Great Film overall

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

excerpt, more at my location - Given Tsui Hark's lengthy CV, expectations are understandably high for any of his films, and Seven Swords is no exception. An explosion of unlikely influences, a celebration of genre, a clash of cultures, it should be a multifaceted film wrapped up in layers of meaning. But whether Hark satisfies the challenge that he has set himself remains debatable.Seven Swords is an admirably accessible beginner's guide to Eastern cinema, but for most, it has opened the doors far too wide and the substance has fallen out. Perhaps original and bold for fearless genre experimentation, and certainly striking for its imagery, it offers nothing to challenge the viewer or even engage them. Placing audiences in an ambiguous position, it makes for uncomfortable viewing - is Hark sharing a story with them, or just patronising them? In either case, more fool him: boredom is inevitable in this painful and over budgeted mess.

In the mid-1600s, the Manchurians have taken over sovereignty of China and established the Qing Dynasty. While many nationalist revolts still brew within the martial artists' community, the newly set-up government immediately imposes a Martial Arts Ban, forbidding the practice of martial arts altogether in order to gain control and order. Wind Fire, a surrendered military official from the previous dynasty, sees this as an opportunity to make a fortune for himself by helping to execute the new law. Greedy, cruel, and immoral, Wind Fire ravages the North-western China, and his next goal is to attack the final frontier, Martial Village.Fu Qingzhu, a retired executioner from the previous dynasty, feels the need to put a stop to this brutality and sets out to save Bowei Fortress. He brings Wu Yuanyin and Han Zhiban from the village with him to the Heaven Mountains to seek help from Master Shadow-Glow, a hermit who is a master of swords and leads a group of disciples of great swordsmanship.Master Shadow-Glow agrees to help, and orders his four disciples to go. Together with Chu Zhaonan, Yang Yunchong, Mulong, and Xin Longzi, the "Seven Swords" is formed and their heroic journey begins.The heroes return to Martial Village just in time to foil Wind Fire's attack. In order to buy more time for the villagers to conduct their harvest and prepare for an exodus, the heroes advance to Wind Fire's own outpost. Fu, accompanied by Han and Wu, stages a negotiation with Wind Fire while the remaining heroes cause disarray within the fort by destroying supplies. During the raid, Chu comes across Green Pearl, discovering that she is a slave from Korea, just as he was. So begins their romance. While Chu is fluent in both Chinese and Korean, Green Pearl only speaks Korean. After Chu brings her to join the refugees of Martial Village, the refugees are distrustful of her because she is unable to communicate.As they lead the entire village to the road of a safer place, they begin to encounter mysterious confusion. Food and water are poisoned, and trails of escape are marked with signs leading the enemy to them. They soon realize that there is an undercover spy, and the Seven Swords must identify him/her before Wind Fire's army gets to them. Between this narrow gap of life and death, the situation is further complicated by the blossoms of love.As the heroes begin to notice that it will take too long to find the spy, they decide to go to Wind Fire's military base where they engaged in a battle with him and his army.

This was my first taste of the director Tsui Hark's work and, considering the man's reputation, I can only assume I picked one of his duds as an introduction to his CV. The sublime, painstaking craftsmanship is plain to see in every frame – the film is astonishingly beautiful – but it's so very, very dull. And somehow, when you consider the fact you have a world-class director, a 'Seven Samurai' story, martial arts and violence, the suspicion arises that someone is guilty of pulling off a monumental blunder because, with ingredients like that in the pot, it's surely easier to produce a juicy delight than it is to make a tasteless stew like this.Apparently the film was originally intended to be four hours long – I don't even want to think about that – which is probably where the problem lies. Cut anything in half and it just isn't going to be the same, whether it's a film, a foot or a stupefied viewer's attention span. Characters seem to be arbitrarily introduced into the plot with no unique personalities and no back-story, making it nearly impossible to tell them apart. And if you can't identify the characters you're watching, you can't identify with them on any level, so you don't become involved in their plight. Only Honglei Sun, as the unfortunately named Firewind, a villain with a snigger like Dick Dastardly's sidekick Muttley, strikes any sparks.

The story must have been made by someone with a half brain. The intention of the story-writer was to make a hot-action movie full of oriental mystery new and new and new dramatic events turning up. Instead of being dramatical, the story changes to an empty and boring filler between poorly filmed action scenes. The dialogs are so poor, that they seemed to be worked out by the actors during the shots. The only thing I found positive is the conception of some side-kick characters. Unfortunately, the main villains as well as all the "Fantastic good guys" are flat, banal and unimpressive. If you like "Hero" or "Musa", be sure to miss this crap!Buy yourself a wooden sword and go practice into the woods instead of watching this! I am sure, you'll get better adventure.