Seven Swords

Tsui Hark was the flagcarrier of Hong Kong action movies during the 1980's and early 1990's. Now, Tsui Hark is back, with Seven Swords, a character-driven and action-packed adventure.The story of Seven Swords is set in the 17th century, in which the conquering Manchu has established a new dynasty. A new law, which bans people from practicing martial-art, is issued to crack down any rebellion. The bloodthirsty Fire-Wind (Sun Honglei) forms a private army to enforce the law for the new empire. He not only kills people violated the law but also targets at whoever he can find, because he is rewarded for every kill. While Fire-Wind�s gang is raiding a wedding ceremony, an old man shows up to stop them. He is outnumbered and badly wounded before barely escapes the hand of Fire-Wind�s men. On his way to Bowei Village, he meets Wu Yuanying (Charlie Yeung), daughter of the village master. In the fortified village, the old man warns the villagers about the coming of Fire-Wind�s army and then he is identified as Fu Qingzhu (Liu Kia-Liang), a cold-blooded police officer of the previous dynasty, with Fire-Wind as his right-hand man. Fu claims he has already given up killing but no one believes his story except Wu. At that night, Wu Yuanying persuades Han Zibang, the horse wrangler, to set Fu Qingzhu free. Following Fu�s suggestion, three of them travel to Mt. Heaven to seek help from Master Huiming (Ma Jingwu). In Mt. Heaven, Fu retrieves his sword he surrendered, Wu Yuanying and Han Zhibang each is received a sword, and Master Huiming�s four disciples, Chu Zhaonan (Donnie Yen), Yang Yuncong (Leon Lai), Mu Lang (Duncan Chow) and Xin Longzi （Tai Li-Wu）are ordered to help the people of Bowei Village. As the seven warriors ride out of Mt. Heaven, the legend of a band called the Seven Swords begins. The action scenes are never as nice as what Tsui’s past film has achieved. Like all other period films of his, Tsui Hark once again threw us loads of crazy designs. Each of the seven swords was crafted with distinctive features and functions to coincide with the personality of its user. Fire-Wind’s men and a woman look nothing but mean, thanks to the hair, the armories, the battle tattoos and the weapons according to Tsui Hark’s sketches. The story is dragging along the length of plot, and unnecessary romance has been added in. Overall flow of the film is smooth yet there is simply no climax at all! Simply to say, I think he had tried to make his film artistic? The first 30 minutes was okay, the next 30 minutes was not bad, the last hour was simply too boring except for some action scenes. Hopefully, he can produce something like his past period film, I sounds like an old man here, but true fully, his past films were way more better than this one, hopefully Seven Swords sequence will be much better.
Rate: 5/10

09/10/05