Seven Swords is a film which attempts to capture the epic look and intimate scope of Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai and the classic wu xia structure of the Shaw Brothers prolific library of films, including the work of King Hu, Chang Cheh as well as Tsui Hark's own early work along the lines of Legend of the Zu Mountain. The fact that Hark fails on such a colossal level may in part be to the recent overhaul of the genre with art-directors taking over the reigns. War Kong Wai, Ang Lee, and the one-two punch from Zhang Yimou have elevated the genre to a such a high level that I don't think we can easily go back to The Bride with the White Hair or The New Dragon Gate Inn. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking Ronny Yu's film or even Harks update of the King Hu classic, but they have their time and place and the acting and directing standards are just higher these days. Seven Swords is also not a nostalgic return to the original form. It is just a mess.
The story (based upon the wu xia novel Seven Swordsmen from Mountain Tien) is set in a period of Chinese history when the emperor has put up bounties on those practicing the martial arts. Mercenary and bandit gangs are roaming the countryside killing just about anyone, as the price is for the head of the practitioner of martial arts. It is difficult to prove from a severed head that the body could actually practice the art, so basically the gangs kill anyone who cannot defend themselves and collect bounties en masse. The movie opens up with a small village that is quickly wiped out. One martial artist escapes to warn the next village. The new village does not want to listen, because this they recognize him as an executioner for a past government, and the suspect treachery and lies despite his pleas that he has reformed his past ways. Two villagers, a brother and sister, do believe the story and they bust him out and travel deep into the mountains to seek the legendary sword-masters to help the village. They find the wise ancient sword-maker four sword-masters and seven very unique swords of power. Thus the martial artist and the two peasants are round out the group of swordsmen to make the titular seven. After an attempt to defend the village results in a marginal victor with a lot of casualties, the remaining villagers attempt flight through the mountains. Meanwhile, the swordsmen take some of the fight to the bandits lair, and there they kill a number of them, but not enough. In the process, they free the Bandit leaders Korean Slave girl and bring her back to flee with the villagers. In the course of fleeing a traitor signs of a traitor being in the midst makes everyone suspicious. Is it a villager? One of the Swordsmen? The Korean girl?
From that description, you would think you have a pretty interesting story with a lot of characters and potential. So where to begin with the colossal mess that is Seven Swords. In the 39 films I caught at this years Toronto Film Festival, it was easily the worst film I saw. And I love wu xia, I truly do. Lets take a slide down the ladder of hackery on Hark's incompetent opus.
First, the film looks like it was lit entirely by candle light. 75% of the film is brown and orange and indistinct. It is the worst aesthetic I've seen in a genre known for its visual flourishes. Then there are 10-15 scenes which are so colour de-saturated as to be nearly black and white, but for what purpose? To point out how inconsistently you can colour time a film? It certainly has no context in the story. Actually, part of me is now convinced that the print of the film I watched was not colour timed yet. It would explain the just-plain awful look of the film. Colour timing could however, not fix the 90% of the film, which is shot with an unmoving camera at boring 'medium' distance. There are a few wide shots and even fewer close-ups. And the stagnant camera gives the feeling of watching a badly lit high-school drama. If it is all very badly staged and filmed, it is the one thing in the film that Hark is consistent in. Humour, tragedy, tone and mood are whipped though the blender on frappe.
Second, the acting is flatter than the visuals. A lot of characters yell at each other without any feeling, or brood and sulk like Donnie Yen. You have only to watch Yen in the instant classic SPL (which through a quirk in scheduling, I watched less than 1 hour after seeing Seven Swords) to see that the man is capable. But here he is pure rubbish. The rest of the cast are non-descript and uninteresting with the only two exceptions. Lau Kar-leung as the executioner turned noble, and village woman turned swords-woman (Charlie Young) carry themselves with some degree of confidence and talent. The swordsmen in particluar are poorly developed as the film spends way, way, way too much time on the sub-plot between Donnie Yen's swordsman and the Korean slave-girl, Green Pearl, played by (admittedly gorgeous) So-yeon Kim. Both are wholeheartedly unconvincing, and this element of the movie bogs it down for an unnecessary 45 minutes…at the very least. A better estimate may be greater than 60 minutes. This leaves some of the master swordsmen as no more than footnotes in the story. Hark doesn't even bother to properly introduce them at the appropriate time in the story. This is sad, considering how far the two villagers when to find them and how much time is spent on other things.
Third, the wu xia scenes are boring. Yes, hundreds of people flying though the air attacking each other. It takes a special brand of director to make this flat out suck as much as it does here. The only shining light in the film is a tightly filmed scene in a narrow stone corridor between Donnie Yen and bad-guy bandit Fire-Wind (Honglei Sun). It is the only sequence in the entire film really worth watching, and even that was done to some degree in one entry of the Once Upon a Time in China series. Considering the talent on board for this (important) aspect of the film (Donnie Yen, Lau Kar-leung), it is a waste all the time and talent involved.
Special mention should be made for the particularly laughable 5-10 minute long sequence involving stable-boy turned swordsman Han (Yi Lu) and his horse, which has been made lame by the arduous journey. If perhaps Hark had set this sequence up with the horse being involved in the movie earlier we may have had some context for the overwrought sequence. But as it stands here, it just made me count the minutes which Hark was imprisoning me in my chair and wasting my time with his film. Now there are rumours of several much longer version than the 150 minute version which I barely made it though. A longer run-time may flesh out much of the poorly executed story and character elements, and colour timing could fix the visual mess. But from this experience, I shudder even at the thought of sitting through a 240+ minute version of the film. Pray for that miracle, as the chances for Tsui Hark, at this moment in his career, to have the ability to fix things, are slim.
If I had seen Seven Swords in 1985, I may have liked this sweeping mess of a story, which looks like it was made during this time period. Of course, I would also be only 10 years old with little context of the actual art of modern filmmaking, Chinese or otherwise.
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Thanks for this review Mack, though it confirms my badest misgivings. So this flick seems to be another $$$-generating movie produced just for the westerners who don't know better. As it was already with 'Hero' and 'Flying Daggers', sad...
I sat through it...but I wish I hadn't. The end fight is the only good part in the movie, the rest is just boring. I almost fell asleep and wished I had 2 1/2 hours of my life back.
I had high expectations and well it just wasn't good...
The more negative reviews I read, the more I wanna see this movie!
But it comes from a guy who loves Starship troopers, Showgirls and hated Saving private Ryan, so... ;)
My friends and I were standing around, talking about why we didn't like it. We honestly tried to like it, since it's Tsui Hark's film. Sadly, the storytelling was terrible and I think the editing was rushed. Rumour is that this is a 4 hour film, that was cut down to 2 and 1/2 hours. With that in mind, I'm hoping to see that and I hope that it'll actually be good.
Awesome fight sequences, though. I think it's worth watching, just for them.
I heard news over here in asia that he is going to make another 6 episodes of "seven swords"...
my goodness...
OKAY, had to jump in here. Love Tsui Hark; can't wait for Seven Swords on DVD and I LOVE both versions of ZU -- BUT 1 - there is no way it's better than Seven Samurai. No way. And 2 - how is Hero "fake wuxia&"? Yes, admittedly Zhang Yimou did do a wuxia film pretty late in the game BUT Ching Siu Tung worked with Hark on his pioneering wuxia films. That's like saying Spielberg is doing fake Spielberg! Since people hated Legend of Zu and I liked it, I'm sure there will be stuff to love in Seven Swords although Leon Lai sucks -- Dream of a Warrior is just ungodly -- which is not entirely his fault -- but he does suck as an actor -- City of Glass would have been much better with someone else in his part.
glenn; Of course, Leon Lai is not in the same league of T.Mifune, but it'd be childish putting these films to such details, they're different. Leon Lai is there more or less for his charisma, even if he had no dialogue still would have the impressive screen presence. SSamurai is the greatest film because of its sheer perfection and accessibility to contemporary audience. BUT, SSwords is so great because of its unique audacity in style and narrative, it's a very exceptional film, not so much directed at the general public as i believe rather at some individual, personal feelings. And yes, neither i don't care what the general public thinks when this film works for me personally.
Seven Swords is a pure Wu xia unlike Hero - that's just trying and pretending to be of this same wuxia spirit, and i don't like these films that are full of style and no heart!
First off, for those who are unaware of why Tsui Hark would make more additions to this movie is because Seven Swords is a classic comic read by most of the people of his generation. It was huge, like the marvel comics, it goes on and on. This is probably why people though the movie was rushed, there's actually more to this story and many more characters. The book is so much better. Most of the people that I brought, who grew up reading it, did not like this movie version because it veered off from the original comic and took away 2 1/2hrs of their life, which they can't take back! Some of the characters were wrong wrong wrong and most were left out. Tsui Hark's adaption was a huge disappoint for me, since I grew up being read this story. Better off just watching SPL!
Now that Carpenter has been mentioned I can now ask this...
Kurt, have you run out of bubblegum?
Gosh, its so clever no one may even get it.
Donnie Yen is cool~
I normally respect everyone's opinion, but here i must admit this is the worst point of view how to watch films i've ever read! Seriously, in any other reviews on this film there were at least distinct signs of an intelligence, unfortunately the only thing i find here is a cynicism of an highest order. Maybe in 10 years you'll find a way how to review this film again and apologize for your infamous incompetent critiques like this. Anyway someone of your kind will thank you for this certainely.
Ok, i don't want you to misunderstand me, you just can't expect that everone will agree with you when it comes to this film. Because if you have been watching wu xia from the 60's till now, then especially you should know better yourself that Hark's films were never for everyone. And don't forget that everyone's entitled to his own opinion, and everyone would be right. There's the reason why this guy is gaining more attention than before, believe me.
The biggest problem I have with Hark fans is they will never admit he has made a bad film.Instead most just rant on with their film school 101 jargon about how it takes years to understand and appreciate Hark's work.Bullshit.
I for one am a huge Michael Mann fan but will gladly admit both The Keep and Ali were less than stellar.
Oh by the way I'm a guy and into girls.Plus I think Kurt's married :)
I'm not a fan or non-fan of Hark. I'm a fan of movies. I agree that the horse scene was unecessary, and there wasn't a good introduction to each character. Perhaps there is a better story-telling in the 4hour version.
I do have to disagree with the actors' acting. In fact, I found the opposite. For Donnie Yen, I felt a powerful prescence, his voice deep and manly. His korean, perfect (my korean friend confirmed that) his eyes told his lines. Honglei Sun, also charming, witty, great role. As for Charlie, really getting into character and not caring whether her make-up was in place or not. Korean slave, even though she didn't speak the dialogue she was able to make herself shine and be part of the group.
It was not as bad as Kurt would put it, I have seen worse, much worse. But I must say I was not blown away. Hopefully the 4hour version will satisfy my questions and curiosity. As film critics and lovers, we need to give a chance to all. Sometimes we win and sometimes we loose.
I agree that Seven Swords is a mess. It is so shattered that it only takes a hardcore Hark fan to play it again and again in his/her mind, using the tiny little details as a glue to paste pieces together. Sorry, no matter how hare I tried, the movie is still empty.
Wait....is Kurt being castigated for reviewing a movie negatively? Let's not lose perspective of the fact that it's just a one man's opinion. And just like any other review you read by Maltin, Ebert, Variety, etc., you have the right to trust the reviewer's sensibility or take his review with a grain of salt.
Yes, you're right, it turned out pretty silly the way how i wrote it because i wanted to be short and honest to you. But let's take it the other road:
Your words:
"That being said, if you want to play that silly game, at least be correct...Note that the wkw wu xia is sitting at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes (critics) 7.5/10 on IMDb (regular film viewers)&"
And you answered to yourself:
"The 'majority' usually knows what it's talking about (Titanic/Independence Day/Phantom Menace ruling at the Box Office are of course the best of Cinema...)&"
Now i'm short and gave you my honest feelings.
It'd be funny to talk about some questionable ratings on IMDb or critics, when considering how many people saw The Blade and how many Ashes of Time. Despite the fact that i don't remember at least one good criticism about AOT, if i'm not mistaken it's seen in his fanbase as Wong Kar-Wai's the worst film anyway. For a change it seems there's gonna be also quite windy discussion with another WKW fanatic who can not admit he can make a bad film.
I haven't seen Seven Swords and don't know much about Tsui Hark, but the way you present yourselves makes it seem to me you are just a bunch of guys, perhaps even all from the same Tsui Hark forum, coming here to bash Kurt for writing a negative review. Using a lot of false arguments against Kurt personally instead of his arguments, and just talking trash about the films he does enjoy.
Again: I haven't seen Seven Swords, so for all I know you guys are right and it really is a masterpiece. But if it is, try to stick to arguments about the film itself, because you're not convincing me this way.
I think pete was actually right, it's a bit sad because in fact there was no one so ignorant and pompous as virtually Kurt himself. No offence, but when there's someone who believes others were pompous he should read his own messages. As i see other posters at least knew what they were talking about.
I think lot of Hark's fans now have the right to feel litle bit snobby and angry, especily for ignorance Tsui Hark is getting these days. I dont beleve any sarcasm in this at all.
Okay, so you're relying on critics's opinions that much? i tell you this, find me one Japansese critic in the 50's who'd easily defend Yojimbo or Seven Samurai. OR, find me one critic in the 70's who praised Peckinpah's works other than Wild Bunch or Ride The High Country. Just put up with the harsh fact that there are also some directors that need more time for their rightful recognizion. Even Kubrick didn't get such praise in the 70s like nowadays.
Maybe you're still young and don't "get&" what's happening in the filmmaking world. Yes, that's absolutely true, Knock Off, Double Team and following are all experiments for Tsui Hark who could learn from them.
No, my tastes are NOT at all contemporary because i don't watch LOTS of movies released nowadays, and especially after the fact that i admire Hark's recent official flops. I don't like so much his commercially successful films either.
Uh, Leon ... you were the one who said Legend of Zu is being praised as one of Hark's best films. X is simply asking you to back up that claim because none of us see anyone other than you making that claim. You can't just drop something like that into a vacuum. If you want to say that people have been praising the film, fine - back it up. It should be simple enough to do. And if you want to say that people have misunderstood the film, it's easy enough to back that up as well. But you can't have it both ways. Either its widely praised (which you've claimed) or its widely misunderstood and neglected (which you've also now claimed) but it can't be both.
I would suggest that the only thing Hark learned from Double Team and Knock Off was to not work in Hollywood and to hire better actors.
You're talking here as if Legend Of Zu, Time And Tide or Knock Off were total failures, in fact those 3 films have a quite good criticism, and i see a LOT of fans of these films now, only here just some of you guys trying to claim and delude us that Legend Of Zu being a total failure, huh??? are you serious? and now even Seven Swords. The good always overcomes bad in both cases, that's how i see it, as a matter of fact that's how i see nearly every Hark's film. As i remember Butterfly Murders also was a total failure, it was pulled out of theatres just right after one week of screening. The same fate goes to We're Going To Eat You, Zu:Warriors, Now they're regarded as classics. Only junk like All The Wrong Clues(he won his first award as the best director for this) or Aces Go Places 3 were true hits for Tsui Hark that saved his career, today no one cares about these little films. I also strongly believe Legend Of Zu is one of if not his best film ever. Believe it or not it's still regarded as a groundbreaking film for the HK industry!
grail, that is.
erm, i watched seven samurai a month or so ago. Didn't like it that much, i think Kurosawa is only hype. 3 hours of the purest boredom. It doesn't transmit any kind of feeling or emotion. Doesn't have any good fight scene. The music also sucks. I can't think of one positive aspect of the movie really.
I haven't watched seven swords yet because i can't find subtitles anywhere.But it just has to be better than seven samurai.actually everything i have seen is better than seven samurai so i'm pretty sure this won't be an exception.
i absolutley agree with this review. this movie is suck, especially the act and the story, not enoguh character build.
but i like the action scene tough
aw is the fun dead? I come back from no internet and next thing I know the fun is dead.
skimming over all these words and stuff, it made me cringe a few times to see how people have talked right over each other, one-dimensionalizing the hell of either camp. I'm in the Seven Swords is awesome camp, but no way near the Tsui-in-general is awesome camp. but the thing is, I really do think all the flaws people have attributed in this film are quite intentional. For example, the lack of a coherent dramatic arc. The film just seems so obvious to me that he's sick of it and he's interested in the little cutesy stories and moments, weird melodramatic romance, and abundant amount of sincerity.
but the fights are so creative and gritty, they really award the people who choose to tune into the fights. if you really choose to pay attention, you'll know exactly what's going on in the fights and you can actually follow the sequences and the strategies and Tsui's philosophy on fighting at any given moment. He's not into exchanges and fencing in the traditional sense. Character's strength and the qi of the swords...these fun abstract things movie characters often talk about but never really do (whenever they fight they always end up swashbuckling) find their way into this film, just as they found their way into The Blade. Did all of y'all Seven Swords haters hate The Blade and Time and Tide as well? I dunno about the rest of the fanboys here, I as a self-proclaimed non-fanboy am definitely not making up images to keep myself happy, and I definitely saw a movie with intricate wirework and choreography. Seriously, try to follow the edits and the pans and put together the fight scene cerebrally, this movie ain't no joke.
man, I think I've repeated what I've said three times now. woo whee.
Just came back to this thread after catching the multi-ID spamming on the Headspace one. A quick little IP search says Leon, SWB and YunLi are all the same person. Am I surprised? Not even a little. One person = one ID, people. Using multiple IDs to try and create the impression that you're 'winning' an argument through force of numbers is nothing more than spam and will get you banned.
"Leon, SWB and YunLi are all the same person&"
Amusing.
Pete: Wow. I missed all that...While I can buy that Tsui is going for something different (a good thing), but I didn't get 'complex' out of the fight-scenes, I got muddled. Lack of coherent dramatic arc can work, but not for me in this film...
I guess we are re-treading though...
I thought Seven Swords was awesome. Fucking wicked movie. I'm no fan of this director either; i couldn't sit though crappy garbage like Blade, Legend Zu, Time And Tide or Green Snake, truly horrible films one by one, only his stupid fanboys can blindingly extolling them as the best of this director which we all know is bullshit, these films are generally hated worldwide. Wake up people they're total flops! Why are there so many fanboys still talking about such forgotten films i don't know. I admit some folks here either overrating or underrating Seven Swords, but i thought it was an exceptionally great film and i don't see what you have against it. It has an interesting choreography, stylish camera, cinematography, acting especially by Sun Hong-lei. I don't know, you should probably all lighten up and not being so nit-pickicking to every released movie. I'm getting sick of such reviews.
I wholeheartedly agree, this film is a JOKE, the biggest joke of 2005! I haven't seen such poorly made film in a very long time, i tell you that. Nearly nothing works in this film, from script, direction, choreography to actors. We can only hope this film will be rotting along with Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space as the most embarrasing attempt to make some exceptionally great film. Nice try Tsui. Now it looks like that Legend of Zu will end up as the only really good film from Tsui Hark in his last 10 years. It's a shame.
Fuck all your hater and stupid motherfucker white trash...enjoy ur gay ass brad pitt and all that those people could kiss my asian ass you piece of shiet don't even know nothing and especially you MATT the reviewer you piece of trash stupid don't even understand english don't u get the story you little piece of shiet...donnie yen is korean and the girl is korean too u piece of crab and they use to be slave for the fire-wind...dam you all white trash don't even understand asian movies your white trash movies is gay especially wat u called james bond, he could kiss my ass too...stupid all stupid white piece of trash....
I loved the film, and gave it a complete opposite review on my site, check it out:
http://www.genrebusters.com/film/review_sevenswords.htm
Tsui used to be pretty good...like 10 years ago.
I just watched this film 2 months ago on satelite TV...what a horrible mess!!! There's absolutely zero story, the connection between the scenes/story are broken up so badly and it's just more crash, boom, bang like all his crap in the last 10 years...all those Van Damme spoof. At least the last remake of Legend of Zu is watcheable.
This film is total thrash at the pinnacle. Tsui Hark basically goes all the way downhill eversince his fallout with Jet Li on Once Upon a Time in China. He thinks he's a great director that don't need a the star power. Unfortunately, it was Jet Li who was the main star in Once Upon a China, not him.
He should have retired 10 years ago instead of disgracing himself in front of the world.
People who still clinging to this guy for whatever strange reason should just give up.
Don't even bother wasting ur life with this film. You're better off watching re-runs of 70's kungfu movies.
lol I know this is kind of late but I chanced by this discussion and I find the conversation quite amusing. Firstly, I'm not a fan of Hahk (as it should be spelled) at all. I hated Blade and Legend of Zu. The guy's not entirely sane when it comes to his direction but if you've watched most of his movies- Seven Swords is really really good.
Secondly, you MUST have some kind of mental deficiency if you bluntly word this movie as a complete mess. Do you KNOW what a complete mess is? Watch the movie Expect the Unexpected, or Running on Karma. I personally guarantee after sitting through those two, you'd have a clear and unfiltered understanding of the term, "complete mess&".
Yes, I admit this movie wasn't entirely without "mess&", but if you watch as many HK movies as you claim, you would know HK movies certainly don't feel they need to be restricted by a typical Hollywood "good movie format&". There may not be a meal scene, or family scene, or establishing shot- and if you're super anal about shite like that, then perhaps that's why you missed what was so enjoyable about the movie: the fighting.
And yes, there have been better action sequences, but it's certainly better than many many other acclaimed martial art films such as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or Ashes of Time. So what Seven Swords may lack in character development (which, if you average it out, isn't bad at all- it's just different than how film professors would time it), it makes up in its action sequences, which are well done because they're conceivable. Bouncing around on trees or flying upwards indefinitely while spinning, does not necessarily make a good martial arts film. It is apparent that none of these other directors such as Ang Lee or WKW have any kind of idea what makes martial art films great. But Hahk does, which is why Once Upon a Time in China II is one of the best martial arts films ever made. So perhaps when he tries to sway to do something different, or something more, it ends up being questionably put together, or just extremely weird. If you don't watch as many HK movies as I do, then you probably couldn't see that Hahk weird is no where near Johnny To weird or Wong Jing weird. Also, if you don't speak the language, then perhaps much of the desired experience is lost on the poor subtitling.
Keep in mind that there are so many HK movies that have multiple personality disorders, and Seven Swords being one of them, it handles its disorder quite well.
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Seven Swords > Seven Samurai > Magnificent Seven
All three groundbreaking masterpieces and each one very different and very memorable.
All the ppl who don't get this tremendous film should rather give up immedietely and stop embarrassing themselves by showing their lack of intelligence and taste. It's already disgusting reading all the negativity which has absolutely no weight and just lots of biased close-mindedness and no objective judgement.
This is the second film i saw after Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time In China and already among the best i could have ever seen in my life. And now i'm a new Tsui Hark fan looking forward to many of his upcoming films. He was never better! This guy is quite simply the biggest genius in the world. Whereas Jet Li lost absolutely all his dignity and spark he once had by selling himself out in the world.
Seven Swords > sublime, lyrical, flawless, brilliant and totally unforgettable! A true masterpiece.
Seven Swords is the most pathetic martial arts/wuxia movie i've ever seen. First of all, it's a horrible attempt at imitating 7 Samurai. It couldnt produce the same effect. I didnt give a damn to wat happens the the swordsmen. All 2 1/2 hours the movie just drags on. The editing is terrible, i had no clue how one scene and plot detail moved to the next. The focus of the action is devoted almost entirely on how cool the swords look instead of the choreography. It's impossible to see the action since most of the fights are shot in close-up.
Wuxia fans should not waste their time with this embarrasment. Instead, watch a real wuxia masterpiece like Wong Kar Wai's Ashes of Time.
Seven Swords, yes, is quite boring. Because 1) It's narrative is either a mess or it's script is totally out of the storyline. 2) Unecessary scenes (Joy the horse? What the?) 3) The action is dragging--BAH!
But let me enlighten you for a while.
The Seven Swords is an adaption of a very thick book about Wuxia. It has been said that this film will have at least 6 sequels in the making. It is also based on a TV adaption which took long than 2 1/2 hours.
If I maybe frank, you all guys don't realize that this movie was made to introduce each and every character. It's given that the script will be scatter and the scenes will be cut character per character. It's because (based on my opinion) Tsui Hark wanted to portray these Seven characters and how they came to be the Seven Swordsmen. Sure, it's a draggin and the only thing that keeps you is the fighting scenes. But I disagree that this movie is not worth watching.
AND PLEASE, don't compare Seven Samurai to this movie. We all know that Akira Kurosawa is the best.
I must agree. Seven Swords is out of question 100 times better film than Seven Samurai. But then again, Kurosawa is no Tsui Hark, that's for sure. Hardly as groundbreaking and hardly as uber-talented. We all know that Tsui Hark is the world's greatest filmmaker.
And to that ridiculous joker who said Ashes of Time is a "wuxia&" (what the f..) and even a "masterpiece&" (ooo la la), i think this gentleman will hardly ever be taken seriously here or anywhere else.
Seven Swords is a real wuxia masterpiece, and quite possibly the best film i have ever seen in my life. I'll never forget this film as long as i live. Never. never.
PS: Let me clear something here. I'm honestly and proudly as biased as i can, so what i'm writing here is coming from my heart and not from some pseudo-objective point of view. I'm not here like most of these clowns playing being a wanna-be critic talking for millions of others, who hardly can ever be taken seriously, i'm here to stand up for my own personal feelings. And i'm telling you this film is one of, if not the greatest i have ever seen in my life, and faaaaar better than Seven Samurai. Now take it and shove it up your ass.
Listen. 1. I am a martial artist for over 30 years and believe that you have to be a martial artist FIRST in order to accurtely assess ANY martial arts movie. Period. End of story. If you want to talk ACTION films, then you are talking something else entirely. This is a period martial arts film and as long as I can learn something from it, ok. Now with that said, Tsu Hark has always been one of my favorite directors. Twin Dragons with Jackie Chan and others come to mind.
Is this movie better than Hero or Flying Daggers or Crouching Tiger? From a martial arts perspective, I will have to see the entire film, I have only seen 40 minutes. However, if a movie can motivate me to work out, then it is good. End of story. I can quote many martial arts movies that make me want to kick the actor/directors ass. Crouching Tiger is one of those movies. I don't fly off walls nor do I use swords (I do use weapons though). Therefore I could never like Crouching. However, Lar and Donnie in the same movie and I am watching because they are so good, I can never miss them in a movie. So even though the scene with Jet and Donnie in Hero was the only scene in the movie worth seeing (and ultimately purchasing on DVD) then it was worth it. This is how it goes sometimes. I purchased the Hero DVD just for tht one fight scene, which was in the mind of the characters. It wasn't long enough but it was good enough for purchase. The same can be said for this movie.
I know what it takes to move my body and perform the movements that these martial artists perform. Then you add the fight choreography and camera angles. It takes alot of mastery of this genre in order to master it like Jackie has since Police Story (1, 2 and 3).
My point is that we can expect them to get better. Look at Tony Jaa in Ong Bak and The Protector. So just wait a bit for movies to get better. I would let Tsu Hark direct any of my martial arts movies because he knows what he is doing. Martial arts movies are just for martial arts, not cinema buffs. We artists watch a martial arts movie for the realism of fighting. I watch these movies like I would watch dancers from Alvin Ailey perform on stage. So I can appreciate the movements and action and would rather watch SS rather than the new movie 300. I would get bored watching the movie 300 because they do not have the style of asian martil arts. Now when period MA movies start looking like the movie Gladiator or 300, then I will mark the death of asian martial arts movies.
amen
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What the HELL did I just read?