Tsui Hark's
Seven Swords
Dvd Review
Ive been waiting a long time to finally see this pic. I finally got a hold of an English subtitled version the other day. Hopefully it will be released here stateside sometime in the new few months. I was excited to see this especially after how much i enjoyed his last movie Legend of Zu so much. A lot of hype was generated around this when it was in production and some hailed it as the chinese "Lord of the Rings." When master choreographer Lau Kar Leung and Donnie Yen's named where attached to the project my interest really was picqued.
Overall it was a mixed bag. There were parts that were awesome and some parts that had me almost bored to tears. What it gets right is the cinemotography and martial arts fighting. All the fighting scenes were top notched choreographed on a level only Lau Kar Leung or someone like Woo Ping can do. The movie starts off blazing with this evil clan attacking a village for practicing martial arts which was recently banned; chopping off heads with umbrellas, shields and other cool fantasy type devices. They are paid by the Emporer for every head they bring back. An injured Lau Kar Leung escapes and goes off to warn the next upcoming village of the upcoming attack. Two members of the village take Lau and go to the Mount of Heaven to recruit help. There the 3 of them are given swords, each with a different magical type of power or function. Then 4 people are recruited to go help them. So 7 warrior and 7 swords unite together to fight the destructive evil force. They go to the village and whip the bandits in an awesome sequence that shows off the powers of each sword. One sword can break rock or anything, another comes apart in half and can be used nunchuk type of style, another slides from one end to the other when you grip it a certain way. A lot of thought was put into the design of each sword.
The problem with the movie comes the middle section of the movie. There are some boring love subplots, a traitor their trying to be discover and other narrative thats kind of confusing and not really explained. Not all of the swords were shown in detail and explained what the special uniqueness was for that particular sword. There is suppose to be a longer cut of the movie and maybe that explains a little more of it. Finally the last battle sequence kicks it back into high gear once they reunite again to fight agains the leader of the evil clan. The movie definitely lends itself to a sequel. The rumor is it was going to be 7 total movies and now its cut down to a trilogy. I think it did poor at the box office so who knows if its going to be made. Overall the movie is solid and they great fighting does narrowly outweigh the stale middle section of the movie. Im definitely looking forward to another movie if its meant to be. Recommended to all fans of Crouching Tiger, Hero or any other type of martial arts epic.
Seven Swords
Dvd Review
Ive been waiting a long time to finally see this pic. I finally got a hold of an English subtitled version the other day. Hopefully it will be released here stateside sometime in the new few months. I was excited to see this especially after how much i enjoyed his last movie Legend of Zu so much. A lot of hype was generated around this when it was in production and some hailed it as the chinese "Lord of the Rings." When master choreographer Lau Kar Leung and Donnie Yen's named where attached to the project my interest really was picqued.
Overall it was a mixed bag. There were parts that were awesome and some parts that had me almost bored to tears. What it gets right is the cinemotography and martial arts fighting. All the fighting scenes were top notched choreographed on a level only Lau Kar Leung or someone like Woo Ping can do. The movie starts off blazing with this evil clan attacking a village for practicing martial arts which was recently banned; chopping off heads with umbrellas, shields and other cool fantasy type devices. They are paid by the Emporer for every head they bring back. An injured Lau Kar Leung escapes and goes off to warn the next upcoming village of the upcoming attack. Two members of the village take Lau and go to the Mount of Heaven to recruit help. There the 3 of them are given swords, each with a different magical type of power or function. Then 4 people are recruited to go help them. So 7 warrior and 7 swords unite together to fight the destructive evil force. They go to the village and whip the bandits in an awesome sequence that shows off the powers of each sword. One sword can break rock or anything, another comes apart in half and can be used nunchuk type of style, another slides from one end to the other when you grip it a certain way. A lot of thought was put into the design of each sword.
The problem with the movie comes the middle section of the movie. There are some boring love subplots, a traitor their trying to be discover and other narrative thats kind of confusing and not really explained. Not all of the swords were shown in detail and explained what the special uniqueness was for that particular sword. There is suppose to be a longer cut of the movie and maybe that explains a little more of it. Finally the last battle sequence kicks it back into high gear once they reunite again to fight agains the leader of the evil clan. The movie definitely lends itself to a sequel. The rumor is it was going to be 7 total movies and now its cut down to a trilogy. I think it did poor at the box office so who knows if its going to be made. Overall the movie is solid and they great fighting does narrowly outweigh the stale middle section of the movie. Im definitely looking forward to another movie if its meant to be. Recommended to all fans of Crouching Tiger, Hero or any other type of martial arts epic.
Heres the trailer
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