the banal dialogue, and the sometimes
awful special effects, it could have been so much better. It is
something of a mystery how they could have made this when they made
StormRiders and Hero before it. If you don't get what I mean - just
try imagining one of those new Conman movies, but instead of two
master gamblers, we have two powerful swordsmen - set in the old
martial arts world.
Anyway,
the film is about the duel between two powerful swordsmen: Cool-son
Yeh (Andy Lau) and Simon Snowblower (Ekin Cheng). Cool-son Yeh was
the person who initiated the duel, seemingly at first because he
wants to face Snowblower; to find out who's the best between the
two, but as the story progresses we realise that Cool-son has a
secret agenda. Dragon 9 (Nick Cheung) is an Imperial Agent, and
he has been ordered by the Emperor to sell eight golden tickets
to the public for huge amounts of money to watch the fight. When
a number of people are mysteriously murdered by a powerful martial
artist, evidence leads to Simon Snowblower, who is also a good friend
of Dragon 9. In the end, we find that Cool-son Yeh is the mastermind
behind the events as he conspire to assassinate the emperor and
don the imperial robes himself.
The
problem with this film is in its use of CGI. However fancy it may
look, it doesn't necessarily enhance the fight sequences; instead
making the end fight sequence look second-rate. The swordfight at
the end of Hero was much better. As with the leads, Andy Lau plays
Cool-son Yeh with a commanding presence. He looks like a powerful
swordsman, speaks like he's a thousand years old and with an arrogance
to match. Ekin Cheng plays Snowblower just like he plays the older
Wah in Hero - a person filled with enormous power, but utterly lacking
in feelings. Both Lau and Cheng act like they have left their emotions
in their swordsheaths; they just have an aura of dispassionate coldness
about them.
On
the other hand, the film is more dominated by Nick Cheung, who goofs
around the film like he's the alter-ego of Stephen Chow. He's there
only for comic-relief, aided by Chiu Mei, who plays the Princess
Phoenix. Chiu Mei came to prominence in the TV drama series, Princess
Pearl, and now regularly appears in Hong Kong films which sort of
utilises her comic abilities, but nothing else. Kristy Yang is underused
in The Duel: she plays a character called Yu Zeqing, a student of
the Thief Ghost. When her master betrays her, she is rescued by
Snowblower, and she soon falls in love with him. Quite typical really.
Here, she teams up once again with Ekin Cheng: they played lovers
in StormRiders, and husband and wife in Hero.
Overall,
The Duel isn't a bad film - the gags provide a good amount of humour;
the action is pretty slick, and the production values look pretty
high. There were plenty of good location shots, including scenes
of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The film has its positive moments:
however flawed, the fight sequences are fun to watch, but I feel
as if the Hong Kong film makers are now relying too much on CGI.
Hong Kong has traditionally made films on a shoestring budget -
to a certain extent that was their appeal - and managed to produce
good quality films with limited resources. But if they think that
adding CGI and a larger budget would make a film then they are wrong.
Learn from Hollywood - special effects does not make a good film.
Disappointing.
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