A very modern martial arts film, The Sword by Patrick Tam subverts the hero trope with story of a selfish swordsman
- Adam Cheng stars as Li Mak-yan, a swordsman preparing for an epic fight while a secret enemy steals a sword with supernatural powers
- Although Tam presents Li as an existential hero who shapes his own destiny, albeit for ill rather than good, the director also creates an underlying unease
One of the most successful of these excursions was Patrick Tam Ka-ming’s The Sword (1980), a wuxia movie which brings modern attitudes to a traditional storyline.
In a traditional wuxia film, personal honour is regained and moral order is restored to the world by the heroic acts of a swordsman or swordswoman. In contrast, The Sword focuses on a Machiavellian swordsman fuelled by selfish ambition and a very modern need for self-realisation.
Far from restoring order, as in Confucianism, or a natural balance, as in Taoism, the swordsman’s aspirations lead to death and despair for those he meets. The film’s outlook is pessimistic, and its characters tend towards nihilism.
The Sword was Tam’s debut feature. He had developed a strong reputation for his television work, and that led to Golden Harvest – which had eclipsed Shaw Brothers to become Hong Kong’s major film production studio – asking him to make a wuxia film.