The seven swords

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Movie
German title The seven swords
Original title 七劍 Cat Gim
Country of production Hong Kong , PRC , South Korea
original language Cantonese
Publishing year 2005
length 141 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Tsui Hark
script Tsui Hark
production Tsui Hark
music Kenji Kawai
camera Keung Kwok-man
cut Angie Lam
occupation

The seven swords ( Chinese  七劍  /  七剑 , Pinyin Qījiàn , Jyutping Cat 1 gim 3 , international title: Seven Swords ) is a film by the Chinese director and producer Tsui Hark . It is an adaptation of a template from the novel Qijian Xia Tianshan - 七劍下天山 - by the well-known Wuxia author Liang Yusheng . In contrast to many other films in the genre, however, Tsui Hark did without exaggerated effects in order to make the fighting representations of the film more believable. Lau Kar-Leung , known for his collaboration on Drunken Master 2 , took over the choreography of the Kung Fu scenes.

action

The action takes place against the backdrop of the occupation of Ming China by the Manchu in the 17th century. The Qing dynasty , established by the conquerors, imposed a ban out of fear of the nationalist-minded, local fighters, according to which the learning and practicing of all traditional martial arts is prohibited from now on. Thereupon the greedy and cruel General Feng takes advantage of the situation with his sinister mercenary army and roams the provinces in the north-west of the country in order to monitor the command issued by the emperor out of pure greed for profit and to attack illegal persons who nevertheless cling to the martial arts, including their families to liquidate a handsome bounty. Whole regions fall victim to the hordes gone wild.

The aging executioner Fu Quingzhu, who broke away from his dark past and from then on remorsefully rushes to the aid of those affected, offers resistance to his former comrade on his own. One day during such an argument, he is injured and rescued by a brave young woman, the attractive Wu Yuanyin. The presence of the old man, against the backdrop of an approaching invasion by Feng's mercenary band, sparked heated controversy among the villagers. So Wu decides to get the old man out of the village. She finds support in a friend and her partner: Han Zhibang. Together with Han, Wu brings the injured to a wise swordsman who offers them four of his legendary students to help them fight the general. Before that, he provided all fighters with mythical swords, the "seven swords" .

When the seven return to the small village to assist the population, it is being overrun by a large horde of Feng's people who are extremely cold-blooded. Although the attackers outnumbered, there should be around 300 men, the attack can be repulsed with the intervention of the seven swords. The mercenaries are defeated and only one messenger is left alive. The general assesses the situation rather soberly and initially trusts the combat strength of his well-trained people. However, he changes his mind when he realizes that these are extraordinary individuals; He then receives material and personal support from Prince Dokado.

In the meantime, the village community is evacuated as they fear acts of retaliation at the farmers' settlement. Under Fu's leadership, the locals are led to a supposedly safe place when they realize that there is a traitor among them who is informing Feng's troops. Since the unknown informer cannot be exposed at first, Chu Zhaonan secretly and without the help of the other “swords” decides to go to Feng's camp and secure his stolen booty. So the morale of the opposing mercenaries should be reduced. His plan fails and he is captured. General Feng appropriates his sword. Troubled by this news, the remaining six plan to free their companion and rush to his aid. Meanwhile, the villagers are left defenseless in a cave. In the meantime, the whistleblower takes advantage of this and kills almost the entire sleeping village population. Only Wu's friend Liu Yufang, the village manager's daughter, survived with a small group of children. Before that, they collectively kill the traitor.

At the end of the film, the Six Swordtails release Chu from Feng's hands. The commander is killed by Chu's magical sword, which he can bring back into his possession. Major resistance from his followers, if any, will be nipped in the bud. In one of the last scenes, the seven swords ride together towards the capital to convince the emperor to repeal his insane decree.

Trivia

It is reported that Tsui Hark initially considered a run length of around four hours for the film. The versions available today with a running length of 153 and 141 minutes were then cut from the footage shot for this purpose. This makes for some strange and incomprehensible things in the film. For a while there was speculation about whether Tsui Hark would produce a directors cut with the originally planned length.

Others

The 62nd Venice International Film Festival opened on August 31, 2005 with The Seven Swords .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Seven Swords Director's Cut, Sequels, Friday, August 12, 2005 ( memento of January 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). In: www.wu-jing.org, accessed on June 2, 2020. (English)