Dir. Lee
Myung-se, South Korea, 2007, 108 mins
Cast: Ha Ji-won, Kang Dong-won, Ahn Sung-ki
Review by Richard Mellor
The mentality of this movie dawns suddenly. Twenty forgettable
minutes have been spent establishing a budget good-versus-evil
plot. There have been various fights and fisticuffs of marginal
excitement, a whole lot of agitated scurrying around a madcap
Chinese market and scarcely any pause for thought. There
is so far, it is fair to say, a dearth of quality and no
little cause for concern. Alarm bells are silently ringing
and every critic in the room is scribbling the word 'turkey'
into otherwise empty notebooks.
Then without a moment's warning, the
umpteenth sword fight dramatically speeds up. The two opponents
begin to move around at lizard speed as the scene is shown
as if in fast forward; cheerful, cartoon caper music floods
the cinema. It's something straight out of Laurel & Hardy,
positively Chaplin-esque or even somewhat akin to a Carry
On film. In the blink of a lens, Duelist consciously becomes
as silly as it has thus far seemed, losing any sense of
sobriety.
Only with this unlikely episode under its belt is Lee Myung-se's
film truly revealed for what it is: a movie with no time
for pretension or intrigue. For its remainder, Duelist is
a hideously enjoyable, carefree chunk of cinematic fun. The
stress is firmly on style over substance, and boy is there
some style on offer. Fiercely passionate sword fights are
accompanied by great tumults of orchestral music; multicoloured
drapes and gauze are sliced open by blades swung with abandon;
dazzling floods of light rotate with musty darkness; a rollicking
rhythm is established.
In such a decadent, almost orgiastic arena, the plot matters
little, existing only to provide a basic narrative from which
Lee launches his reverie. But for the sake of reviewer duties,
here it is: sometime in medieval Korea, corrupt minister
Song (Song Young-chang) is producing counterfeit money in
a bid for absolute power, all the while covering up his tracks
with the help of an implausibly agile and skilled swordsman,
known only as Sad Eyes (Kang). Up against this tricky pair
is knife-wielding detective Namsoon (Ha), and her laconic
partner Ahn (actor also named Ahn). As battle lines are drawn,
Namsoon falls in ill-timed love with the eponymous enigma.
The initial scenes take place within a small market town,
as the fake cash causes poverty and desperate scuffles. Namsoon
quickly corners her future amour, but finds his ability to
hang in the air, vanish and run faster than the local tigers
hard to contain. Duelist's second half occurs mainly within
Song's lavish palace, as the minster's force meets that of
the police in impossibly grandiose and well-choreographed
sword exchanges, all to the tune of deafening symphonies.
The pace only slows for Namsoon and Sad Eyes' increasingly
regular exchanges, as the pair swap withering looks instead
of steel blows.
If you like to have any more than
a vague sense of what's going on in front of you, Duelist
may not be for you. By the time the grand finale nears,
Lee's film is crescendo after crescendo of lush colour,
noise and action. In terms of cinematography, it's an incredible
achievement; as far as cinema goes, this constitutes a
sensual, instinctive reverie rather than anything intuitive
or especially rational. The Laurel & Hardy parallel
is ultimately misleading – this is not a film that patches
together parts of previous movies, or offers intermittent,
gimmicky set pieces. Rather it is one long, delicious dream
with its own authentic éclat.
At times Duelist's slapstick mentality
and unashamed facile characters do become tiresome. The
film is weakest in attempting emotional depth; it's hard
to feel too sorry for a couple in the grips of an impossible
love moments after they've conducted their latest attempt
to rip each other to shreds. The closing sequence, as Namsoon
and Sad Eyes fuse into clouds (still trading amorous blows)
is almost too much – it's an almost macabre combination
of classic Asian cinema artistry and a perverse S&M.
They say arguments are healthy, but perhaps not with knifes
and rapiers.
But even the most hardened cynic or fun-denying Scrooge
will struggle to leave the screen not smiling, such is the
élan and dazzling beauty of what's offered up. In a recent
review, this same ignorant critic suggested a film ought
to be relevant or simply not made at all. Duelist is a marvellous
riposte to that errant standpoint – it's a gleeful, intoxicating
feast of irrelevance, and knowingly so. I doubt anyone has
ever enjoyed more being proved wrong.
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