Produced, directed, and written by Tsui Hark, SEVEN SWORDS is an action-packed wuxia epic about love, betrayal, and heroism. Starring Asia hottest stars, including award winning Hong Kong actor and singer Leon Lai (Three, Infernal Affairs 3), versatile actress Charlie Young (New Police Story, Fallen Angels), international action star Donnie Yen (Blade 3, Hero), award winning China actors Sun Hong-Lei (Zhou Yu’s Train) and Lu Yi, and actress Kim So Yeon from Korea. With state of the art costume and set designs by Eddie Wong (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), and action direction by acclaimed martial arts choreographer, Lau Kar-Leung (Drunken Master 2).
This is a long awaited movie, Tsui Harks return to Wuxia movies..It cost more than Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and has been a long time in the making..
Some thought he might bring out the power, unleash a new classic like Iron Monkey or New Dragon Gate Inn or Butterfly Lovers.
But well he didn’t it was however ok, it dragged on too long, at least 30 mins, was filled in with pointless dialogue, bad acting and unecessary sword fights.
It opened pretty brutally with the slaying of a village by the ‘evil‘ villain, a mercenary hired by the emperor on an edict to kill all martial arts practitioners (General Firewind).
He was a character with charisma, and his funky assortment of killers were stylish as always with unique weapons, fighting styles and personalities. With the trademark Tsui Hark face paint of course.
I believe it was adapted from the classic Seven Swords of Mount Tien (Heaven Mountain).
It feels in some places similar to over movies, but not quite doing it so well, it stumbles in places, and just plain drags in others.
The fight scenes are of course excellent, and some are pretty unique but a lot of it run of the mill stuff and brutality (censored to the max of course by the lovely Malaysian censorship system).
It get’s a bit arty in places, in typical Tsui Hark fashion, sometimes half the cinema had a ‘wtf‘ look on their faces, including me. It wasn’t too overboard though like that dumbass Zu: Warriors movie, it’s a bit more like his old school films (Which is a good thing).
The Korean actress was pretty pathetic and extremely stereotypical, Donnie Yen was extremely cool, but a little cheesy in places and the coolest guy was the monobrow dude, he was awesome!
There might well be a sequel, but well I don’t see it going down too well, I’ll be waiting for The Myth which looks good and should be coming soon (A Stanley Tong movie starring Jackie Chan and Tony Leung Ka Fai).
Overall I’d give Seven Swords a bearable 6/10, worth watching if you like this genre.
I like a good Wuxia movie like the next guy but this Tsui Hark fella is always pulling that shit with the artsy-fartsy stuff. Just tell the story, dammit! Somehow I’m not particularly enthusiastic about this one.
as for me, i’m waiting for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
hi, i dunno if you have heard of a movie shanghai women no its not porn but its a movie that timelines the lives of some chinese women and how they survived a lot of stuff, both in marital and family life, i was wondering if you know of it and where i can get it. thanx alot
Charlie is out already, it was on the night I went, but the show was at 11:35, didn’t want to wait that long.
wah.. i’ve seen the movie too.. they really “Potong” alot at the starting of the show where the soldier started too “potong” ppl.. really “potong” steam..
I saw the Seven Swords advert in Rome!
i almost died watching this show…is slow, is pointless, really bad acting, really nothing much to say about those beautiful swords except some are half down, but still bring it down to help the village ????wtf…
2 newbie villagers get swords too and start fighting…..
Hope there is a good sword fight in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! 🙂
is it really that bad? in that case… i’ll just get the vcd/dvd.
I yawned 6 times, went out for a puff n shoot the bull and ended with a snored.
Can’t get the movie, I’m living in an ‘ulu’ place with no cinemas. Anyway, I recommend checking out Zhang Yimou’s “House of Flying Daggers” on Astro Box Office (subscription needed)….really beautiful cinematography…worth a look with some of its intrigue
I didn’t know people were using other blog’s comments sections to blog their opinions.
o_O?
Used to love Tsui Hark’s, but now I think there isn’t any nice work from him since Wong FeiHong series. They were just weak.
Anyhow, thank god we still have Stephen Chow. Do u know that Kung Fu Hustle has just released here in Australia a week ago? And surprisingly the Aussies give good review on it, much to my relief : )
You can read the review here (4 star man, don’t play play) :
https://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,16237038%255E23811,00.html
It’s pretty cool, honestly though I still prefer Shaolin Soccer.
Shaolin Gong Fu Ho Keng!
HO HO KENG!
Don’t worry, he hathe been smited down with great vengance and furious anger!
I thought it quite sucked, with a dumb story, indeed the cinematography is quite nice though, the only saving grace.
Yeah I thought that was pretty dumb, here’s a pretty sword, now you too can be a super hero…WTF?!?
Yeah I heard about it, by Xiaolian Peng. It’s about 3 generations of women in Shanghai if I remember correctly, Chinese name is Jia zhuang mei gan jue, that might help you find it.
Two Cho Yi-Hang disciple, One Bride with White Hair disciple and 4 of them trained by Master Glow.
Who are the two villagers?
Must watch myself then.
hey guys i’m sure that this is truly one of the greatest films ever made. Look at this Ang Lee and Z.Yimou – this is perfect filmmaking!