2018 – 血指环 (Ring of Fury)

Monday 2nd July, 2018

19: 30 – 21:00: Evening Screening (K – 1.56)

The event is free but please register if you wish to attend: BOOK TICKETS

血指环 (Ring of Fury)

Tony Yeow and James Sebastian

1973  l Singapore  l 78 mins

Mandarin with English subtitles

Introduction from Karen Chan (Executive Director, Asian Film Archive, Singapore)

 

A humble noodle-seller refuses to pay protection fees to a gang of thugs, resulting in tragedy befalling his family and loved one. To exact revenge, he learns martial arts to deal with the gang led by an iron masked man.

Inspired by the kungfu craze sparked by Bruce Lee of the 1970s, Ring of Fury is Singapore’s first and only martial arts film featuring local karate master, Peter Chong, and a host of amateur actors.  With no budget for special effects, many of the unscripted, unchoreographed, and prolonged fight scenes in the film were raw and genuine fights between lead actor Peter Chong and the other stunt members.

Ring of Fury was banned for its portrayal of gangsterism and vigilantism at a time when Singapore was aggressively ‘cleaning up’ its national public image. The ban lasted for 32 years before the film made its long overdue debut at the 2005 Singapore International Film Festival.

Restored in 4K by the Asian Film Archive through Cineric Portugal film laboratory in 2017, the 35mm sole surviving print showed signs of severe deterioration, discolouration, and vinegar syndrome that caused differential shrinkage. A build-up of mould merging with the faded colours of yellow and cyan made the print images appear magenta. The mould proved to be so challenging that the laboratory specially wrote a new algorithm to resolve this problem.