In the mid-17th century, the Manchus conquer the territories of the former Ming Empire and establish the Qing Empire. While nationalistic sentiments start brewing within the wulin (martial artists' community), the Qing government immediately imposes a ban forbidding the common people from practising martial arts. The warlord Fire-Wind sees the new law as an opportunity to make a fortune so he offers to help the government execute the new rule. Greedy, cruel and immoral, Fire-Wind ravages northwest China with his army and kills thousands of resistance fighters and innocent civilians. His next goal is to attack Martial Village, which houses a large number of martial artists.
Fu Qingzhu, a retired executioner, feels an urge to stop Fire-Wind so he sets forth to save Martial Village. He brings with him two young villagers, Han Zhibang and Wu Yuanying, to Mount Heaven to seek help from Master Shadow-Glow, a reclusive swordsman and sword-forger. Shadow-Glow allows his four students – Chu Zhaonan, Yang Yuncong, Xin Longzi and Mulang – to accompany the trio on their quest. He also gives each of them a special sword he forged. The seven of them call themselves "Seven Swords". The Seven Swords return to Martial Village in the nick of time and successfully defeat and drive away Fire-Wind's soldiers. In order to buy time for the villagers to prepare for an evacuation, the Seven Swords head to Fire-Wind's base and cause damage by burning down their barn and poisoning their horses. During the raid, Chu Zhaonan encounters Fire-Wind's Korean slave girl, Green Pearl, and brings her along as they make their escape.
As the villagers evacuate Martial Village and make their way into the hills, strange things start happening along the way. Their food and water supplies are poisoned and their trail is marked by signs leading the enemy to them. The Seven Swords realise there is a spy among them and agree they must eliminate him/her before Fire-Wind catches up. Green Pearl immediately becomes the suspect because she does not speak their language. The situation is further complicated by a romantic affair between Chu Zhaonan and Green Pearl. At one point, Green Pearl and Chu fall into a trap set by Fire-Wind. Chu uses his sword to free Green Pearl from a net cast by Fire-Wind's men but loses his weapon. While Chu is captured by the enemy, Green Pearl manages to escape and convey her message that Chu has been captured to the other swordsmen, before succumbing to her injuries.
The other six swordsmen travel to Fire-Wind's base and engage him in battle to rescue Chu Zhaonan. During the Seven Swords' absence, the spy, Qiu Dongluo, sets fire to the entrance of the cave to inform the enemy of the villagers' whereabouts. After he is discovered by the village chief Liu Jingyi and his daughter Yufang, Dongluo kills Jingyi and proceeds to murder the unsuspecting villagers systematically. After the village children distract Dongluo, Yufang eventually manages to kill him. However, the experience traumatises her so much she becomes hysterical. Meanwhile, the Seven Swords defeat and slay Fire-Wind, and force his army to retreat temporarily. The swordsmen return to the hideout, only to find that all the villagers have been killed, except for Yufang and the children. Han Zhibang calms Yufang down, while the other six swordsmen realise the only way to save the wulin is to persuade the Qing emperor to withdraw the ban on martial arts. They depart towards the capital, but Zhibang decides to stay behind and protect the survivors. Yufang tells Zhibang she and the children can be strong by themselves and persuades him to rejoin the other swordsmen, so he rushes and catches up with them.
Cast
Donnie Yen as Chu Zhaonan, the wielder of the Dragon.
Leon Lai as Yang Yuncong, the wielder of the Transience.
Lau Kar-leung as Fu Qingzhu, the wielder of the Unlearnt.
Charlie Yeung as Wu Yuanying, the wielder of the Heaven's Fall.
The film was the first of a planned six-part film franchise.
During the shooting of the ending fight scene, Donnie Yen accidentally injured Sun Honglei near the eye after mistakenly assuming that Sun was trained in martial arts. Sun was rushed from Xinjiang to a hospital in Beijing on the night of 7 December. His eyesight was not affected so he returned to the set a day later and insisted on finishing his scenes.
The role of Chu Zhaonan was initially offered to Korean actor Song Seung-heon at a reported salary of US$400,000. Director Tsui Hark recruited Leon Lai to portray Yang Yuncong after watching his performance in The Sword of Many Loves and wanting to "see another side of him". Song and Lai were trained in horse riding and swordplay for their respective roles but Song dropped out near the start of the filming period to work on other projects. Donnie Yen was then offered to play Chu Zhaonan, and he accepted the offer without hesitation after "understanding the gravity" of the situation.
Lu Yi, who portrayed Han Zhibang, once said that he would never act in wuxia or martial arts films again. However, when he saw the all-star cast tied to the project, he immediately accepted the offer to join because he felt it was a rare opportunity for him to work with such a strong cast.
The role of Prince Dokado was initially offered to Hu Jun, who rejected it for reasons unknown. It was later offered to Wang Xueqi, who similarly turned down the offer. The role eventually went to Michael Wong.
Release
Cheung Chi-sing, the production manager and scriptwriter, revealed that the initial cut made by Angie Lam was four hours long. However, the distributors were worried that such a lengthy running time would limit screening arrangements and affect box office performance, so Tsui re-edited it to two versions – 150 minutes and 120 minutes. After finding that the 120 minutes version suffered from underdevelopment, the investors chose the 150 minutes version for the theatrical run.[3]
Reception
Seven Swords was well received in Asia, being nominated for many awards in both Hong Kong and China.[4][5] Its US limited-release received generally negative reviews and holds a 25% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 15 reviews.[6]
Sequel and Reboot
Tsui Hark intended Seven Swords to be a heptalogy and confirmed a sequel script was in progress.[7][8] Although confirming a sequel was in the works, a completed script, and ready to be filmed at the end of 2006, the movie was never completed.[9] By 2019, a new seven swords trilogy was made unrelated to Tsui Hark's work.[10]
