The Duel

Director: Andrew Lau
Year Released: 2000
Rating: 0.5

Martial arts/swordfighting 'spoof' that only gets it right at the very, very beginning and at the very end, when the absurdity of warriors skipping on the tops of mountains and turning into spinning balls of fury makes things fun - it's that mess in the middle, with the extensive plotting and lame caricatures that make the majority of it a chore. Satire is tough to pull off, and this doesn't do a very good job of it; Lau is decent at the crime genre, and his Infernal Affairs - though, again, messy in terms of plotting - shows him at his strongest.