Review of Duelist (2005) by Luke B — 28 May 2008

As seperate sketches or short scenes the film excels. It fully demonstrates large technical capabilities and an artistic eye. The final sword fight is simply gorgeous but seems more like some OTT advert.

With all the impressive individual scenes put together in a loose plot that doesn't quite gel as well as no sense of tone the film is rather messy. Myung-se Lee's previous film Nowhere To Hide demonstated his visual and storytelling capabilities creating a beautiful and aesthetically original film.

Here however even the music is all over the place sometimes being gentle classical before moving up to crunching heavy metal guitar riffs. All it accomplishes is a sense of doing too much and letting ones creative side take over the story.