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The Magic Blade

1976 film by Chor Yuen

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ3226836
Source-derived summary

The Magic Blade (Chinese: 天涯·明月·刀) is a 1976 Hong Kong wuxia film directed by Chor Yuen. It starred Ti Lung, Lo Lieh and Ku Feng. It is one of the many films Chor Yuen adapted based on the martial arts novels by Gu Long.

The film was part of the brief revival of wuxia films in Hong Kong follow the downfall of the kung fu film craze in and outside Hong Kong. The film has been described by academic Stephen Teo and Richard James Havis as one of the best wuxia during this brief revival period for the genre.

Cast

Ti Lung as Fu Hung Hsueh

Lo Lieh as Yen Nan Fei

Ku Feng as Hsiao Chien

Production

Chor Yuen joined Shaw Brothers Studio in 1971. The films he made were primarily films with period settings that were either martial arts films or Chinese opera films. The Magic Blade was one of the many films Teo made based on the martial arts novels of Gu Long. Chor Yuen adapted 17 works by the novelist. When asked why he adapted so many, Chor Yuen responded that he had to follow the market at the request of Shaw Brothers, since the film adaptations performed so well.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Magic Blade” is 1976 film by Chor Yuen. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Magic, Blade and film, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1976, 1971—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1976. For this dossier, Magic, Blade and film is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1976 film by Chor Yuen” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3226836. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1976 and 1971.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Magic Blade”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Magic Blade primary sources, The Magic Blade archive and Magic research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Magic Blade”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from The Magic Blade” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.