Duel to the Death (1983)

The Father of All Ninja Films

Duel to the Death

Director: Siu-Tung Ching
Writers: Siu-Tung Ching, David Lai
Stars: Norman Chu, Damian Lau and Flora Cheung

In Duel to the Death (1983) the arrogant Japanese send the ninja swordsman, Hashimoto, to the Shaolin school in China to issue a challenge for supremacy of technique. Ching Wan is chosen to represent the Shaolin school in the challenge. In the course of preparation for the duel, Ching Wan discovers that the son of the man who is the host of the fight is, in fact, a woman, and the two become attracted. At the same time, various parties seek to sabotage the contest.

Note: Duel to the Death (1983) is the father of all ninja films. Director, Ching Siu-tung, the father of wire-fu, blurs the line between the supernatural and what is real in his ninja villian, Hashimoto. This legendary competition in swordplay and fighting between two great warriors, a Chinese man and a Japanese man, is made so much more exciting because Ching Siu-tung’s shot them using his 18 frame per second technique.