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Donnie Yen, Leon Lai, Charlie Young, Honglei Sun, Yi-Ching Lu ... see more see more... , So-yeon Kim , Jingchu Zhang , Tai Liwu , Duncan Chow , Jason Lau , Kuan-Chun Chi , Ma Jingwu , Michael Wong , Lau Kar-Leung , Liu Chia-Liang , Taili Wu , So Yeun , Huang Peng

Tsui Hark (The Blade) adapted his massive martial arts epic Seven Swords (AKA Qi Jian) from Liang yu-Sheng's popular novel Seven Swordsmen from Mount Tian. The story opens in the 1660s, following the ... read more read more...implementation of China's (Manchu) Qing dynasty. To quell possible nationalist uprisings, the emperor issues a decree forbidding the use of martial arts, and guarantees decapitation for anyone who violates that order. A class of bounty hunters quickly formed to enforce the law and collect 600 pieces of silver for each violator; the most massive and domineering of the warriors is the bald, muscular Fire-Wind (Sun Honglei), a bellicose and volatile creature who lives in an elephantine tentlike dwelling on a hill. This walking terror selects Martial Village, a hamlet in northwestern China, as his next assignment. Meanwhile, in Martial, two young adults, Wu Yuanyin (Charlie Young) and her ex-beau, Han Zhibang) rescue an old executioner, Fu Qingzhu (Lau Kar-leung) who foresees the coming wrath and acknowledges the necessity of pulling in the mythical 'Warriors of Mt. Tian' to fight Fire-Wind and his cronies. The four warriors summoned by Fu include Chu Zhaonan (Donnie Yen), and Yang Yunchong (Leon Lai), who dramatically increase the tension and bloodshed when the former develops a crush on one of Fire-wind's hostages, Green Pearl (Kim So-yeon) and decides to kidnap her - sending Fire-wind through the roof. The critically-worshipped Hark reportedly cut two versions of this film (including a 2 1/2 hour cut and a 3-hour cut) and demonstrated incredible confidence in Qi Jian by planning it as the initial installment in a massive series of multimedia sequels, including a 74-part television series, an online video game, comics, and five additional films. The picture itself testifies to this, with the setup for a sophomore installment in its conclusion. Qi Jian, however, did lackluster box office when it opened in the Far East in July 2005, making the follow-ups less than certain. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Flixster Users

33% want to see it

7,750 ratings

Critics

27% liked it

15 critics

R, 2 hr. 31 min.

Directed by: Hark Tsui

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DVD Release Date: January 16, 2007

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Flixster Reviews (677)

  • DragonEyeMorrison
    August 31, 2008
    DragonEyeMorrison
    As much as i think that Tsui Hack is an average director at best this one is not a bad flick. Mind you, the film is uneven and flawed as hell, the focus of the story is just on a couple of characters, and the rest end up as nothing but filler. That said, the fights are good, if ... read moreclumsy directed at times. Colorfull villians too, the skinhead girl and fire wind are quite fun to watch. Way better actors than Donnie Yen, Leon Lai and that korean chick for sure.

    No classic, but decent enough to pass the weekend.
  • garyX
    April 9, 2008
    garyX
    A horde of bounty hunters are ravaging the land, murdering everyone in their path until one village enlists the help of 5 swordsmen from a mystical mountain top. Tsui Hark is desperate to ape the success of Crouching Tiger and Hero, and although he has some success in copying the... read more visual style, the substance leaves more than a little to be desired. The meandering script is aimless, and just seemed like a series of contrived situations with little thought to logical narrative progression. It tells you next to nothing about any of the characters, with the swordsmen themselves introduced in a frankly bizarre scene that as far as I could tell made no sense at all. The relationships between characters are also hackneyed and cliched, and the action sequences clumsy and loaded with unnecessary visual gimmickry.On the plus side, the production design is very attractive and there is some very pretty scenery, but it is lacking the energy of his early work and the sophistication of the film's contemporaries, so his attempt at an artful epic just comes across as corny and dull.
  • kiriyamakazou
    December 22, 2007
    kiriyamakazou
    At times the film drags too much as we await some more ass kicking awesomeness. When it does come it is far from dissapointing. The different swords are just well cool. Pretty much a road movie version of Seven Samurai. Very, very good.
  • deano
    November 11, 2007
    deano
    Great action choreography, lavish production design and epic storytelling in the heroic tale of seven master swordsmen who band together to prevent the slaughter of innocent villagers by an evil warlord. Donnie Yen is one of the best swordsmen I ever saw in his action scenes and ... read morethis film is a bit familiar to Seven Samuari and The Magnificent Seven.
  • EightThirty
    August 28, 2007
    EightThirty
    Cool Movie with lots of out of it moves ^_^
  • skactopus
    April 3, 2007
    skactopus
    This is an excellent movie with a great story. There is a great cast of characters in here and the fight sequences are choreographed pretty well.

    With that said, some of the action gets downgraded by the editing and some of the characters aren't utilized as much as the others.... read more The one's that aren't utilized are also the one's with the more dynamic swords. (Movable parts, etc.) Nevertheless this is an enjoyable wuxia adventure and is definitely worth your time.
  • Fascade518
    February 2, 2009
    Fascade518
    Incredible & insane killer kung-fu action flick. Donnie Yen returns for revenge in this Machuruian classic.
  • jimbotender
    October 25, 2008
    jimbotender
    My oh my,a movie with Rodman and Van Damme gained a few more points rather this wacky piece of crap.A blatant copy of Seven Samurai and a rip-off of the thousand better martial-arts movies out there.Childish moves and choreography for the royal highness named blockbuster.Whew,I s... read moreuppose it's not trash but when you categorize it amidst Jackie Chan U.S. films,it's right where it belongs.
  • patrickdol
    August 20, 2008
    patrickdol
    As slow as the middle gets, it still remains interesting and different from your American fantasy/history epic, which are rather tired. And really, the story of the film more than asks for it's long running time, personally, I wanted to see more about certian characters, especial... read morely the main Swordswoman kicking a little more ass. But what knocks this out of the park is the incredible action sequences, which more than pay off whatever you have to sit through... which is a Tsui Hark trademark in my opinion, and something he does extremely well.
    The cinematography is also nothing to sneeze at.
  • threefolddado
    August 3, 2008
    threefolddado
    Nice epic adventure from Tsui Hark.

View All Chat gim (The Seven Swords) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Peter Howell
March 2, 2007
Peter Howell, Toronto Star

Tsui is capable of better than this. Full Review

Liam Lacey
March 2, 2007
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

The problem is that Seven Swords' narrative is so cluttered with briefly sketched characters and subplots as to be almost impossible to follow. Full Review

Andrew Sun
August 23, 2005
Andrew Sun, Hollywood Reporter

[A] bloated Ching Dynasty actioner.

Anton Bitel
June 15, 2007
Anton Bitel, Film4

these Seven Swords do not so much pierce as bore. Full Review

Jim Slotek
March 2, 2007
Jim Slotek, Jam! Movies

[The film] leaves itself open in the end for sequelization, which would be a good thing. There's enough worth appreciating in Seven Swords to think that a second try could easily find its comfort zone. Full Review

Boyd van Hoeij
January 18, 2007
Boyd van Hoeij, european-films.net

Looks gorgeous, but ultimately collapses under its own weight, as if it were a Chinese Kingdom of Heaven.

Justin Bowyer
April 1, 2006
Justin Bowyer, Empire Magazine

What could and should have been great is reduced to the tragically dull. A wasted opportunity of immense proportions. Full Review

Peter Bradshaw
February 25, 2006
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

This long picture unspooled to its end without ever involving or engaging me all that much. Full Review

Jonathan Trout
February 22, 2006
Jonathan Trout, BBC

Battle, romance, mysticism; it sounds great. It isn't. Full Review

Stina Chyn
February 22, 2006
Stina Chyn, Film Threat

Every now and then, I'd like to watch a movie that could give me thrills, an engaging story, and not force me to think actively about ideology in order to enjoy it. Full Review

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