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When investigating a case of forged coins, detective Namsoon (Ha
Ji-won) and her klutzy assistant Ahn (Ahn Sung-kee) repeatedly stumble
over a sad-eyed swordsman (Kang Dong-won) whose skills with the sword
rival even those of Namsoon, and all their duels invariably end in a tie
...
Before long though, the two opponents feel drawn to each other, so soon
between blows they also exchange kisses ... and somehow, the two resemble
each other more than a bit: Both of them were orphans, and both of them
were brought up by men - Namsoon by the chief of police, Sad Eyes by Song
(Song Young-chang), the minister of defense - who tought them their
swordfighting skills to use for their own respective ends.
... eventually, namsoon finds out that the Minister of Defense is
really behind the forgery because he plans a coup d'état. But this
knowledge is dangerous, so the chief of police officially fires her and
Ahn - while inofficially he asks them to break into the minister's estate
and steal his account books ... but no need, Sad Eyes, more than a little
in love with Namsoon by now, has already taken possession of the account
books and hands them over to Namsoon - even if that means that the very
next day, police will run over the extate and he will perish in battle ...
Namsoon is heartbroken, but in her fantasy, she still fights one duel
after the other with Sad Eyes ...
Based on a Korean comicbook and a TV-series,
Duelist is a film that looks simply great: The fight scenes are incredibly
well-staged, the poeriod sets are enjoyably colourful and the camerawork
is elegant, inventive and breathtaking at the same time. And then there's
Ha Ji-won's tongue-in-cheek performance that really carries the film
- now that should make a great movie, right ?
Unfortunately it isn't. What the film has to offer on a visual level it
seriously lacks in both story and characterisations. Somehow the film
seems to be little more than an endless succession of fight scenes and
(clichéd) romantic interludes with the characters remaining
one-dimensional throughout and the focus of the film constantly switching
between drama and comedy.
So as long as you only look at it, the film is great - but once you
waste a thought on it, you can almost forget it ...
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