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 opening film of the 2005 Venice Film Festival.

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Connections

References The Flying Guillotine (1975)

User Reviews

...not quite what I expected, but still enjoyable...

Being a big fan of Tsui Hark films, I had been looking forward to this film for a long time, and even though Leon Lai is in the movie, I still thought it would be watchable.

The film was shot quite beautifully, with certain scenes showing some fantastic imagery. However, do not take this to mean that the film was full of beautiful landscapes, no. The way the film was shot was matched fully well with the barren lands that the majority of the scenes take place in.

The music was captivating and suited the moment when you actually noticed it was playing. In my opinion, the typical 'Hero' theme in this film was a perfect mix of cheesiness and just plain, pure brilliance.

The fight scenes were fast and furious, but sometimes, due to the camera work, it was difficult to see what had become of the amazing choreography.

At this particular moment in time, I can only really think of two bad things about the film, the first being pacing and the second being the timeline/editing. The film tends to jump from scene to scene fairly well, but there were certain moments where it is obvious that something was missing, be it dialogue or scenes, and this made the pacing factor unbearable as it seemed forever for the film to get anywhere.

Overall though, I guess if you like wuxia movies, then this might appeal to you, but I still feel quite doubtful that this would actually appeal to a larger audience.

The swords are awesome by the way.... ;) Let's hope that they release a better DVD version though...

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