Tsui Hark (The Blade) adapted his massive martial arts epic Seven Swords (AKA Qi Jian) from Liang yu-Sheng's popular novel Seven Swordsmen from Mount Tian. The story opens in the 1660s, following the implementation of China's (Manchu) Qing dynasty. To quell possible nationalist uprisings, the emperor issues a decree forbidding the use of martial arts, and guarantees decapitation for anyone who violates that order. A class of bounty hunters quickly formed to enforce the law and collect 600 pieces
of silver for each violator; the most massive and domineering of the warriors is the bald, muscular Fire-Wind (Sun Honglei), a bellicose and volatile creature who lives in an elephantine tentlike dwelling on a hill. This walking terror selects Martial Village, a hamlet in northwestern China, as his next assignment. Meanwhile, in Martial, two young adults, Wu Yuanyin (Charlie Young) and her ex-beau, Han Zhibang) rescue an old executioner, Fu Qingzhu (Lau Kar-leung) who foresees the coming wrath and acknowledges the necessity of pulling in the mythical 'Warriors of Mt. Tian' to fight Fire-Wind and his cronies. The four warriors summoned by Fu include Chu Zhaonan (Donnie Yen), and Yang Yunchong (Leon Lai), who dramatically increase the tension and bloodshed when the former develops a crush on one of Fire-wind's hostages, Green Pearl (Kim So-yeon) and decides to kidnap her - sending Fire-wind through the roof. The critically-worshipped Hark reportedly cut two versions of this film (including a 2 1/2 hour cut and a 3-hour cut) and demonstrated incredible confidence in Qi Jian by planning it as the initial installment in a massive series of multimedia sequels, including a 74-part television series, an online video game, comics, and five additional films. The picture itself testifies to this, with the setup for a sophomore installment in its conclusion. Qi Jian, however, did lackluster box office when it opened in the Far East in July 2005, making the follow-ups less than certain. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
[The film] leaves itself open in the end for sequelization, which would be a good thing. There's enough worth appreciating in Seven Swords to think that a second try could easily find its comfort zone.
Every now and then, I'd like to watch a movie that could give me thrills, an engaging story, and not force me to think actively about ideology in order to enjoy it.
Your enjoyment will be limited by your capacity to watch people try to carve each other up. Some of the plot is a little familiar and borrowed from better films including THE GUNS OF NAVARONE. Still, there is some nearly majestic photography.
As much as i think that Tsui Hack is an average director at best this one is not a bad flick. Mind you, the film is uneven and flawed as hell, the focus of the story is just on a couple of characters, and the rest end up as nothing but filler. That said, the fights are good, if clumsy directed at times. Colorfull
villians too, the skinhead girl and fire wind are quite fun to watch. Way better actors than Donnie Yen, Leon Lai and that korean chick for sure.No classic, but decent enough to pass the weekend.
February 25, 2007
Tsubaki Sanjuro
Super Reviewer
A horde of bounty hunters are ravaging the land, murdering everyone in their path until one village enlists the help of 5 swordsmen from a mystical mountain top. Tsui Hark is desperate to ape the success of Crouching Tiger and Hero, and although he has some success in copying the visual style, the substance leaves more
than a little to be desired. The meandering script is aimless, and just seemed like a series of contrived situations with little thought to logical narrative progression. It tells you next to nothing about any of the characters, with the swordsmen themselves introduced in a frankly bizarre scene that as far as I could tell made no sense at all. The relationships between characters are also hackneyed and cliched, and the action sequences clumsy and loaded with unnecessary visual gimmickry.On the plus side, the production design is very attractive and there is some very pretty scenery, but it is lacking the energy of his early work and the sophistication of the film's contemporaries, so his attempt at an artful epic just comes across as corny and dull.
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