2005 · action · drama · martial-arts
Seven Swords
Directed by Tsui Hark2h 32m2005
In the middle of the 17th century, the Manchus conquered China and founded the Ching dynasty. Due to widespread uprisings against the new rulers, the study and practice of traditional martial arts is forbidden and punishable by death. The unscrupulous leader of a troop of mercenaries takes advantage of this situation to make a fortune with the bounty on his head.
Our read: Seven Swords (2005) reads as a sombre, kinetic, inventive action · drama · martial-arts entry — extreme in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook.
Sombre, kinetic, extreme action / drama, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, measured.
- sombre
- brisk
- intense
- twisty
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How Seven Swords feels to watch.
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What watching it is actually like.
“You want sprawling Tsui Hark wuxia with outcast swordsmen and muddy honor.”
Skip it tonight — Skip if two-and-a-half hours of chaotic martial-arts plotting exhausts you.
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