Seven Swords

I walked in to the theater with a big hope that this film will be, at least, the same quality as Once Upon a Time in China. To my disappointment, it is a totally different film - in a bad way.

When I saw the opening sequence I began to feel that Tsui Hark has been influenced by modern pop culture and tried to target new audiences - the young ones. The way he dressed his characters are very much like what I saw on those RPG games (thick make up, big weapons, cute girls/ cool heroes, etc...), and I think he succeed in this department. I amazed with the amount and look of the swords and weapons exhibited in this film - the whistling sword is my favorite one!! :) Too bad, good production design doesn't supported with strong storyline. I think there's too much character in the film that makes it hard which one to focus on. To be fair, it is also affected by the poor translation that, somehow, damage the film's flow.

So, as an entertainment, i think Seven Sword is a good film to watch; but if you wish to see something more serious like Tsui Hark's old films i have to say that don't put too much hope on this one...

Being a big fan of Tsui Hark films, I had been looking forward to this film for a long time, and even though Leon Lai is in the movie, I still thought it would be watchable.

The film was shot quite beautifully, with certain scenes showing some fantastic imagery. However, do not take this to mean that the film was full of beautiful landscapes, no. The way the film was shot was matched fully well with the barren lands that the majority of the scenes take place in.

The music was captivating and suited the moment when you actually noticed it was playing. In my opinion, the typical 'Hero' theme in this film was a perfect mix of cheesiness and just plain, pure brilliance.

The fight scenes were fast and furious, but sometimes, due to the camera work, it was difficult to see what had become of the amazing choreography.

At this particular moment in time, I can only really think of two bad things about the film, the first being pacing and the second being the timeline/editing. The film tends to jump from scene to scene fairly well, but there were certain moments where it is obvious that something was missing, be it dialogue or scenes, and this made the pacing factor unbearable as it seemed forever for the film to get anywhere.

Overall though, I guess if you like wuxia movies, then this might appeal to you, but I still feel quite doubtful that this would actually appeal to a larger audience.

The swords are awesome by the way.... ;) Let's hope that they release a better DVD version though...

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!

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 :)