A Debt of Blood

Dir: Yuan Qiufeng
Scr: Yi Fan
Prod Co: MP & GI/ Cathay
Co-starring: Chen Hao, Maggie Li, Roy Chiao, Tian Qing, Tang Ching
1966 / Colour / D Beta / Mandarin / 98min

As Leo Tolstoy famously noted, ‘All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way'. Director Yuan Qiufeng paints a story of mixed fortunes. Ma Renshan (Roy Chiao) is a well-respected hospital director who devotes himself to treating wounded soldiers. Calamity strikes when the Japanese troops raid the hospital: his youngest daughter (Maggie Li) is tortured and killed; his second daughter Xiuyun (Betty Loh Ti) joins her young brother Shaohua (Tien Ching) in resistance movements, only to learn that her elder brother Zhihua (Tang Ching) has defected to the enemies, while her vain younger sister Xiuzhen (Fanny Fan Lai) fawns over the traitorous He Xiaodong (Chen Hao). By turns tender and resilient but never compromising, Betty Loh Ti brought to life a dignified heroine caught in the times of fear and chaos that spawned all sorts of absurdities. The scenes of her pitting against her co-stars were exemplary lessons lifted from the textbook of acting.

This screening copy was scanned from an incomplete 35mm print. As the missing footage was filled in by scanning from another 16mm print, colour tones may vary and subtitles would appear in parts of the film.

Screening courtesy of Cathay Organisation