 |
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
|
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
 |
|
The emperor has outlawed all martial arts, & warlord Fire-Wind (Sun
Honglei) is one of the fiercest enforcers of this law (especially since he
is payed by the head of each martial artist he has killed). Eventually,
Fire-Wind & his army come across master Fu (Lau Kar-Leung/Liu
Chia-Liang) who puts up more than the usual fight, yet rerfrains from
killing any of his opponents ... & wouldn't you know it, Fu even gets
away. However, on his getaway, he saves a girl, Yuan Yin (Charlie Yeung)
from Fire-Winds men, & is badly wounded. Yuan Yin though brings him to
her village, the legendary Martial Village, where she plans to nurse him
back to health ... but not so, as soon Fu is found out to be an
(ex-)executioner of the emperor, & he hasn't made himself many friends
in Martial Village ... as a matter of fact, he is soon condemned to death.
Yuan Yin though feels she owes Fu & persuades her friends Han (Lu Yi)
& Han's girlfriend Fang (Zhang Jingchu) to help her free the man ...
which works out fine, & together with Han she brings him back to his
home, Heaven Mountain.
Back at his place, Fu quickly recovers & tells them what awaits
Martial Village, that it is soon to be overrun by Fire-Wind's army, but
despite of almost having been killed there, he not only agrees to return
with Han & Yuan Yin to the village, he also gives the two of them
special swords to defend the village, and he brings four of his top
swordsmen, Chu (Donnie Yen), Yun Chong (Leon Lai), Mulang (Duncan Chow)
& Long Zi (Tai Li-Wu) along (hence they are called Seven Swords).
Back in Martial Village, Fang, despite being village chief Liu's (Jason
Pai-Piao) daughter, is about to be executed for letting the prisoner
escape, when Fire-Wind's army attacks the village, which saves Fang's
life, but for how long ...
Before Fire-Wind's army can simply overrun the Seven Swords intervene,
& can successfully drive back the army ... but for how long ?
Soon martial village makes preparations to tuirn the place into a giant
deathtrap while making an escape ... but not before the Seven Swords pay a
visit to Fire-Wind's place, set it on fire, & Chu manages to free
Fire-Wind's slave & favourite concubine, the Korean princess Green
Pearl (Kim So-Yeon).
Later, the whole vilalge with all their goods wanders the countryside,
but Fire-Wind - who has not lost quite as many of his men in the death
trap Martial Village as one has hoped - & his army are always close
behind, when it's found out there is a traitor among the villagers, &
suspicion almost immeditately falls upon Green Pearl, who is pretty much
the only one the others don't know - & don't trust because she speaks
a different language. Only Chu is on her side, & fiercely defends her
... in fact he is even in love with her, while Fang has fallen in love
with him, much to the dismay of her boyfriend Han (curiously enough, this
story leads to nowhere before long).
Eventually, Master Fu decides, to find out the traitor to drive the
horses of the caravan over a cliff & hide in a nearby cave, in hopes
that the pursuing troops go over that cliff as well ... eventually, some
of the Imperial troops really do, only Fire-Wind was too clever to fall
for that & has instead ordered cannons from the Imperial Army to have
an advantage in his fight against the villagers & the Seven Swords.
Meanwhile, Green Pearl has found trust to Chu, so she tells him where
Fire-Wind tends to hide his treasures, & what a blow it would be
against him if they would steal his fortune - which should be unguarded
while he is out after the villagers ... & promptly the two of them
leave for the secret treasure ... bzut it doesn't end well, as Chu is
captured, & Green Pearl just makes it back to the cave of the
villagers to die there, unable to tell the villagers anything since she
only speaks Korean ...
However, the other six of the Seven Swords realize Chu must be
Fire-Wind's prisoner & decide to go to his place to free Chu
(ultimately leaving the villagers alone).
With the Swords gone, the traitor, who turns out to be villager Dongluo
lays fire at the cave's entrance to smoke out the villagers & tries to
get out through the secret exit ... but the secret exit is not where it's
supposed to be, it was a trap of Master Fu to identify the traitor. Fang
however catches Dongluo ... just too bad that he doesn't hesitate to kill
anyone who stands in his way, so Fang runs for her life, & pursuing
her Dongluo kills all of the villagers except for the children (who Fang
has already prepared to leave through the real secret exit), & withthe
help of the children, Fang can finally kill Dongluo ...
At Fire-Wind's palace, Fire-Wind agrees to let Chu - and even all of
the other Seven Swords - go, provided they hand him over their swords.
Soon enough, a battle ensues, withthe Swords virtually mowing down
Fire-Wind's army, & finally Chu can defeat & kill Fire-Wind &
tear down his palace ...
Victorious, the Swords return to the villagers to find only the
children still alive, the children & Fang, who seems to have gone
insane when killing Dongluo ... & only Han can calm her down.
To stop a thing like this from ever happening again, the Seven Swords
decide to go to the capital to convince the Emperor to abolish the law
against martial arts ...
A beautifully directed film, with impressive action sequences aplenty
... & yet not all that good. The rather simple plot is convoluted with
way too many subplots that don't lead anywhere (like the complex love
story between Green Pearl, Chu, Fang & Han, the love story between
Yuan Yin & Yun Chong, Yun Chong's hatred against village chief Liu,
the suddenly inserted origin-stories of the Seven Swords, the whole story
about the Korean slaves, ...) & is overburdened with thrown in
characters (like the little boy Hua or Fire-Wind's female assassin Kualo)
who are of no importance to the story while the main characters (the
Swords) stay very flat, just good guys without any distinctive traits (actually
only baddie Fire-Wind seems to be really fleshed out). At first one keeps
guessing about where which story might go ... but in the end, one just
gives up because there are too many of them, & the ending just leaves
way too many narrative threads open anyways. Also a certain
light-footedness & tongue-in-cheek approach to the genre that works so
well in Tsui Hark's best films, is totally amiss here.
Rather a disappointment, but a well concieved one.
|
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Seven Swords at adultvideouniverse.com
