With an international market hungry for wu xia films and the explosion of visually rich and thematically complex South Korean Cinema, The Duelist has the pedigree to achieve 'instant classic' status. So what went so terribly, terribly wrong?
The basic story is about par for the genre. The political intrigue, investigation police officers and love on top were even recently covered with Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers. Detective Ahn and his young female protégé Namsoon begin an investigation regarding thousands of counterfeit coins being brought into the province. Because merchants and peasants alike are having trouble distinguishing the coins, the economy is threatening to collapse. Roads begin to lead to the Minister of Defense who controls all of the militia in the province and may be making a play for greater power, even rulership of the country.
The Minister has a deadly henchman, Sad Eyes. Introduced in a fascinating sword-play demonstration in a town market, Sad Eyes wears a steel mask (not unlike V in Vendetta) and is all flowing robes, he is the classic brooding young-boyish warrior so often featured in Manga. Namsoon immediately falls in love, and an early fight sequences plays out more like an elaborate mating sequence than an actual blade-fight (more on this later). As the web gets tighter, so does the inexplicable bond developing between Namsoon and Sad Eyes with the Minister and Ahn serving as helpless witnesses to a mounting tragedy.
That sounds intriguing, and worthy of the first big Korean entry to the genre. But director Lee Myung-Se takes every opportunity to destroy flow, character development, and story telling. The movie is a tonal mess. One minute the film has a pounding chase, the next it is a Benny-Hill/Tom Jones sped-up chase. One moment the characters are in an embrace of timeless love, the next a secondary character is talking about ejaculation. There is a framing story, of a blacksmith telling a tale of intrigue and seduction which sets the dark and sultry mood, only to break out with extreme overacting and posturing in an outside tavern. If this is intentional I applaud the ambitious experiment, but that doesn't undo its failure.
What makes it all the more painful is the level of artistry involved to the whole messy affair. The cinematography is as good (and in several scenes, even better) as the recent wu xia films Ang Lee, Chen Kaige and master Zhang Yimou. The martial arts sequences structured as formal dances, while not entire original, are executed in a fresh and suitable exotic fashion. That is when the director bothers to film the fight (several sequences, including a big show down with Inspector Ahn and half the town militia, are just cut away from). There will be no debate as to The Duelist being visually seductive, but I have a theory that several of the fight-tests may have failed due to the industries inexperience with the genre, and are therefore have just been completely excised.
In so many scenes the actors show that there is no shortage in the talent department. Ha Ji-won as Namsoon has great timing in the comedy scenes and can go from ice-queen to sultry-hot convincingly. Sad Eyes, played by Gang Dong-won makes the most out of clichéd and stock Manga character. And both Song Young-chang and Ahn Sung-ki carry themselves with a quiet dignity when the direction allows for it. But herky-jerky story doesn't allow any of them to shine on the whole.
Other genres creep into the film when they clearly do not belong. There is even a sequence where the police chief demands Anh and Namsoon throw in their badges. It is woefully bad. A scene involving Namsoon as the Korean equivalent of a Geisha, serving tea to Sad Eyes works on its own terms, but is poorly integrated into the story. And that is what The Duelist needs, a story continuity editor, or a work shop with Steven Spielberg in narrative construction. The Duelist becomes a larger disappointment because it has everything going for it except tone and story (yes I'm fully aware of how much I'm repeating this), making the failure all the more acute. It is the definitive film for showing the weakness of Manga adapted to long-form feature film, if the Duelist was instead a series of 25 short films, it would could have been a contender.
More from Duelist, The
- Reviews: [K-FILM REVIEWS] 형사 Duelist (Part 2)
I can't wait to see this - even your negatives sounded fascinating to me and reminescent of Nowhere to Hide that seemed to have many of these same genre hopping style switching elements - i.e. the fight on the rooftop that turns into a waltz or the keystone cop beating of a witness. NTH still stands as one of my favorite films simply on a visual level. Have you seen the Damo tv series? I read that though the film is based on it they tried to create something different as well - but from the plot that you describe it sounds very much the same - without giving away spoilers - is the mysterious stranger the same person as in the series? Thanks for all the great reviews.
"It is the definitive film for showing the weakness of Manga adapted to long-form feature film&"
Since this movie isn't adapted from a manga, I don't see your point...
So Oldboy sucks too, as Ichi the killer, and the Baby Cart serie, and Crying freeman,...??????
I don't think Kurt's attacking the notion of Manga being made into live action as always being a bad thing, he's pointing out that there is a definite weakness in carrying across a manga into feature length territory if they don't do their homework. It works on the same principle as videogame to movie conversions or simply using source material that's paper thin. If they don't flesh it out it'll seem stock amongst the library of typical manga's.
Korean slang. That is so hardcore.
I have seen DAMO but yet I have to see this film.. well each of one has its own view depending on their respective taste on the film they want to see.. My only thrust this film did its worth to be recognized.
Correction: he would've been warned if the email address provided worked. Consider this the official warning then.
I stand corrected. By the way, LT, the TV drama isn't animated, it's live-action (unless X wants to tell me the manhwa has been made into an animated show as well :) ).
I stand corrected. I was going on what the 3 Korean older women sitting beside me (which was a lot of fun. They seemed to really enjoy the flick) were telling me about it. Albeit, it was broken english, so maybe I misunderstood. :)
Clearly this reviewer "didn't get it&". I think the director made a neat film that plays with and uses the Manga / comic book form in a variety of interesting and often brilliant ways. Unfortunately if you don't see what's going on the film might easily be taken as "nonsense&". Too bad.
Michael
DUELIST is adapted from a Korean manhwa (manga, comic book, whatever) but it's based on it very, very loosely.
There also seems to be a huge difference in the reaction to the movie between men and women. At the end of the flick the women sitting behind me were crying and Director Lee was mobbed by about 40 Korean kids, mostly women, after the movie and they were all clamoring for his autograph.
I'm posting more on it tomorrow over at Kaiju Shakedown because I couldn't disagree more with Kurt's assessment of the movie but I think one of the problems is of expectations. Director Lee could care less about how the movie is presented, "Action movie? Sure, that sells,&" and he'll call the movie's genre whatever looks the most marketable. But for him, he thinks of the movie more as a romance told with pictures and motion, not words and plot. Go in looking for an action movie - come out disappointed. Go in looking for an experiment - come out pretty happy. Or at least I did.
I'm looking forward to seeing this film. I really enjoyed Lee's Nowhere to Hide, with all its genre-hopping and spontaneity. For those who have seen both films, would it be safe to say that his latest adopts more or less a similar style?
Either way, I'll be sure to keep my expectations in check. At least from the stills and the reviews I've read, it promises to be a rich, visual experience. Now if it only would screen down here in SF.
Oh, I fully understood what he was trying to do I just thought it made for a disappointing film.
i've said it in the other Duelist review comments section and i'll say it here. this movie is a terrible mess. in fact, i hate this movie. it was so unbearable and torturous to sit through. mind you, i loved Nowhere to Hide, but Duelist painfully bad. the only good thing i can say about this movie is that the costumes were nice and that's it.
i overheard some people in the audience, before the movie began, that they were expecting something like Hero or HoFD. boy, were they in for a rude awakening. and even after the film, i overheard some Koreans talking saying that they went in with really low expectations and found that the movie went lower than they expected.
anyway, i wouldn't mind if 18nom was banned from here. we could use more positive Korean or non-Korean presence on the board like myself :) cussing out others in a language they don't understand really is cowardly and immature.
As Grady points out, there is a huge difference in the reaction to the movie between men and women, even in Korea.
To Lee Myung-se, dialogue means nothing. He talkes to audience through images. And female audience can interprete much better than male audience. They find loneliness in the male lead's dance. They also understand why Namsoon and Sad eyes fall in love, even though there's no clear explanation.
I don't see why it can not be called "a poetic martial arts action picture&"
Aren't there enough actions? Isn't it martial arts that Namsoon, Sad eyes and detective Ahn perform? Isn't it poetic?
You also have to count for the fact that women are easier to fall for the pretty boy Kang Dong-Won (Sad Eye) ;)
like Ha Ji-Won ain't pretty... ^_^
Whether I get it or not, it really doesn't change the way I feel about the film. This debate has been most interesting, but I guess ultimately when you interpret a review or criticism you have to take into account where it is coming from. I'll be the first to admit to being ignorant of the director. And I'm always willing to keep an open mind about such aesthetic. There are just too many other directors out there doing more interesting work than Lee Myung-se's particular brand of genre-mashingband the Duelist doesn't make me want to delve further into his backlog.
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The Duelist trailer (and also the movie title) may mislead people to think that this is a film with lots of martial art scenes. Therefore, people maybe disappointed when they actually saw the movie. The focus of the film, however, is on the romance between Sad Eyes and Namsoon and how to portray their emotional feeling through the use of their body and eye gestures. The fight scenes between them is just another way to express the mating ritual as a form of fight/dance; because they are fighters, maybe they express themselves best that way. Treat this film more from an artistically point of view and people may enjoy it more.
Having just watched Duelist, I can see where Todd is coming from when saying that the movie is a bit muddled up by trying to portray too many topics at once. I imagine that it's difficult to create a movie when there's so many underlying themes pulling at the main storyline.
Even so, the visuals were spectacular; and I throughly enjoyed how Lee Myung-Se handled the sword fighting scenes. It was definitely a wise decision to depict them as if the two characters were dancing. The body language, the silence.. it all helped in expressing the emotion/tension between Namsoon and "Sad Eyes&" whilst they clashed blades with each other.
The only problem I had with Duelist; however, was not the lack of dialogue or storyline, but rather, the seemingly out of place humor. I have not seen any of Lee Myung-Se's past works, so perhaps this is his own unique style. Even so, Namsoon's awkward facial expressions in addition to the attempted comedic acts didn't seem to fit in with the elegant fighting scenes. Somewhat of an inconsistent style, imo. I also wished that there were more scenes to show a bit more of character development and their relationships.
Anyhow, I applaud Ha Ji-Won and Kang Dong-Won in performing all of their own stunts. The body movements were incredibly graceful :) And because of their efforts, on top of Lee Myung-Se's directing, Duelist has become one of the most visually artistic films I have seen thus far.
Beautiful comstumes and beautiful scenery...all gone to waste! Watching this movie was like looking into a aquarium where all the fish are hiding. You know there is something magical there, you just can't seem to get more than a glimpse of it. It seemed like I spent the entire movie thinking "The scenery is so amazing! If only...&". Wasted..simply wasted. This was a very fustrating movie to watch. Even more so because I've been following this film for a very lond time and had such high hopes for it.
As far as the mix of comedy/action/romance goes the movie feels like someone threw a bunch of emotions into a hat and randomly drew how the scenes were to be played. Comedy where you'd expect action, anger/comedy where you'd expect sorrow/desperation. Take how you thought the scene would be played and insert the opposite. Nothing seemed to fit.
In trying to mix different genres into one film (which Arahan does wonderfully) you end up with a movie that just doesn't seem to do any of them right. In the end I didn't care about the leads, didn't care about the storey...just plain didn't care.
i haven't seen the trailer so i saw the movie without expecting anything. but still i was totally disappointed with the movie. it looked just gorgeous, one of the best i've seen from a korean movie. but other than that it was really bad. if only looks were everything. throughout watching it i was thinking it had so much style but no substance. oh well..
eh... i didnt like it. It was too confusing and "wierd&" for lack of a better word. It was visually stunning- very pretty, but i wouldent call it a martial arts movie. The fight scenes where more like dance scenes...
omg!!! i love you so bad,myung-se lee!! you are so hot!!! but yeah hope i will get to see your other movies!! i love you very much.
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