Cold Blade

Directed by Chor Yuen

With Melinda Chen, Kao Yuan, Cheung Ban, Kong San and Paul Chu Kong

Chor Yuen was Gu Long before he started filming Gu Long. The director's first wuxia film, made at Shaws' rival Cathay, finds him relishing in a mode of expression that would later become the signature style of the 'martial-arts suspense thriller' mini-genre. Chor grafts the quasi-psychological stylishness of his Cantonese melodrama onto this actioner, laying on thick the atmosphere by dialling up the fog machine and unleashing the colours from his camera's palette. He also stages his fights in modern dance-like choreography, with moves that are more graceful than ferocious and paused poses that are longer on expressive narcissism than continuity of action. Cold Blade is the quiet beginning of an aesthetic.