Main Cast: Donnie Yen, Leon Lai, Charlie Young, Sun Hong-Lei, Lu Yi-ching
Release Year: 2005
Country: HK/CN/KR
Run Time: 151 minutes
Plot
Tsui Hark (The Blade) adapted his massive martial arts epic Seven Swords (AKA Qi Jian) from Liang yu-Sheng's ravenously popular novel Seven Swordsmen from Mount Tian. The story opens in the 1660s, following the implementation of China's (Manchu) Qing dynasty. To quell possible nationalist uprisings, the emperor issues a decree forbidding the use of martial arts, and guarantees decapitation for anyone who violates that order. A class of bounty hunters quickly formed to enforce the law and collect 600 pieces of silver for each violator; the most massive and domineering of the warriors is the bald, muscular Fire-Wind (Sun Honglei), a bellicose and volatile creature who lives in an elephantine tentlike dwelling on a hill. This walking terror selects Martial Village, a hamlet in northwestern China, as his next assignment. Meanwhile, in Martial, two young adults, Wu Yuanyin (Charlie Young) and her ex-beau, Han Zhibang) rescue an old executioner, Fu Qingzhu (Lau Kar-leung) who foresees the coming wrath and acknowledges the necessity of pulling in the mythical 'Warriors of Mt. Tian' to fight Fire-Wind and his cronies. The four warriors summoned by Fu include Chu Zhaonan (Donnie Yen), and Yang Yunchong (Leon Lai), who dramatically increase the tension and bloodshed when the former develops a crush on one of Fire-wind's hostages, Green Pearl (Kim So-yeon) and decides to kidnap her - sending Fire-wind through the roof. The critically-worshipped Hark reportedly cut two versions of this film (including a 2 1/2 hour cut and a 3-hour cut) and demonstrated incredible confidence in Qi Jian by planning it as the initial installment in a massive series of multimedia sequels, including a 74-part television series, an online video game, comics, and five additional films. The picture itself testifies to this, with the setup for a sophomore installment in its conclusion. Qi Jian, however, did lackluster box office when it opened in the Far East in July 2005, making the follow-ups less than certain. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Kim So-yeon - Luzhu, 'Green Pearl'; Zhang Jingchu - Liu Yufang 'Fang'; Tai Liwu - Xin Longzi; Duncan Chow - Mulang; Jason Lau - Liu Jingyi, Village Head; Chi Kuan-Chun - Qiu Dongluo, Liu's Deputy; Ma Jingwu - Master Shadow-Glow; Michael Wong - The Duke; Lau Kar-Leung - Fu Qingzhu
Credit
Eddy Wong - Art Director, Cheung Chi-sing - Associate Producer, Poon Wing-yan - Costume Designer, Tsui Hark - Director, Angie Lam - Editor, Raymond Wong - Executive Producer, Zhang Yongning - Executive Producer, Hong Rong-chul - Executive Producer, Hong Bong-Chul - Executive Producer, Fung Chi Wai - Line Producer, Chan Wai Lin - Lighting, Kenji Kawai - Composer (Music Score), Eddy Wong - Production Designer, Keung Kwok-man - Cinematographer, Tsui Hark - Producer, Lee Joo-ik - Producer, Ma Zhongjun - Producer, Pan Zhizhong - Producer, He Wei - Sound/Sound Designer, Liang Zongwei - Sound/Sound Designer, Tsui Hark - Screenwriter, Cheung Chi-sing - Screenwriter, Chun Tin-nam - Screenwriter, Hun Tin Naam - Screenwriter, Lau Kar-Leung - Action Director, Chan Wai Lin - Gaffer, Steve Burgess - Re-Recording Mixer, Chris Goodes - Re-Recording Mixer, Steve Burgess - Supervising Sound Editor, Weta Digital - Visual Effects, Liang Yusheng - Book Author, Li Qianyi - Assistant Director, Chan Chi Leung - Assistant Director
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In the mid-1600s, the Manchurians have taken over sovereignty of China and established the Qing Dynasty. While nationalistic sentiments start brewing within the martial artists' community (Jianghu), the Qing government immediately imposes a "Martial Arts Ban" (禁武令), forbidding the common people to practice martial arts. This is a means of maintaining law and order, as well as provide the Qing government with sufficient reason to put down any potential rebellion by nationalist martial artists. Fire-Wind, a military officer who formerly served the fallen Ming Dynasty, sees the new law as an opportunity for himself to make fortune by assisting the government in executing the law. Greedy, cruel and immoral, Fire-Wind ravages northwest China, killing thousands of martial artists as well as innocent civilians with his army. His next goal is to attack the final frontier Martial Village (武莊), which, as its name suggests, is a home to a number of martial artists.
Fu Qingzhu, a retired executioner who served the previous dynasty, feels the urge to stop Fire-Wind's brutality and he sets forth to save the village from the incoming Qing forces. He brings Han Zhibang and Wu Yuanying from the village with him to Mount Heaven (天山) to seek help from the hermit Master Shadow-Glow, a master swordsmith and martial artist. Shadow-Glow agrees to help and sends his four disciples Chu Zhaonan, Yang Yuncong, Xin Longzi and Mu Lang to follow Fu and the two villagers on their quest. He also gives the seven of them each a special sword he forged and the seven title themselves the "Seven Swords" (七劍).
The Seven Swords return to Martial Village in the nick of time and managed to defeat Fire-Wind's men who had started the attack. In order to buy time for the villagers to prepare for an exodus, the Seven Swords advance to Fire-Wind's base and cause chaos there. During the raid, Chu Zhaonan encounters Fire-Wind's Korean slave Green Pearl and brings her along with him as they make their escape.
As the party makes its exodus, strange things start to happen along the way. Food and water are mysteriously poisoned and their escape trail is marked by signs leading the enemy to them. The Seven Swords realise that there is a spy within the party and they understand that they must identify the spy and get rid of him/her before the enemy arrives. Green Pearl becomes a suspect immediately as she cannot speak their language and they are unable to understand her. The situation is further complicated by a love affair between Chu Zhaonan and Green Pearl. Green Pearl leads Chu Zhaonan into a trap unintentionally and escapes barely from Fire-Wind's clutches despite having been mortally wounded. Chu Zhaonan was captured by Fire-Wind. Green Pearl manages to convey the message to the other Swords that Chu had been captured before dying.
Determined to rescue their comrade, the six Swords go to Fire-Wind's military base and engage in a fierce battle with him and his army. During the absence of the Swords, the spy Qiu Dongluo reveals his identity and begins killing the unsuspecting villagers systematically. However, he was eventually slain by the village head's daughter Liu Yufang, who had been traumatised by the experience and turns hysterical. Meanwhile, the Seven Swords manage to defeat and kill Fire-Wind, forcing his army to retreat temporarily.
The Seven Swords return to the hideout only to find that the villagers have all been killed, with Liu Yufang and the children being the only survivors. Han Zhibang manages to calm Liu Yufang and decides to stay behind and protect the survivors, but Liu Yufang tells him that they can take care of themselves. The Seven Swords then realise that the only way to save the martial arts community from destruction is meet the Emperor and convince him to withdraw the "Martial Arts Ban". Han Zhibang rejoins his comrades as they ride off towards the capital city.
The film, the first of a planned trilogy, was approximately four hours long, but was cut to 153 minutes.
Sequel
Tsui Hark intended Seven Swords made to be a trilogy, however the prospects of the second installment has not come to fruition. In 2008, Tsui Hark is known to be still developing the script(s) for the sequel in between production and/or direction of other projects; the actual release and production for the sequel has yet to officially be announced. It's believed that Tsui Hark is completing scripts for both the second and third installments of the movie to complete the trilogy in successive development and production.
