Tiew 's seebeh bo liao Chinese Kungfu Film Review!

Quick Profile.....
Title: Duel of fists
Director:Chang Cheh
Starring:David Chiang(as Fan Ke), Ti lung(as Wenlie)

At a glance: A martial arts film done all the way back in our parent's era. 1971 to be exact. Backdrop mostly filmed in Thailand.

Martial Arts Skill

--If you are searching for a film to inspire you in chinese wushu, look elsewhere. Most of the fights are muay thai and even those look fake the way they fling their limp limps around. David Chiang's character does not bring out the 'seh' in whatever wushu he was using. In a particular scene where the bad guy is trashing Wenlie, you can even see his punches(all five of them) miss totally! Nuff' said!

Rating:

Direction/Choreography

--What they claim:.......'With action choreography by Liu Chia Liang, Duel of Fists was one of the megahits of 1971, second only to Bruce Lee's The Big Boss.'
What I say: Surprisingly this bold claim is not as fake as the fighting. The choreography by the legendary Liu Chia Liang is superb(for their time). His talent of constructing 'mass fights' where the hero gets to thrash the hell out of everyone even when outnumbered 21556:1 is what actually makes the fight scene bearable. But still, its not enough to bring the film out of mediocrity. The scenery, backgrounds n movie settings are totally bland!! At least they bring some contrast to the actors!
No matter how many times i see it, I just cannot stand the overused '70s n '80s "closed up to actors/actress face" camera effect when they are about to make a strong point or emotion. Moreover its usually followed by some ear grating dramatic score. What's worse is that the flow of the film is really laggy....wah must tahan........I'll add a extra shuriken for Liu Chia Liang's effort though.

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Storyline/Characterization

--Needless to say, for action(or lack of it) oriented films, the plot is as thick as the vcd its imprinted on. Here's a summary of the story: Heroes goes in search of long lost elder bro in Thailand in order to fulfill dead father's wish. Eventually found him and helped him kick a couple of villains' ass on the way. So there! The ending is quite rushed and leaves you with an empty feeling like"huh? that's the end of my 50 cents?" (or whatever it cost for a movie in those days). As for the characters in the film, the heroes are heroic and the villains villainous......not much there. But what really puzzled me is won't Wenlie have some sort of psychological denial and hatred of his half brother Fan Ke? After all, Wenlie's father left his mother all alone and impregnated in Thailand and never returned! As mentioned in the show, he led a hard life with his mother. If its in real life, think Fan Ke will have to hire a real good shrink with years of therapy sessions for Wenlie to accept him!!!

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Casts/Extras

--Not much qualms with the casting. David Chiang and Ti Lung comes naturally with "good guy's" faces(but how I wish I can wipe that annoying grin off David C's face!) and I guess the general audience of that time have already associated their faces with heroism after their countless action movies. The extras and 'calafares' were not bad too....the audience to the muay thai matches showed real enthusiasm and the 'extra' bad guys weren't too slow to be beaten up by our two heroes too....heh...I also notice there are an unusual number of people that are Chinese when they should be in Thailand! The only problem here is that the bad guys cannot make it....the sub-villain is not sly or despicable enough and his smile makes him look more like he's on the other side. The other thing is the Muay Thai Champ is waaayyyy too flabby to be even a Thai boxer!

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Then again.....one of the lead ladies was so damn ugly, I almost flipped off my chair when she made her first appearance.(and it was a close-up too!! AARGGHHH!!)

Revised rating:

Overall

--Ok the film don't really sucked that much....after all, it was a mega hit in the '70s! But there are still a few details to nick pick....My major gripe being that the beginning half of the show was more like a travel film, showing lots of mudane shots of the streets of Thailand dragging the whole show slow!!! Ok ok maybe I should cut it some slack, as was mentioned a thousand time before this flick is filmed a whole decade before I was born! Perhaps I should close one eye when judging the catagories. Shouldn't be a problem.....The show shut both of mine while I was halfway through it......

Rating:

Cheese factor!!

--Whooohooo......This film reeks of cheesiness man!! Dunno where to begin! I'll just state down a couple.....
Cannot tahan the way David Chang grins from ear to ear......even in a fight!!!
Not to mention his character kept on reminding people that he is an engineer! Especially after one of the fight scene he just casually reminded one of the lead ladies(the ugly one): I don't fight for a living, I'm an engineer!!! Wah lau!! Does he seriously ooze cheese!!
Another bueh tahan cheesy part is that he can actually be in a hostile condition and still continue to chee hong!!! Wah think even Ho*g Ru* also never that powerful!!
And beyond description is how they deliver their lines....those you have to see and hear for yourself!

Cheesiness Rating: