Seven Swords (2005)

Tsui Hark usually happens to be a solid venue when it comes to direct artistic, epic and philosophic Chinese movies as he proved in unforgettable classics such as "A Chinese Ghost Story" or "Once Upon A Time In China" to only name the most famous movie series he has been a part of.Sadly, in opposition to many favourable reviews, I must say that this movie happens to be the worst I've known from him. The whole story is confusing and not well told. The seven main characters are introduced in strange ways. Some get a lot of screening time, others just appear and are a part of the group without getting any development at all. That's why it's difficult to always understand who is who and who is doing what for which reason. Many useless flashbacks make the whole thing even worse.The battle scenes in this movie are extremely incoherent. Some of them are truly beautiful, well filmed and prove of great aesthetics. The first big battle introduces for example intriguing main villains and a lot of original arms. Other fighting scenes are just overlong while nothing really happens, for example the last fight with the main villain. The movie kicks off very promising and the first fifteen minutes are quite perfect but the film quickly decreases and even the open ending is a letdown.The acting is also strange. Some characters show so many emotions that they don't look profound but like ridiculous caricatures. The scenes with the hysteric Korean woman for example are funny first but get truly annoying after a while. The love scenes and relationship in this movie are all but credible. Many critics say the characters have a lot of depth but apart of the first three or four actors out of seven we're introduced to, this is not true in my humble opinion. Half of the seven main characters are rather faceless, the villagers are too stereotypical and the villains faceless or just out of their minds. The most intriguing character which is the evil woman with the Gothic look, dies way too soon in this movie. I must also criticize Donnie Yen who seems to be the new martial arts star from China. He still has a lot to do to get even close to a Bruce Lee, Ti Lung, Jackie Chan, Leslie Cheung or Jet Li to only name a few. I think he is quite overrated just as the "Ip Man" films with him.The movie also has its positive sides. As I said, the beginning is very strong. The filming is well done as the camera angles are well chosen, the choreography as well as images are very precise and the authentic costumes are flawless. In the beginning, the movie also works a lot with colours, for example by adding a darker tone to the red colours by making the surroundings look grey in the first brutal battle scenes. This stylistic elements fits well to the atmosphere but the movie strangely stops to employ this intriguing technique after a while. The ideas and the precision both decrease after a while even though the whole thing still remains somewhere between solid to good.In the end, the few positive aspects don't justify to watch this film that is a big letdown coming from a brilliant director as Tsui Hark usually is without a doubt. The movie had too many lengths in the fighting scenes but also a lack of depth concerning too many characters. Critics are very controversial and you should be warned before you try this one out but I definitely wouldn't recommend you to watch this mediocre effort.

This is a great martial arts film that could probably qualify as just a good film in general.It has interesting characters, a decent plot line, some great cinematography, and excellent fight and battle scenes. For those who hate the wire-fu genre, don't worry. They sacrifice the acrobatics here for some real gritty action, lots of blood and guts flowing with every severed limb, gouged eyeball, and decapitated head.The characters of the "Seven Swords" are dominated by Lai Ming, Donnie Yen and Charlie Yeung. The other ones are there but have much less significant roles. The design and use of the swords they use are quite remarkable. I really liked the secret to Charlie's sword.The plot line with the Korean mistress was a bit of a misdirect but it did play an important part of the story and gave Donnie a chance to try speaking Korean.The ending was the one disappointing part. You can see the director/writing wanting to do a sequel so badly. But alas, it never came to pass (yet).8/10

The story must have been made by someone with a half brain. The intention of the story-writer was to make a hot-action movie full of oriental mystery new and new and new dramatic events turning up. Instead of being dramatical, the story changes to an empty and boring filler between poorly filmed action scenes. The dialogs are so poor, that they seemed to be worked out by the actors during the shots. The only thing I found positive is the conception of some side-kick characters. Unfortunately, the main villains as well as all the "Fantastic good guys" are flat, banal and unimpressive. If you like "Hero" or "Musa", be sure to miss this crap!Buy yourself a wooden sword and go practice into the woods instead of watching this! I am sure, you'll get better adventure.

I mean I am really flattered by this movie. I bow in front of Hark Tsui who did IMO a real EPIC movie! The four hour version would have been definitely better, however, the 153 minutes version give you an impression. In my understanding the love story could have been a lot more extensive than it is in the move. The martial arts part is just overwhelming! I have never seen anything like this before and I saw some - I guess some people know better. This is really a great movie, which stole from other movies, however, it stays unique and is no copy. Hark Tsui, if you read this and the studio, please give us the 4 hours directors cut! For me especially the scenes with the meteroites on mount heaven lacked a lot of story building. Highly recommended movie for the Asian and Star Wars movie fan.