DUEL TO DEATH-1983-This crazy violent period piece is essentially about the bad blood between Chinese Kung-Fu and Japanese "sword fighting". The Japanese look down on the "weak" monks and are clearly the aggressors while the Chinese are honorable and would rather live in peace but every ten years a tournament to the death is held between the two countries. Ching Wan (Damian Lau; THE HEROIC TRIO), known as "lord of the sword", is the Chinese contender while his main rival is Hashimoto (Norman Chu also in Tsui Hark's WE'RE GOING TO EAT YOU)), an intense Japanese swordsman who had to kill his own sensei as a final test. The two become friends when a plot to rig the tournament is discovered. This is full of good fights, blood, dismemberment, exploding ninjas and a severed head that talks.

Director Sio-Tung Ching also made A CHINESE GHOST STORY. The remastered DVD is called DUEL TO THE DEATH.

Thanks for reading!