DUEL TO THE DEATH (Hong Kong, 1983)
Directed by: Ching Siu-tung
Starring: Norman Chu Siu-Keung, Damian Lau Chung-Yan

The first movie from Hong Kong’s great action director, Ching Siu-tung (Swordsman II, A Chinese Ghost Story I - III, House of Flying Daggers) this is a fever dream of freaky images ripped straight from his childhood. Once every 10 years, Japanese and Chinese fighters duel (to the death) to figure out who will rule the martial world. But this time, they detect something rotten. This time they detect...ninjas! The story is as old school as they come, but It’s the execution that changes everything. Ching spent his early years locked up in his bedroom reading Martial Arts World Magazine and imagining cool monsters and psychedelic fighting techniques, and after choreographing the action on dozens of films for other directors, this is the first time he finally got to put those fantasies onscreen. The result is a surreal phantasmago