Gwangdongwan So Hwa-jin (1983) Online

Duel of Ultimate Weapons is a good martial arts film but not a great one. The film contains many of the standard plot elements of kung fu movies of the time. There is a reckless young hero, an invincible bad guy, a drunken old master, the young man's resistance to training, the young hero's initial defeat, the young man's acceptance of training, the mastery of skill and the revenge. If you are a fan of kung fu movies, you have seen this plot before. In this film an undisciplined young man is trained by an old swindler to defeat an evil martial arts master (Lee).

The best feature of this film is Hwang Jang Lee a.k.a. the "master of the leg." You may remember him from other great films such as, Drunken Master, the Secret Rivals and The Invincible Armour. Lee stars as the evil Dong Wong. Don't laugh, he's "the greatest martial arts fighter in the land." Hwang Jang Lee is of the greatest villains of the kung fu genre. Even though Lee is the villin of this film, he is still the star. The real life Teakwondo master puts on a kicking exhibition in this film. There is plenty of nice kung fu action scattered through out the film. There are a few silly moments in the movie too. The terrible English dubbing also provides many hilarious moments.

Several region 1 DVD versions of Duel of Ultimate Weapons come from a very dark print and as a result the picture quality is a bit poor.(That has been my experience anyway) All things considered, Duel of Ultimate Weapons is an entertaining old school martial arts film but not a truly great one. If you are a dedicated fan of Kung Fu movies or Hwang Jang Lee I think you'll enjoy the "Duel."

"Listen my old student, You've done much evil! It is only fitting that my only son defeat you!"

Martial Arts Genre Rating: 6/10

Oh boy, where do I start with this one. It is really corny and has a bad story, but is worth watching because of Hwang Jang Lee, named Dong Won in the movie. Not Don Wong, but Dong Won. You gotta love those Filmark (Godfrey Ho/Tomas Tang) dub jobs.

So what is this movie about? Glad you asked. Dong Won is apparently a famous fighter when the movie begins, but becomes more famous as it goes along. He goes around fighting people. Why does he do this? I guess it is because he wants to prove he is the toughest dude around. So can anybody stop him? Of course nobody can stop kickmaster Hwang Jang Lee, but they do need to finish the movie somehow, so he dies in a really stupid way.

The fights are decent. Hwang gets plenty of action and his legwork is really the only good thing to speak of. And what spectacular legwork it is. If you are not a fan of old school kung fu, there is a good chance you don't know who Hwang Jang Lee is. He is the best kicker I have ever seen. He was only in a few modern day movies, and you may recognize him in No Retreat No Surrender 2 where he fights Cynthia Rothrock. He was in about 60 or so old school movies, 9 times out of 10 playing the lead villain. This is not one of his better movies, but he doesn't let a poor story or extremely low production values stop him from putting on a great kick display. If you are a big Hwang Jang Lee fan, that is the only way I can recommend this movie. Everybody else should stay far away.

The Videoasia DVD is crap. Get the East West double feature DVD. It comes with The Last Challenge of the Dragon aka The Big Family.

Duel Of Ultimate Weapons is among the best of the kung-fu films made by Harmony Gold and Saturn Films in the 70s/80s golden era of the genre. The fight scenes may not be wildly acrobatic like you would see in a Jackie Chan movie, but the speed and swagger with which they are executed make them just as awe-inspiring. The ruthless Dong Won is also among the top three coolest villains in cinema history, right up there with Darth Vader and Frank N Furter. The blinding fight scenes are even contained within a reasonably well woven plot - not just a simple "Hey, let's team up and kill" story. Like any kung-fu movie worth it's salt, it naturally features side splitting dialogue that alone make a viewing worth while, and that you find yourself quoting for years afterwards.