Tsui Hark has been regarded -- and rightly so -- as one of the true mavericks of Hong Kong's modern film industry. Along with some of his contemporaries such as John Woo and Ringo Lam, Tsui was a major spear-head of Hong Kong's "new wave" of the 1980's. Whether it was as a director with projects like the criminally under-rated Peking Opera Blues, or as a producer on movies such as the seminal A Better Tomorrow, it can be truly said that Tsui was one of the brightest lights of Hong Kong's "golden age" of film-making, and had a hand in many of the pictures that instilled a long-lasting love of Hong Kong movies in many western viewers (including this one) that lasts till this day.

However, to say that Tsui's stock has fallen over the past few years is a bit of an understatement. To compare 1983's Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (a true classic in the "wuxia" genre) with 2001's The Legend of Zu (which was called "The Legend of Poo" by many irritated internet fanboys) and try to realize that they both came from the same director (who is working with roughly the same base material) is an exercise in futility. Yes, you can point to mis-steps by other Hong Kong directors like Woo's Windtalkers or Lam's Maximum Risk, but Tsui's output lately has given him a reputation as the Hong Kong film-maker who has fallen the furthest from his former cinematic heights -- can anyone truly call Black Mask 2 a good film?

So, when the production of Seven Swords -- a big-budget swordsplay picture with an all-star cast -- was announced, to say that I, and most other Hong Kong film fans, were a little underwhelmed isn't an exaggeration in the least. After all, how can one get excited by a new movie from the director that has recently dropped bombs like Knock Off? And let's not forget Tsui's previous result with the aforementioned The Legend of Zu, which was supposedly Tsui's return to the helm of Hong Kong movie making, and ended up being a nauesating exercise in excess and wasted potential. But, as your interpid friendly neighborhood HK movie reviewer, I dove in and jammed in the the DVD into my beleagured player, which has been suffering from a case of severe indigestion resulting from Hong Kong's poor output this year.

Unlike many of my other reviews, I'm not going to get into much detail about the story here. The plot is pretty basic -- the emperor has outlawed kung fu, and one of the last bastions of martial arts is a place called (not so creatively) Martial Village, which is defended by seven top swordsmen (and women; Seven Swords is refreshing in the way the female characters are not regulated to traditional "jade vase" roles, which are all too common in these types of movies). There's some romance, there's some double-crosses, but mostly there's a whole lot of nice-looking vistas and talented people kicking ass across them.

This is not to say that Seven Swords is totally devoid of entertainment for the more cerebral viewers out there. Unlike a lot of swordsplay movies, which tend to try to compact too much in their running time, I found Seven Swords to be refreshingly compact in its' characterization without short-changing the viewer. Tsui seems to have realized his errors with his past few efforts, which seemed to forget that someone else but himself actually has to sit through his output.

Yes, there's a few problems with Seven Swords. The story -- as well-constructed as it is -- still feels a bit disjointed when viewed as a whole. There are several characters (including some of the titular swordsmen) who the audience doesn't get to know very well, and the plot seems to jump around a bit; Tsui orignally crafted Seven Swords as a four-hour picture, and this is quite evident in parts. Also, and this might just be the action fanatic in me talking who prefers his films colored with an extra splash of claret, but I would have preferred a bit more "oomph" in the fight sequences.

I enjoyed the fact that Seven Swords didn't feature pop stars prancing around whilst tossing fire balls, but, dammit, a severed limb deserves at least a token spurt of blood (this is probably due to the fact that this is a Hong Kong/Mainland co-production, and so Tsui wanted to avoid any Mainland censorship). At any rate, Seven Swords is an extremely solid kung fu picture that harkens back to the days of the classic Shaw Brothers productions. This is not really all that surprising, since it features a good deal of "old-school" stars like Lau Kar Leung, but the end result was definitely still welcomed.

Even though Seven Swords isn't a true classic, it does bring back memories of the days of "classic" Hong Kong cinema, where chutzpah and skill, rather than cute looks and computer effects, equaled a good movie. There's romance, intrigue, and, most importantly, well-constructed action set-pieces all rolled up up into one good-looking package. Seven Swords marks at least a baby-step (or toddle) to the return of the throne of greatness that Tsui Hark once possessed, and, for that relatively (at least in the larger scheme of things) small fact, that makes Seven Swords worthy viewing for any true fan of martial arts cinema.

[review from www.hkfilm.net]