Fei xiang guo he (1983) User Reviews

Re-comment

[warlorde · 10/10 · 30 June 2002]

I'd like to re-comment on this movie. It is a great MOVIE! The music, the absurd plot, the fight scenes, the comedy are all excellent. Watch this movie a few times and you'll see what I mean. Besides Gigi is a babe!

10 out of 10. I changed also my vote on the movie.

Wacky Taiwanese action comedy

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 17 March 2017]

DUEL OF THE MASTERS is a wacky Taiwanese action comedy made in 1983 back when Asian cinema was famous for effects-fuelled fantasies and zany comedies. This one feels a lot like it wants to be SHAOLIN DRUNKARD and it does have Brandy Yuen in the supporting cast, although in the end it's too cheap to really succeed in what it sets out to do.

The film stars Norman Chu as a bumpkin type hero who wanders the countryside with his eccentric old master. The old master rides a giant rocking horse while another character has a wheelchair with a horn on it. It's that kind of film. The movie is chock full of wacky sound effects and absurd character comedy which is par for the course for the era.

There's not a great deal of fight action here despite Chu's talents as evinced in his Shaw Brothers films. He decides to romance a pretty girl which causes all sorts of problems with her asthmatic father, who is played by screen thug Fung Hark-On in a non-bad guy role, the first I've seen from him. A middle section interlude is the most fun and involves hopping vampires both fake and real. Watch out for the skipping scene accompanied by comedy music and listen out for the music ripped off from PSYCHO.

Funnnnyyy

[warlorde · 10/10 · 21 March 2002]

Funny martial arts movie, with improbable displays of fighting and flying. Highly recommended if you want a good laugh. Nothing like a hopping vampire and fighting with huge keys. Whatever you do, don't expect much from this movie, just sit back and enjoy.

7 out of 10. WAAAHHHHHOOOO!!!

pretty bad

[winner55 · 2/10 · 6 August 2006]

the existing video of this is ugly looking to begin with. but that sort of thing i can tolerate.

what i can't tolerate is a story that has no coherence and doesn't actually go anywhere; pathetically childish humor - it's all canton-comedy sight gags - a few, brief fight scenes masquerading as kung-fu, characters we'd rather not meet, let alone spend 90 minutes watching, and just shoddy production values overall.

Wilson tong has made some good films, but this isn't one of them.

the only importance of this film is historical - although the 'new wave' of hong kong action films had to find its identity, this film is clearly no longer a part of the old-school chop-socky 'fu film era of the seventies. in many ways, one can read the intended humor of this film as a kind of vomiting up of, and on, the old-school values.

but i find this offensive and misguided. martial arts humor is like any other kind of humor - it can be either light-hearted or fierce, but in the first instance, it must entertain.

this film doesn't.