Seven Swords (2005)

Seven warriors come together to protect a village from a diabolical General.

Director:

Hark Tsui

Writers:

Chi-Sing Cheung, Tin Nam Chun

Stars:

Leon Lai, Donnie Yen, Charlie Yeung

3 wins & 24 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Leon Lai	...	Yang Yuncong (as Ming Li)
Donnie Yen	...	Chu Zhaonan
Charlie Yeung	...	Wu Yuanying
Honglei Sun	...	General Fire-Wind
Yi Lu	...	Han Zhibang
Kim So-yeon	...	Green Pearl
Chia-Liang Liu	...	Fu Qingzhu
Jingchu Zhang	...	Liu Yufang
Li-Wu Tai	...	Xin Longzi
Duncan Lai	...	Mu Lang (as Kwan-Tat Chow)
Jason Piao Pai	...	Liu Jingyi (as Piao Pai)
Kuan-Chun Chi	...	Qiu Dongluo
Peng Huang	...	Guan Sandao
Haitao Li	...	Twelve Guardians (Si Yilang)
Jingwu Ma	...	Master Shadow Glow

Storyline

In the early 1600's, the Manchurians have taken over sovereignty of China and established the Ching Dynasty. While many nationalist revolts still brew within the martial artists' community, the newly set-up government immediately imposes a Martial Arts Ban, forbidding the practice of martial arts altogether in order to gain control and order. Wind Fire (Sun Hong-Lei), a surrendered military official from the previous dynasty, sees this as an opportunity to make a fortune for himself by helping to execute the new law. Greedy, cruel, and immoral, Wind Fire ravages the North-western China, and his next goal is to attack the final frontier, Martial Village. Fu Qingzhu, a retired executioner from the previous dynasty, feels the need to put a stop to this brutality and sets out to save Bowei Fortress. He brings Wu Yuanyin and Han Zhiban from the village with him to Mount Heaven to seek help from Master Shadow-Glow, a hermit who is a master of swords and leads a group of disciples of great ...

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Plot Keywords:

ancient china | village | sword | martial arts | china | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

The seven heroes' swords were designed by the director himself.

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Connections

References Once Upon a Time in China II (1992)

User Reviews

A cinematic milestone that can appear only once in every 20 years or so.

Well, what to say what has not been said yet, saying that it's a magnificent masterpiece is just an understatement.

Beautiful, barbarian, sublime, lyrical, except for its cinematic scope it has nothing in common with profit-driven, highly flawed swordplay film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" that has brought nothing interesting and fresh to the genre except for the obvious commercialization.

This movie was excellent, and really I cannot see how anyone who doesn't have ADD or any humanity cannot sit down and watch this movie.

A nice example of another re-invention of the Chinese swordplay movies. Seven Swords is also one of the bigger films of this genre since The Blade and the films of the Shaw Brothers.

The only thing I disliked was Donnie Yen (the only flaw on this film was the casting of his character)

I saw this film with a couple of friends, and let me tell you that it was vividly seen on their eyes that every single one was totally mesmerized by this, later we were talking mostly just about this film the whole week.

As for comparisons to Seven Samurai, while I must say I love that movie as well, I think this one has much more depth and raw humanity. It's much more emotional and inspirational to life... at least to me certainly.

This is out of question the cinematic accomplishment of the highest proportions.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [UK]

Country:

Hong Kong China South Korea

Language:

Mandarin Korean Cantonese

Release Date:

29 July 2005 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Seven Swords

Filming Locations:

Xinjiang, China

Box Office

Budget:

$18,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,473,290

Company Credits

Production Co:

Beijing Ciwen Digital Oriental Film & TV Production Co., Boram Entertainment, City Glory Pictures Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

153 min 141 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1