Rating: 3 out of 5
Director: Chung Ting
Year: 1979
Plot:
“Duel of the Dragon” is also known as “Of Cooks and Kung fu”
and follows a simple storyline at first, then branches the path a little to
showcase kung fu. The main story features a grandfather teaching his grandson “Cooking
Kung Fu”, so we see a lot of training montages, and comedic moments. One of which
includes our main hero catching fish to prove his kung fu style and cooking
style mesh well. It’s a hilarious little segment and breaks up the main story
alongside other quick moments. There is a side story that encapsulates
everything in which a villain is killing the emperor’s cooks, and that leads to
some good overall sequences too, but it seems to be part of the story not the
main one, but definitely a side one that gets bigger with time.
Thoughts:
Our main hero tries hard to mimic Jackie Chan, and that’s
not a bad thing. He works well with kung fu, acrobatics, and comedy, which
lends itself well to the film. The edition I saw wasn’t upgraded at all, so it’s
the original VHS cut, and the film grain is still there, not really updated at
all. The story is convoluted, and meanders a bit before getting to the final
fight which is really worth checking out. Other than that, “Duel of the Dragon”
really doesn’t hold a lot of weight, with the exception of introducing a
cooking style of kung fu, which is entertaining overall. The training montages,
and the comedic elements mix well for an entertaining romp, though it lacks in
storytelling at times. Don’t expect an all out brawl of a movie, as there is a
lot of comedic dialogue that comes through. There’s comedy, there’s kung fu,
and there’s a lot of fun to be had, giving this a rating of 3 out of 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment