Legendary swordsman, Fa Chin-shu finds the Qiwu Sword and takes it to a blacksmith to get it mended. The blacksmith tells him that the sword brings a bad omen because it was forged with hatred and that Chin-shu should discard it or he might die by the sword if he uses it. Chin-shu decides to not use it but gives the sword to his close friend, Yuen Kei for safekeeping before retiring.
Lee Mak-yin, a swordsman who greatly admires Fa Chin-shu and wishes to find him so that he can challenge him to a duel. On his journey to search for the retired swordsman, he meets a woman Fa Ying-chi who was pursued by an enemy. Mak-yin saves her by fighting off the enemy. Ying-chi decides to accompany Mak-yin on his travels since she’s headed in the same direction. They stop by an inn for the night where Mak-yin runs into Yin Siu-yu, whom he used to have feelings for. Siu-yu tells him that she is married to a man named Lin Wan in an arranged marriage set up by her parents. Lin Wan’s bodyguard Tit-yee attacks Mak-yin and the two fight but Lin Wan arrives to call off the attack. Lin Wan, now jealous of his wife’s relationship with Mak-yin, orders his bodyguard to kill him. Later that night Tit-yee attacks Mak-yin and wounds him but he barely manages to escape.
He is then found by Yuen Kei who lets him stay at her house and nurses him back to health. Yuen Kei receives a message that Chin-shu’s daughter has been kidnapped by an enemy to lure him out to fight. Mak-yin agrees to save Chin-shu’s daughter as a way to thank Yuen Kei for saving him. Yuen Kei gives him the Qiwu sword to fight with. It is then revealed that Fa Ying-Chi is the daughter of Fa Chin-shu.
Mak-yin kills the enemy and safely returns her to her father. Upon meeting Chin-shu, he makes an offer to challenge him to a duel because he admires him a lot and wants to test his sword skills. Chin-shu accepts and tells him that they will duel in three days. Ying-chi feels betrayed and thinks that Mak-yin only used her to get to her father. Three days later, Mak-yin and Chin-shu duel and Mak-yin slightly wounds his opponent. Chin-shu admits defeat but Mak-yin still feels unsatisfied. Yuen Kei later reveals to Mak-yin that Chin-shu has been ill for some time.
Tit-yee sneaks into Chin-shu’s home one night as he is recovering, kills him and steals his sword, the Hanxing sword. Ying-chi believes that it was Mak-yin who killed her father and vows to avenge him. Yuen Kei, overwhelmed by guilt that she gave Mak-yin the Qiwu sword and feels responsible for Chin-shu’s death that she committed suicide. Mak-yin goes to tell Ying-chi that he couldn’t have killed her father since he didn’t wound him severely but Ying-chi doesn’t believe him. Tit-yee then arrives and attacks Mak-yin but Mak-yin kills him with the Qiwu sword. Before he dies Tit-yee reveals that Lin Wan was behind this. Mak-yin and Ying-chi go to confront Lin Wan. He admits that he had Chin-shu killed to get the Hanxing sword, now he just needs to kill Mak-yin to get the Qiwu sword so he can have two of the strongest swords in the country. After an intense battle between Mak-yin and Lin Wan with both taking damage, Mak-yin manages to kill Lin Wan. He then finds Siu-yu dead as Lin Wan had killed her. Mak-yin breaks down in tears as Ying-chi walks away without saying a word, realizing her mistake. In the final scene, Mak-yin takes the Qiwu sword to a cliff and tosses it into the ocean.
Raymond Chow, who was credited for the producer for most the films by Golden Harvest in the 1970s, who were internationally known due to the popularity of their kung fu films starring Bruce Lee such as The Big Boss (1971) and Enter the Dragon (1973).[2] After attempting to create similar films such as Hapkido (1972), academic Leung Wing-Fat stated that the studios "formulaic and repetitive".[3] After the success of actors like Jackie Chan by the late 1970s, the Golden Harvest began looking for new talent to compete.[4]
Among the new talent was director Patrick Tam.[5] Like many of the other members of Hong Kong New Wave films, Tam began in television. He worked at TVB starting out as a prop assistant in 1967. By 1975, he was directing the stations top programs like Superstar Special. His last major television production was the 10-part series titled 13 in 1977, with The Sword being his first feature film.[6]
The original story for The Sword was written by martial arts novelist Wong Ying.[7] Tam said that Golden Harvest requested a period film, which was the style of film that actor Adam Cheng was known for at the time.[8] Both Cheng and Norman Chui were popular television actors in Hong Kong at the time.[7] Tam specifically spoke of King Hu's films saying he found them to be the only films wuxia and tried to make The Sword "break new ground" for the genre.[9] Tam told Hong Kong's Film Biweekly magazine in 1980 that "On the surface, The Sword is a martial arts film, but in essence it isn't,” noting that the protagonist remains passive throughout most of the film except when he tosses the sword away at the end." Tam continued that he edited the film to in a deliberate attempt to "deconstruct the hero image as well as the orthodox treatment of period drama."[10]
Tam organized the action scenes in the film to have less "strike followed by strike" styled choreography and banned the use of zoom shots that were common in martial arts films of the period. Tang saying in a 1980 interview in City Entertainment Film Biweekly[zh] that he wanted to create ambience and atmosphere for the film. This included banning zoom shots in The Sword, which were generally used in martial arts films of the era. Tam also had the action choreographers study the script to get information about the characters to develop unique choreography for them, opposed to developing the martial arts choreography on the day of shooting.[10]
Release
The Sword was released on August 14, 1980. It grossed a total of HK$2,646,769.[11] Film journalist John Charles wrote in his book The Hong Kong Filmography (2000) that The Sword had little distribution in the West, which resulted it in being little known among Western fans of Hong Kong films.[12]
The film was released on blu-ray by Eureka Entertainment on December 3, 2024.[13]
Reception
In Hong Kong film magazine City Entertainment Film Biweekly, praised the films cinematography, and that the fight scenes focused on dynamic beauty and rhythm over fighting and that the film was a unique take on martial arts films of the period.[14] A later review of the magazine commented on the films editing that the reviewer felt gave the film fresh techniques and that the films focus was not on its narrative but to create a new form of film language not influenced by Hollywood film techniques.[15]
John Charles in his book The Hong Kong Filmography (2000) described The Sword as an "excellent swordplay drama" describing it as "shot and edited with a invigorating sense of style and composition" with super action choreography from Ching Siu-tung.[12] In an interview, Tam said he "could have made a better movie [...] I am not satisfied with it."[10]
References
↑ Sabrina Qiong Yu - Jet Li: Chinese Masculinity and Transnational Film Stardom 0748645489 2012 "Two pioneers of the Hong Kong New Wave, Tsui Hark and Patrick Tam, chose to start their directorial careers with wuxia films – The Butterfly Murders (Tsui Hark, 1979) and The Sword (Patrick Tam, 1980) –"
Lanque, Arnaud (2024). "A New Language: Patrick Tam on The Sword". The Sword. Eureka Entertainment (Media notes). EKV70551.
Möller, Olaf (March–April 2008). "Unreconciled". Film Comment. Vol.44, no.2.
Wing-Fat, Leung (2024). "Fortune and Glory: The Sword and Hong Kong New Wave". The Sword. Eureka Entertainment (Media notes). EKV70551.
"名劍 The Sword". Cantonese Cinema Digital Archive (in Chinese). City University of Hong Kong. Archived from the original on 28 November 2022. Retrieved 4 June 2025.
"雙周新片評介"[Biweekly New Film Review]. 電影雙周刊 Film Biweekly (in Chinese). No.40. p.3. Archived from the original on 28 November 2022 – via City University of Hong Kong. 這個版本經四人改編。全片的攝影很美，構圖大膽。武打場面並不注重對對拆，是着重動態的美感和節奏。導演譚家明工作認真已經是聞名，風格結構嚴謹而統一，是近期一部風格獨特而清純的武俠片。
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