Blood Will Tell

This film was collected overseas in 1996.

The 1950s saw a Hong Kong film industry much more eager in fostering foreign connections. Zhang Shankun of Hsin Hwa Motion Picture Company, an influential producer who had earlier bridged the distance between the industries of Hong Kong and Shanghai, extended his reach by sending a company team to Japan to learn about colour cinematography while shooting the films Tokyo interlude (1955) and Blood Will Tell (1955). Blood Will Tell is a Hong Kong-Japan co-production that has been lost for years. In 1996, Cynthia Liu, then Senior Manager of the Archive, was in Japan on an official visit and, with the help of the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute, discovered a Japanese-subtitled print of the film. The Archive reached agreement with the Institute, borrowing the film to strike a copy, adding this cherished work to the Archive's collection.

The film, which claims to be ‘China's first Technicolor film', was produced by movie tycoon Zhang Shankun. The cast and crew filmed on location in Tokyo, making this a major Sino-Japan co-production in the 1950s. Director Evan Yang adapted Griffin Yueh Feng's 1949 book of the same name, combining literary ambience, sensationalism and ethics in this film. Legendary thief Hai Tang Hong (Wang Yin) is about to retire when he accidentally kills his wife's lover. His wife (Li Lihua) not only moves to file charges against him, after their daughter (Chung Ching) is engaged, she repeatedly threatens to expose the truth about her parentage. The sexy and alluring Li Lihua was incredibly natural in playing the evil temptress, her lethal seductiveness is emphasised by the qipao she wears.

Date	Time	Venue
3/7/2021 (Sat)	12:00pm	Cinema, Hong Kong Film Archive

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