Review: Duel to the Death is one of the older Kung Fu / Swordsplay movies, this is what you would call an old school Swordplay movie or wu xia pian movie. This is one of those movies that you would have heard and has reached that somewhat classic status. Taking on the basic premise of Chinese vs. Japanese they put together a good story, easy to understand but with a couple of surprises in store.

You have some interesting characters in this movie, during the beginning you are introduced to a lot of people but at mid point all the interference is cut out and you are focused only on the important characters. What is cool is the various martial art type of characters such as: Monks, Swordsmens, Ninjas and Samurais. There is very little development for any of the characters but you have a feeling of the honor that the duelists are bound to. Generally the characters are all interesting even if not well developed.

There is a fair amount of action in this movie, especially a lot of Ninja action. Those Ninja assassins are really out in force in this movie and that is pretty cool to see in a HK movie, it's a mix of Japanese and Chinese. You end up seeing a lot of interesting fight scenarios in this movie, most of them pretty incredible with great choreographys. There is also a lot of wire fu, some people might find it annoying as it is a little over done at times. One down side might be the length of time between some fights but overall there is a good amount of action.