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Duel with the Devils
Movie

Duel with the Devils

1977 • Unknown

Woke Score
2
out of 10

Plot

As the daughter of the Chinese police chief, Angela secretly dresses up as a man to use her kung fu on Japanese troublemakers.

Overall Series Review

Duel with the Devils is a 1977 Taiwanese martial arts film set during the Japanese occupation of China. The narrative is a straightforward nationalist revenge story, focusing on a man's quest to avenge his murdered family and kidnapped wife at the hands of Japanese soldiers. The film's core conflict is a clear-cut confrontation of an external military aggressor against the home culture. The most prominent 'woke' element is the female character, Angela, who adopts male attire to use her martial arts skills against Japanese troublemakers, which serves as a trope for female agency and action within the genre. The central plot, however, reinforces traditional male and female roles: the male hero avenges his family, and the wife is the primary victim. The focus is entirely on a patriotic struggle and personal justice, containing no Western-style intersectional lectures, self-hatred of the home culture, or modern queer theory.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics2/10

The narrative is rooted in a historical and national conflict, portraying Chinese protagonists fighting Japanese antagonists during occupation. The casting and character portrayals are authentic to the setting and do not engage in the vilification of 'whiteness' or forced intersectional hierarchy that characterizes Western identity politics. The heroes are judged by their courage and merit in the fight against an external enemy.

Oikophobia1/10

The film explicitly rejects civilizational self-hatred by portraying the Chinese nation and its people as the victims of foreign military aggression. The main protagonist is motivated by the defense of his family and nation. The narrative champions the home culture and its institutions against an external, explicitly demonized foreign aggressor.

Feminism4/10

The score is slightly elevated by the female character, Angela, who dresses as a man to engage in combat, demonstrating a degree of 'Girl Boss' agency outside of her prescribed gender role. However, the central catalyst for the male protagonist is the kidnapping and murder of his wife and family, establishing a traditional hero-avenging-victim dynamic. The narrative does not contain anti-natalist messaging; rather, the nuclear family is the institution being defended.

LGBTQ+2/10

The female lead's cross-dressing is a plot device used to facilitate her entry into the action and is not an exploration of sexual ideology or gender identity. The core narrative heavily features and seeks to restore the normative structure of the male-female pair and the nuclear family (husband avenging wife). There is no focus on queer theory, sexual identity as the most important trait, or deconstruction of biological reality.

Anti-Theism2/10

The conflict is secular and nationalistic, focused on justice and revenge, not on religious ideology. Morality is objective, clearly dividing the good (Chinese resistance fighters) and the evil (Japanese occupiers). Faith is not a central theme, but the story's moral clarity and focus on universal justice do not engage in hostility toward religion or promote moral relativism.