All these shinobi-shenanigans are just the back-drop in a movie that's–really--about the ancient duel between the best of swordsmen of China and Japan. “Duel to the Death” traverses the border-conflicts near the territories of Family, Friendship, Love, and Honor. These abstract concepts are illuminated by the words and actions of our heroes.

Fights are plenty and skillfully blended with the human drama, treachery and tragedy that abound. The final battle is a bloody mess of wondrous wuxia. Don’t say I’m spoiling anything here; they didn’t call it “Duel to the Point-Where-Everyone-Just-Agrees-to-Disagree.”

This is not only a movie that stands up to multiple viewings, it demands them. If you don't own this, order it now. Seriously.

Norman Chu or Tsui-Keung plays Hashimoto who is a Japanese Samurai serving orders from a Japanese leader to duel with a Chinese martial artist. Along the way he becomes friends with Bo Ching Wan which is the guy hey has to fight to the death. Im not going to tell the end of the story but what I can tell you is that the duel is more fought with Japanese honor and a bloddy slicing match.

Eddy Ko or Ko Heug is a good actor. I remember him playing Fok Yuen Gap in the ATV series Fst of Fury. Here he plays Kenji a Japanese fighter that was ent by the same Japanese leader to kill Bo Ching Wan. In this film he is in head of the fight, thats if you saw this movie.

Lau Cheung Yan or Damian Lau plays the Chinese martial artist that refused to battle Hashimoto. He wants to be friends and questions Hashimoto's violent nature. He falls in love with some girl who I dont know the name of. The duel starts when Bo Ching Wan resuces his shaolin monk uncle who later gets killed by Hashimoto.

Duel to the Death means to duel every ten years with a Japanese fighting a Chinese. Luckly this is only a movie comment.

The finale duel was not a classic that I thought to be but the fights in the film are fast and following which makes a good Ching Siu Tung staged fight. An arm, an fingers are sliced in the finale duel. Lots of blood and flying is jammed into the duel.

School Grade 89% bloody and wonderful.

I can see if one is a huge fan of the "classic" style of kung-fu films, then one might enjoy this. I found it to be a strange mix of over-the-top choreography that was somehow yawn-inducing, coupled with a thin but ham-fisted plotline that explained little and resolved even less.

Perhaps it is heresy to not appreciate it, but this train wreck of a film barely held my interest at all.

Yeah, well, anyway, Duel to the Death was, in fact, featured in the infamous clip movie, and it does have nice fight scenes, but wait! What's that? A plot?!? Yep, Duel to the Death actually had a discernable, reasonably easy to follow plot. And, the actors were pretty good.

Well, your basic gist here is that every generation, China and Japan send their best swordsmen (one from each country) to, ahem, Duel to the Death to determine which country's sword fighting techniques are the best. Saves a lot of time and money compared to a war, ya know. I'm drafting a petition to the U.N. as soon as I finish this review. That philosophy would be all fine and good, but it turns out that, this time, somebody has decided that they're gonna rig the big fight! "The General," who, I guess, is in charge of Japan's army, has set it up so that China's swordsman will lose for sure... probably.

While the two swordsmen (neither aware of the plot, of course) debate the philosophies of their respective countries, all kinds of Machiavellian scheming is going on in the background. One strength of the movie, believe it or not, is the philosophy debates. While I'd normally be fast forwarding to the fight scenes, I was rewinding to make sure I caught all the dialogue. What's the last kung-fu flick you can say that about?

Which is not to say that the action is neglected; far from it, this movie features some pretty spiffy swordplay, and actually shows off the countries' styles. It's kind of a shame how some movies forget things like being accurate to their own premise, and that makes it seem even niftier by comparison.

And how about this for a bonus: dismemberment! Woo-hoo! Neat as kung-fu flicks are, you've gotta' have a sword to chop a guy's arm off. Of course, things like dropping an arm or leg are just minor inconveniences to these guys, but it still makes the fights stand out.

But, if you call now, we'll even throw in more ninjas than you can shake a tonfa at! That's right, Japan using subterfuge = ninjas, and bunches of 'em. And these ninjas can do all the nifty mystical tricks that they're supposed to be able to pull off, which makes them a pretty neat faceless menace. Of course, despite their skill, they spend a lot of time dying.

Also worth noting is the fact that neither of the main swordsmen is "the bad guy." Normally, as you probably know, kung-fu flicks (made in China) aren't really fond of the Japanese, and, while the Japanese are certainly the ones cheating here, the Chinese aren't without fault, and there is at least one good Japanese guy. It's easy to admire the virtues set forth by both men, because they both seem to really believe in them. (Sorry, philosophy crept in again.)

And, since a movie with that much talking can't have a very happy ending, Duel to the Death doesn't. Lots of people die, and nobody is the clear victor. Maybe there's a lesson there, or maybe it's just an action movie with a brain. Either way, it's definitely worth your time to check this one out. I think I'll even go out on a limb and say it's worth a look if you don't normally like the genre. Very good stuff.