# The Sword (名剑) (1980 film)
**The Sword** (名劍) is a 1980 Hong Kong Cantonese-language wuxia film directed by Patrick Tam (譚家明) as his feature directorial debut, produced by Golden Harvest and starring Adam Cheng, Norman Chui, Chen Chi-chi, Tian Feng, and Wei Chiu-hua.[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html) It premiered in Hong Kong on 14 August 1980.[2](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2088029/) The film questions the conventions of the wuxia genre, following swordsmen who destroy themselves in pursuit of famous blades and the honor of being the top sword, and it is often regarded as marking the beginning of the Hong Kong New Wave.[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html) • [3](https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/350770/1/X.Xu_20PhD_20Thesis_202012.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | 名劍 (Ming jian), released in English as The Sword[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html) |
| Hong Kong premiere | 14 August 1980[2](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2088029/) |
| Director | Patrick Tam (譚家明), his first feature; he joined Golden Harvest in 1978[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html) • [4](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/Chinese/Patrick-TAM_c.pdf) |
| Production company | Golden Harvest; producer Raymond Chow (鄒文懷)[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html) |
| Language and length | Cantonese, in color; 85 minutes per the Hong Kong Film Archive, 89 minutes per the BBFC[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html) • [5](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-sword-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmdizmtc0) |
| Action direction | Ching Siu-tung (程小東) and Tang Tak-cheung (鄧德祥), with extensive wire work[6](https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202403/01/P2024022800605p.htm) • [7](https://www.hkfilm.net/archive/hkfa.pdf) |
| Genre standing | An early key work of the Hong Kong New Wave and a forerunner of the "art martial arts" subgenre[8](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1.html) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story centers on the young swordsman Li Mak-yin (李蓦然, played by Adam Cheng), who has completed his training and seeks a duel with Hua Chien-shu (花千树, [Tian Feng](https://www.edgepedia.org/tian-feng)), a renowned master of the sword whom many younger swordsmen hunt in the hope of making their names.[2](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2088029/) • [9](https://moviecool.asia/film/mwr89nlC19Sj) Hua owns two famous blades, "Han Xing" (寒星) and "Qi Wu" (齊物); the sword appraiser Wang Shi-qi warns that the Qi Wu sword is dangerous and should be discarded, but Hua pays no heed.[9](https://moviecool.asia/film/mwr89nlC19Sj) A Hong Kong Film Archive program note describes the Qi Wu sword as inherently treacherous, bringing death by the sword to whoever holds it.[10](https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201911/14/P2019111300674p.htm)
On his search, Li meets Hua's daughter Ying-ying (徐杰) and his former lover, now married.[2](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2088029/) The husband, Lin Wan (連環, Norman Chui), is cunning and treacherous, secretly hates Li, and wants the two famous swords for himself; he sends his aide Ching Ti-yi (陳鐵衣, Eddy Ko) to hunt Li down.[2](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2088029/) Li rescues a girl from the killer Chou Huan (仇歡), who turns out to be Hua's daughter, and thereby earns the duel he sought.[9](https://moviecool.asia/film/mwr89nlC19Sj) The Hong Kong Film Archive's synopsis notes that the film opens with Hua obtaining a famous sword and bringing inescapable doom upon himself, and ends with Li discarding his sword.[11](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html)
## Themes and genre revision
The Hong Kong Film Archive describes [The Sword](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-sword) as questioning the tenets of wuxia films without abandoning the genre, calling it "a poetic treatise against vanity" that takes after late-genre Westerns such as *My Name is Nobody* (1973) in questioning the wuxia convention of generating drama through characters' quest for the Top Sword honor.[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html) A supernatural touch is added: swordsmen are forced to realize that no mastery of fighting skills can overcome a mystical curse.[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html) The Archive's Chinese-language note reads the film as a side portrait of the emptiness of the jianghu (the martial world), with people obsessed with fame and profit, and frames the sword itself as both a weapon and the source of the strife of jianghu rivalry, reflecting a young generation's disillusion with worldly success.[11](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html)
The two leads were cast against type. Adam Cheng and Norman Chui, both television swordplay stars, meet on film for the first time here, yet neither plays a conventional chivalrous hero: both scheme relentlessly for the swords, and the Archive's note characterizes them as sinister.[11](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html) A South China Morning Post retrospective likewise describes the film as bringing modern attitudes to a traditional storyline and subverting the hero trope with the story of a selfish swordsman.[12](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3087731/very-modern-martial-arts-film-sword-patrick-tam-subverts?module=inline&pgtype=article)
## Style and action design
Tam's approach is formalist. The Archive groups him with Lau Shing-hon as the foremost formalists of the New Wave, striving to tell the story through film language, orchestrating color and composition and synchronizing them with music and dialogue through calibrated editing.[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html) An academic study of Tam and [Wong Kar-wai](https://www.edgepedia.org/wong-kar-wai) notes that the film uses essentially three background colors, red, white, and blue, whose broad fields of color and minimal lines give the imagery an abstract quality compared to the grid paintings of [Piet Mondrian](https://www.edgepedia.org/piet-mondrian).[13](https://ocu-omu.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/2006463/files/09133151-35-55.pdf) The Archive's Chinese note also points to the film's stylized approach: extensive night action scenes, flickering candlelight as the light source, and medium shots capturing the performers' movements.[11](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html)
The action was designed by Ching Siu-tung, whose anti-gravity choreography the Archive describes as spirited, with Eddy Ko's assassin appearing and vanishing like a recluse and Adam Cheng's movements dance-like in their grace.[11](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html) A 2024 government release on the Archive's "Wu Ying Jiang Hu" retrospective identifies The Sword as a film in which Ching served as action director and made extensive use of wire work (威也).[6](https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202403/01/P2024022800605p.htm)
## Place in the Hong Kong New Wave
Tam came to film from television, like most New Wave filmmakers, and his cinematic directorial debut The Sword is often regarded as marking the beginning of the Hong Kong New Wave.[3](https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/350770/1/X.Xu_20PhD_20Thesis_202012.pdf) The Hong Kong Film Archive places it alongside [Tsui Hark](https://www.edgepedia.org/tsui-hark)'s *The Butterfly Murders* (1979) as one of two early key New Wave works that react against the wuxia genre, formally and content-wise, at a time when Hong Kong was starting to experience the disillusion that often came with prosperity.[8](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1.html) The Archive also calls the film a forerunner of the "art martial arts" subgenre that emerged decades later.[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html)
The film's standing within Tam's career is reinforced by his later work: he went on to direct *Love Massacre* (1981) and *Nomad* (1982), and became the editor of Wong Kar-wai's *Days of Being Wild* (1990) and *Ashes of Time* (1994).[4](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/Chinese/Patrick-TAM_c.pdf) • [14](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2024/06/19/nomad-la-lettre-d-amour-du-cineaste-patrick-tam-a-la-jeunesse-hongkongaise-des-annees-1980_6241360_3246.html)
## Restoration and home video
The film has circulated in versions of different lengths. A 2017 Hong Kong Film Archive restoration ran 90 minutes, which the government press release described as closer to the original release version than the 85-minute version long in circulation.[15](https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201702/24/P2017022400592p.htm) The film was screened in the Archive's 2017 "Revisiting the New Wave" program and again in the 2024 "Wu Ying Jiang Hu" retrospective of 23 martial arts films.[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html) • [6](https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202403/01/P2024022800605p.htm) Eureka Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on 18 November 2024, from a new 2K restoration, presenting it as one of the earliest and best pictures of the wuxia revival of the 1980s; the BBFC classified that release at 89 minutes.[16](https://eurekavideo.co.uk/movie/the-sword-limited-edition/) • [5](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-sword-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmdizmtc0)
## References
1. [The Sword, Hong Kong Film Archive programme note (English)](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html)
2. [名剑 The Sword (1980), 1905电影网](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/2088029/)
3. [X. Xu, PhD thesis on Hong Kong New Wave filmmakers, University of Southampton](https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/350770/1/X.Xu_20PhD_20Thesis_202012.pdf)
4. [香港影人小傳檢索：譚家明, Hong Kong Film Archive](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/Chinese/Patrick-TAM_c.pdf)
5. [The Sword, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-sword-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmdizmtc0)
6. [香港電影資料館推出「武影江湖──香港電影武林盛會」放映節目, Hong Kong Government Press Release (2024)](https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202403/01/P2024022800605p.htm)
7. [港產電影一覽 (1913-2003), Hong Kong Film Archive](https://www.hkfilm.net/archive/hkfa.pdf)
8. [Revisiting the New Wave, Hong Kong Film Archive](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/en/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1.html)
9. [《名劍》, 華文影視數據平台 MovieCool](https://moviecool.asia/film/mwr89nlC19Sj)
10. [電影資料館「影畫早晨」展示香港電影的兵器世界, Hong Kong Government Press Release (2019)](https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201911/14/P2019111300674p.htm)
11. [名劍, 香港電影資料館 programme note (Chinese)](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2017-16-1-4.html)
12. [A very modern martial arts film, The Sword by Patrick Tam subverts the hero trope, South China Morning Post](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3087731/very-modern-martial-arts-film-sword-patrick-tam-subverts?module=inline&pgtype=article)
13. [从谭家明到王家卫——80年代香港电影在新浪潮中的探索与传承, 中国学志 35, Osaka Metropolitan University](https://ocu-omu.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/2006463/files/09133151-35-55.pdf)
14. [« Nomad », la lettre d'amour du cinéaste Patrick Tam, Le Monde (2024)](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2024/06/19/nomad-la-lettre-d-amour-du-cineaste-patrick-tam-a-la-jeunesse-hongkongaise-des-annees-1980_6241360_3246.html)
15. [電影資料館推出節目「再探新浪潮」, Hong Kong Government Press Release (2017)](https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201702/24/P2017022400592p.htm)
16. [The Sword, Eureka Entertainment](https://eurekavideo.co.uk/movie/the-sword-limited-edition/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Martial arts films › Released 1943 to 1985*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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