The Past and Present of 'Dead Knot'

Everyone has heard of John Woo's A Better Tomorrow, and many film fans know he was once an assistant director to Chang Cheh. However, not everyone is aware that before joining Shaw Brothers, he worked as a continuity supervisor at Cathay and was a passionate cinephile engrossed in making experimental films. Dead Knot, an early film he wrote and starred in, marks a small milestone towards the end of the pathfinding stage of Hong Kong's 1960s experimental film era.

The director of Dead Knot, Wong Chi-keung, is one of Hong Kong's most seasoned film critics, writing under the pen name Sek Kei. At the time, Sek Kei, Woo, and cinematographer Chiu Tak-hak had each produced their own short films, marking a departure from their earlier practices. Dead Knot was shot in 16 mm, and on-site sound recording would have been prohibitively expensive for non-professionals. With a maximum of only two of the three cast members appearing together, this results in a shooting team of just four people. This agile and lean production scale reflects the characteristics of an experimental film team of the era.

Shooting for Dead Knot began around early 1969. After Woo joined Cathay as a continuity supervisor, he brought in Tso Chung-lan from the accounting department to play the female lead. At that time, Sek Kei and Chiu were both working in the art department at Cathay, with Chiu serving as Sek Kei's superior. According to Ada Loke’s (wife to Sek Kei) recollection, the film's post-production editing was completed between March and June of that year, after she and Sek Kei had moved into their new home following their marriage, but before her mother had moved in with them. During this period, they held private screenings at their residence, inviting participants and friends involved in the shooting, using a white wall as a screen to show a silent version of the film.

In her 1978 article for the Hong Kong Times, Loke mentioned that there was one scene they were never satisfied with whenever they screened Dead Knot. In the final shot, after Chan Kai-yat ties up Woo to the ground, the camera pans across the latter's reclining body, capturing the former surveilling and typing simultaneously from afar. Before presenting a close-up of the typewriter itself, its sound seemed to demand inclusion, yet it remained unrealised.

However, the dissatisfaction never translated into action until 1970, when T’ang Shushuen visited Hong Kong. The night before the scheduled screening of several short films for her, Loke spontaneously decided to do an all-night DIY dubbing session at home, measuring the time of each music sequence by calculating the number of frames (24 frames per second). She first recorded the sound of a typewriter and selected music segments from two records, alternating between the sounds of pipa and guitar. The principle was that melancholic Chinese music would accompany Cho, while energetic Spanish music would accompany Chan, leaving Woo in between without additional score. On the day of the screening in the rented preview room, Loke played the recording live with a tape recorder, pausing and playing as needed.

As for the screening held on September 11 at the Amateur Film Festival 70, organised by the College Cine Club, it marked the film's first public screening. The programme noted that it featured tape dubbing, indicating that it was her second—and final—instance of live manual dubbing.

This was due to the fact that the copy of Dead Knot was lost for many years. Once it resurfaced, it was stored at the Hong Kong Film Archive. The preliminary restoration was completed in 1999, and in the following year, a digitally rescored version with the same music by William Kwok Wai-lun was screened at the 24th Hong Kong International Film Festival. This 2000 version was based on a 1969 tape recording. Loke provided verbal instruction, and Kwok performed precise synchronisation with the computer, adding heartbeat sounds and improvisational sections featuring the pipa colliding with the Spanish guitar.

By 2006, Loke felt it necessary to add opening credits, correct errors in the original closing credits, and explain the origins of the dubbing. Additionally, the volume of certain sound effects was adjusted slightly. This version has been circulating on the Internet for nearly twenty years. However, due to the limitations of resources and technology at the time of restoration, the picture quality remained subpar. Now, with M+ conducting another restoration, the image quality has significantly improved, and the soundtrack and subtitles are more complete, ready for both new and returning audiences to enjoy.