How Chor Yuen’s forgotten Hong Kong wuxia films mixed magic realism and complex heroes

Hong Kong filmmaker Chor Yuen is known today for directing magical martial arts classics like The Sentimental Swordsman.\nRecently, however, a number of his rarer titles were made widely available again. Below we look at a few of his lesser-known wuxia gems.\nDuel for Gold (1971)\nChor had only one martial arts film to his credit, Cold Blade, before joining Shaw Brothers in 1970. He had previously established himself by directing around 70 dramas and romances, many of which achieved both commercial success and critical acclaim.\n\nHowever, his first assignment from studio boss Run Run Shaw was to complete the star-studded wuxia Duel for Gold, which had been abandoned by top director Lo Wei during filming.\nChor’s later contributions to the genre were distinctive. Often adapting the literary works of Taiwanese novelist Gu Long, he established a reputation for intelligent, character-driven wuxia films that were atmospheric without being too fantastical.\nWhile this early wuxia lacks the stylistic hallmarks of his later works, it is expertly crafted and shows Chor’s storytelling efficiency.\nLike most martial arts films, it features an array of protagonists and antagonists. Yet Chor keeps the narrative lean, excluding anything that might divert the viewer’s attention from the central plot.\nDuel for Gold is about one thing only: stealing gold. Two sword-wielding sisters (Ivy Ling Po and Wang Ping) and their husbands rob a security bureau, and then hide out together while they wait for the heat to die down.\nBut the four thieves become overwhelmed by greed, and their marriages and family bonds crumble as a result.\n\nShaw superstar Ling Po steals the show, playing a notorious thief known for her skill with hidden weapons. She cuts a bloody swathe through the film, killing allies and enemies alike in her merciless pursuit of the loot.\nAlthough best known for her huangmei diao musical films, Ling Po had been appearing in martial arts pictures since the early 1960s, and it shows – she is composed and capable in combat, performing her moves with effortless precision.\nWhile films of this period usually emphasised Confucian values, honour and brotherhood, the characters in Duel for Gold lack these virtues; they are ruthless, greedy and driven solely by the desire for wealth. Some have said that this was Chor’s comment on Hong Kong’s increasingly materialist society.\nIn the book Director Chor Yuen, Chor says that Run Run Shaw tried to use the film as a “weapon” to beat Bruce Lee’s The Big Boss at the box office. The tactic failed.\nClans of Intrigue (1977)\nChor’s wuxia films may be the closest that Hong Kong cinema has ever come to magic realism, a literary genre in which real life and fantasy worlds seamlessly interact.\nClans of Intrigue, based on a Gu Long novel, exemplifies this, featuring both a grounded hunt for a murderer and phantasmagorical sequences that are expertly integrated into the plot.\n\n\nIt is a detective story at heart, with Shaw Brothers legend Ti Lung playing a dashing rogue trying to track down the killer of three martial arts clan leaders. His motivation is not justice, but to avoid getting blamed for the murders himself.\nThe plot is typically convoluted, but Chor, who remains relatively faithful to the source material, distils it into a coherent narrative.\nThe film is laden with appealing eccentricities, including a group of Arthurian-style water maidens, an honourable bounty hunter, a samurai-sword-wielding monk and some murderous Buddhist nuns.\n\nThe swordfighting scenes, choreographed by the esteemed Tong Kai, are fast and furious, but it is the glorious sets that elevate the film.\nOf note is the Divine Water Maidens’ Palace – a bright, aquatic backdrop permanently suffused with smoke and dry ice. The film’s bloody finale, staged in the palace, features a picturesque rock pool and a swing, creating a scene that is as beautiful as it is bizarre.\nChor, who helmed the trendsetting erotic wuxia Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan five years earlier, incorporates lesbian subtext and a gender-bending villain here – predating Tsui Hark’s famed take on Asia the Invincible by 15 years.\nJade Tiger (1977)\nJade Tiger is a deconstruction of the martial arts world – known as jianghu – which Chor depicts as driven by ambition, pride and vengeance, rather than the righteous Confucian values it pretends to espouse.\n\n\nTo survive in this world, one must be ruthless; individuals are merely “pawns” in the greater scheme of things, the film suggests. Only the dead – portrayed in one scene as an alternative society – adhere to the true values of the martial artist.\n“Out of my Gu Long films, I liked Jade Tiger the best,” Chor said in the book Director Chor Yuen. “[The hero] avenged himself successfully, but he killed so many people doing it, can it really be considered a successful effort?”\nThe film is more spy thriller than detective story, where few characters are who they appear to be. The intrigue is gripping, with numerous credible twists unfolding at breakneck pace.\nTi Lung plays the son of a benign clan leader who is murdered by an evil rival family. He goes undercover to exact revenge but is continually deceived by people close to him.\n“The affairs of the martial arts world are terrifying indeed,” says the character in the film. “You can be right today and wrong tomorrow.”\n\nThe action sequences are serviceable, though occasionally stagy. It is the characters that make the film watchable, as the leads are more complex than those in a typical wuxia.\nTi Lung portrays a fallible hero prone to capture, while Derek Yee Tung-sing’s charisma shines in a villainous role.\nTough guy Lo Lieh delivers an over-the-top performance as an effusive clan leader, while swordfighting star Shih Szu, styled to look glamorous rather than rugged, showcases her dramatic range alongside her martial arts skills.\nIn this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.\nWant more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook.\n