Notable Cast: John
Liu, Don Wong Tao, Eagle Han Ying, Kim Cheong-Ja, Charlie Chan Yiu-Lam, Chung
Fat, King Lee King-Chu, Wu Chia-Hsiang
Also known as:
Showdown of the Master Warriors, The Swordsman in Plains
After seeing Secret
Rivals and its various sequels, I wanted to hunt down a copy of Death Duel of Kung Fu. The reason? The
first Secret Rivals used the
chemistry between John Liu and Don Wong Tao remarkably well and Death Duel of Kung Fu featured the two martial
artists as the two leads that would ultimately team up (again) to face off
against the evil villain. Truthfully, I had no expectations beyond that for the
film. If it could entertain, I would have been happy. However, what I didn’t
expect is for the film to attempt to add in quite a bit of plot intrigue and dramatic
heft to the mix in the way that it did. Perhaps it’s a bit too ambitious for
the quality of actors and budget it had, but the effort goes a long way and the
rest, well…the rest is the entertaining kung fu that I wanted from it.