TIFF Report: The Duelist Review

I can't wait to see this - even your negatives sounded fascinating to me and reminescent of Nowhere to Hide that seemed to have many of these same genre hopping style switching elements - i.e. the fight on the rooftop that turns into a waltz or the keystone cop beating of a witness. NTH still stands as one of my favorite films simply on a visual level. Have you seen the Damo tv series? I read that though the film is based on it they tried to create something different as well - but from the plot that you describe it sounds very much the same - without giving away spoilers - is the mysterious stranger the same person as in the series? Thanks for all the great reviews.

Sad Eyes? The guy had a different name in the series (played by Kim Min-Joon), but character traits were similar. What's probably different from reading this is that Damo was a little more historically relevant than this probably is.

But slapstick comedy, fast paced action and high octane melodrama has always been a staple of Korean Historical Dramas on TV. On the big screen, that's another story.

Even though it's not an 'official' adaptation of Damo my hunch on this is they assumed people would already be invested enough in the characters that they didn't need to establish them ... may work fine in Korea where people know the show, but not anywhere else ...

Ha Ji-Won's character is the opposite though, at least on paper.

As far as I understood it it's nothing to do *directly* with Damo - I'm sure I read somewhere it's that they were both based on the same novel and that yes, Lee Myung-Se wanted to film something notably different. Someone want to correct me? I'm currently watching Damo (very slowly :) ) and am quite impressed so far; it's a cartoon, yes, with the melodrama up to screaming pitch in places but it's fairly well shot, oddly thoughtful, genuinely affecting at times and generally rather appealing IMO. I've been eagerly awaiting this for a while (the TV series tightened up to 2 hours and given an arthouse blockbuster makeover? Yes please) and it'll be a shame if I agree with the negative reviews, though they do sound upsettingly plausible.

i just saw this film at the TIFF this morning at Paramount. This is one of the worst Korean films i have ever seen. i wanted to leave so many times but i held myself back from doing so out of respect for the director (he showed up for the screening and for a Q&A session). i just saw nothing but nonsense and utter mess on the big screen. i am so disappointed. hopefully, Shadowless Sword won't be this bad when it comes out.

I have seen DAMO but yet I have to see this film.. well each of one has its own view depending on their respective taste on the film they want to see.. My only thrust this film did its worth to be recognized.

Clearly this reviewer "didn't get it". I think the director made a neat film that plays with and uses the Manga / comic book form in a variety of interesting and often brilliant ways. Unfortunately if you don't see what's going on the film might easily be taken as "nonsense". Too bad.

Michael

While it is tempting to trot out the tired, BAD REVIEW=NOT GETTING IT excuse, I don't believe that is entirely true with THE DUELIST.

I think you can enjoy it by letting go and taking the ride, but The Duelist clearly has major issues in the story-telling and direction department, despite a number of good qualities. It is certainly a film that is polarizing people

Oh, I fully understood what he was trying to do I just thought it made for a disappointing film.

The Duelist trailer (and also the movie title) may mislead people to think that this is a film with lots of martial art scenes. Therefore, people maybe disappointed when they actually saw the movie. The focus of the film, however, is on the romance between Sad Eyes and Namsoon and how to portray their emotional feeling through the use of their body and eye gestures. The fight scenes between them is just another way to express the mating ritual as a form of fight/dance; because they are fighters, maybe they express themselves best that way. Treat this film more from an artistically point of view and people may enjoy it more.

Having just watched Duelist, I can see where Todd is coming from when saying that the movie is a bit muddled up by trying to portray too many topics at once. I imagine that it's difficult to create a movie when there's so many underlying themes pulling at the main storyline.

Even so, the visuals were spectacular; and I throughly enjoyed how Lee Myung-Se handled the sword fighting scenes. It was definitely a wise decision to depict them as if the two characters were dancing. The body language, the silence.. it all helped in expressing the emotion/tension between Namsoon and "Sad Eyes" whilst they clashed blades with each other.

The only problem I had with Duelist; however, was not the lack of dialogue or storyline, but rather, the seemingly out of place humor. I have not seen any of Lee Myung-Se's past works, so perhaps this is his own unique style. Even so, Namsoon's awkward facial expressions in addition to the attempted comedic acts didn't seem to fit in with the elegant fighting scenes. Somewhat of an inconsistent style, imo. I also wished that there were more scenes to show a bit more of character development and their relationships.

Anyhow, I applaud Ha Ji-Won and Kang Dong-Won in performing all of their own stunts. The body movements were incredibly graceful :) And because of their efforts, on top of Lee Myung-Se's directing, Duelist has become one of the most visually artistic films I have seen thus far.

Beautiful comstumes and beautiful scenery...all gone to waste! Watching this movie was like looking into a aquarium where all the fish are hiding. You know there is something magical there, you just can't seem to get more than a glimpse of it. It seemed like I spent the entire movie thinking "The scenery is so amazing! If only...". Wasted..simply wasted. This was a very fustrating movie to watch. Even more so because I've been following this film for a very lond time and had such high hopes for it.
As far as the mix of comedy/action/romance goes the movie feels like someone threw a bunch of emotions into a hat and randomly drew how the scenes were to be played. Comedy where you'd expect action, anger/comedy where you'd expect sorrow/desperation. Take how you thought the scene would be played and insert the opposite. Nothing seemed to fit.
In trying to mix different genres into one film (which Arahan does wonderfully) you end up with a movie that just doesn't seem to do any of them right. In the end I didn't care about the leads, didn't care about the storey...just plain didn't care.

i haven't seen the trailer so i saw the movie without expecting anything. but still i was totally disappointed with the movie. it looked just gorgeous, one of the best i've seen from a korean movie. but other than that it was really bad. if only looks were everything. throughout watching it i was thinking it had so much style but no substance. oh well..

eh... i didnt like it. It was too confusing and "wierd" for lack of a better word. It was visually stunning- very pretty, but i wouldent call it a martial arts movie. The fight scenes where more like dance scenes...

omg!!! i love you so bad,myung-se lee!! you are so hot!!! but yeah hope i will get to see your other movies!! i love you very much.