Qi jian

The movie started out strong although it was far from "The Seven Samurai", which I believe it intends to emulate. In the first half, I found myself caring about the characters and the non-stop action was exciting. Nevertheless, in the second half, the script started meandering in a number of nonsensical directions and the ending was somewhat ridiculous. Nonsensical is a relative term given that the film was fable like and thus once it stopped making sense it really stopped making sense.

Overall, I recommend the movie since it exceeded my expectations. It's popcorn with good character development tacked on at the beginning and So-yeon Kim is eye candy throughout the film. However, anticipate to find yourself somewhat disappointed towards the end.

I saw ZU:Warriors from the Magic Mountain and found that one incredibly too fast for both my eyes and my brain. Nevertheless, it was a great spectacle that left me shouting all the way from beginning to the end "WOW!!" Then I saw Legend of Zu, and I went "God I don't want to watch this.. pleaseee!" Then I rented 7-Swords and thought it would be something either in the first category (really fast editing, you don't know who's who, or who's fighting with who, etc) or in the second one (lots of special effects, bad music, no story - yes I'm talking abt the Legend of Zu) But, 7-swords exceeded my expectations! It give nice backgrounds to the characters and their motivation, the editing was a nice flow, at some points I even thought that the movie was going too slow, considering that it's Tsui Hark who made Zu, whenever he took time to develop stories between characters.

I talked to a friend and he said "It's not worth watching, just another commercial film". HELLO? From the very beginning, Tsui Hark had always made commercial films, what did you expect? Duh.. In terms of storytelling and kungfu fighting, i think 7-swords is much much better than Hero or House of Flying Daggers. I can't say if its better than Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon because I personally didn't find that movie special enough.. but it won an Oscar anyway, so...

7-Swords reminds me of the golden times when kungfu flicks are based on good choreography and not just colorful costumes and international stars. I was very disappointed with Legend of Zu because it's filled with bad can music and cg-animation. But 7-swords.. waow.. it's back to the original Tsui Hark.

Overall, its a nice comeback, good to see some real Chinese kungfu films again :)

With this film, the Asians seem to have reclaimed the "Seven Samurai" plot line but here the seven are somewhat haphazardly chosen (since the skill lies not with the person itself but the particular sword he or she brandishes, hence the title). However, by concentrating on the romantic complications in which a few of the main characters become embroiled, some of the warriors are kept too much in the background…but the leader of the seven is as unassuming as Takashi Shimura had been in SEVEN SAMURAI (1954), while the chief villain is flamboyantly played in the manner of Eli Wallach from THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960)! There is no denying the fact that its mainstay are the epic scope of the production itself (highlighting the meticulous period detail) and the elaborate action sequences which, thankfully, are rarely implausible - as most actioners from Asia (even the more critically lauded ones) tended to be of late! Apparently, the film (which runs for more than 2½ hours) was trimmed down from an even longer version; though the IMDb doesn't mention this, a Maltese friend of mine who's a veritable Asian-film nut assured me of it…and, in fact, the narrative did feel kind of choppy to me!

Tsui Hark's 'Chat Gim' is visually wonderful. The breathtaking and landscape, the beautiful set design and colourful frame, the brilliant composition of images, the mesmerizing cinematography and skilled editing superbly come together. Hark parallel's good vs evil and beautiful vs awful very well. He clearly takes his inspiration from the masterworks of Kurosawa (even though this film is an adaptation) and, in my opinion, produces something better than the likes of Ang Lee's overrated 'Wo Hu Cang Long'.

The only minor drawback, I'd say, is that the story is not anything new and it is not as impactive as Kurosawa's work. Then again, Hark manages to bring his own style and give it a unique presentation and 'Chat Gim' by no means is pretentious piece of work. The subplots fit well together and the characters are interesting. Perhaps a few could have been further developed? However, the actors do an adequate job. The fight scenes are not too many but they're appropriately set within the context of the story. They are very well choreographed and do not look over the top as is the case in many films ('Wo Hu Cang Long' being an example of such). Unlike other films of this genre, this one is very human.

It's a bit funny how I got hold of the DVD. My brother owned it and I was teasing him that I'll take the DVD and keep it (he gets very irritated when I do that) and to my surprise he told me that I can have it. Now I'm glad I get to keep the film. Hark put a lot of heart in the making of this beautiful film. It's certainly one of the better films from the Wuxia genre (one of the best I've seen so far). It's not only visually pleasing, it has a heart of gold :).

What i've seen simply can not be fully described, it's a movie full of emotions and heroism. Whoever directed this movie knows his craft even more than Kurosawa and Godard ever did. Incidentally when i already mentioned J.L.Godard, i must admit that i'm a bit perplexed why so many European critics constantly comparing this film to Godard's style... i don't remember Godard ever did an epic film like this. Anyway, this wuxia film cares more about the characters than most of the films of this genre i've seen in the past, including Touch of Zen or One-armed Swordsman, this gives them a very good development throughout the film.

Of course, the movie has a very challenging nature right from the very beginning as to the way how some of the fight scenes and story development being treated on the film. What i liked the most was the second half of the film because only then it started to give the meaning what the film is about... the characters! Not one scene or just a one single second of the film is wasted, everything there has the reason and meaning. The romance as much as the action of the film are evidently the most important and the most effective. It kind of shows the viewers that the romantic sub-plots is what this whole series is supposed to be about. Honestly, i found myself crying several times during the film, especially in the middle when Zhang Jingchu talks about love with so-yeon Kim, that scene is almost unbearable in terms of the emotional intensity induced mostly just by looking at both actresses's eyes and facial expressions and almost no dialogue(!)... strictly genius! Another (almost) cry inducing scene is right at the end when Hanzhiban decides which way to go, which is clearly one of the most important and emotional moments in the film.

The fact that this movie is in no way some popcorn is also one of the aspects i admired very much because it's much more demanding than usual wuxia films were used to be in the past. It tries to carry several strong messages and images that can very easily grave in your mind, so i must warn you all that it's a very memorable film that you won't certainly forget so soon.

The movie is an obvious antithesis to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero or House of Flying Daggers, strictly speaking, it's one of the most realistic wuxia films out there and far better than any one of those futile attempts at this genre. But on the other hand this is also a movie that relies on the imagination and acuity of intelligence of the viewer. What we have here is a very intelligent movie that goes against many expectations as i noticed, and that's a good sign i think because i believe that best and the strongest films are usually those that situate themselves on the border between love and hate.

However, be aware that if you find yourself entirely immersed in this fictional world of seven swords throughout the movie you won't be disappointed in its powerful end... and trust me, it'll leave you wanting more. A perfect testament of the perfect movie! It's without any doubt one of the best wuxia films that appeared in the recent years but i'm sure that only the time will tell that it's probably destined to be the best wuxia film in the Asian film-making history. Just wait if you want or see this fascinating and magnificent jewel immediately!