The Cold Blade

When a lone copy of “Cold Blade,” a 1970 film directed by legendary Hong Kong director Chor Yuen, quietly surfaced in Hong Kong a few years ago, local cinephiles were caught off guard. Here was a martial arts flick they had long given up on as a casualty lost to the ravages of time. For “Cold Blade” heralds a landmark turning point in Chor’s lengthy career. It’s the first of his Putonghua martial art films, after a string of trendy Cantonese features during the ‘50s and ‘60s, and sets the distinct tone and flavor of his later, more renowned sword classics like “Killer Clans” and “Magic Blade.” The unique stylishness and elegance that richly suffuses the swordfights in the latter films first takes root in this seminal predecessor.

Yet the initial ecstasy over the rediscovery soon subsided. For no sooner had a team of celluloid specialists at the Hong Kong Film Archive finished slaving away to restore the film to its original state then they realized that they were one whole reel short of a complete soundtrack. Moreover, the missing reel was integral to the entire film.

Any film restorer will tell you that no restoration job can do absolute justice to the quality of a film in its original, pristine glory, but a gaping caesura of sound right in the middle was more than your average glitch. Yet nothing could be done, as the print of “Cold Blade” at hand was the lone survivor after years of neglect.

Since 1996, the Film Archive has been a member of the International Federation of Film Archives, which is a vast web of archivists around the world. But the people resurrecting “Cold Blade” had never thought of sending any distress signals through the tentacles of this sprawling global network despite the significance of the film with respect to Chor’s overall career. At the end of the day, its rediscovery was thought to be something of a fortunate aberration, a lucky flash in the dark - and lightning doesn’t strike twice.

Nonetheless, there’s no stopping the rumor mill, and soon enough word about the appearance of this obscure gem began working its way through the relevant channels at a feverish pace.

And maybe lightning does strike twice – enter the French connection, Marie-Claire Quiquemelle. Quiquemelle, a Sinologist and passionate follower of Chinese films, runs Centre de Documentation sur le Cinema Chinois in Paris. The center has a massive archive dedicated to collecting and preserving Hong Kong films – established, no less, before Hong Kong had anything resembling an archive center of its own.

When Quiquemelle got wind that a recently restored masterpiece was itching to be completed with a crucial reel, she eagerly trawled through her treasure trove for the missing piece of the puzzle. Once again, the pessimists relished in how wrong they were. Hidden in her private collection was a complete copy of a little-known film called “Cold Blade.”