A surprisingly moving exercise in over-the-top wuxia extravagance

I was first introduced to this Derek Yee remake of Chor Yuen's 1977 Death Duel (itself an adaptation of Gu Long's eponymous novel) when me and my brother caught it on TV. "God, I've recently seen this on a flight," he said, "it's gotta be the worst movie ever". Now, I'm a huge fan of enjoyably bad films, so I sat down, rubbed my hands in anticipation... and was soon let down. This was no bad film, whatsoever; this is an incredible piece of consciously style-over-substance, over-the-top wuxia, which not only gladly embraces the genre's most outrageous excesses, but goes ahead and cranks them all up to 11, and does it all with such a sense of fun, such sheer heart, I couldn't help but being won over completely.

It probably doesn't hurt that beneath all the intentionally cartoonish CGI and wirework gymnastics there is a compelling story about a cast of brilliantly written characters - in particular deuteragonist and antihero Yen Shisan, whose arc alone, as a dying man looking back at his life and being shocked and aghast at what he sees, would be enough to carry a film all by itself.

As I said, I very much enjoy bad films, and I was fully prepared to like this one on those grounds - but this is no such thing. This is an incredible piece of genre-savvy, self-aware filmmaking, and a prime example of emotionally engaging and satisfying storytelling.