In 2001, Zhang Xinyan approached Xu Ke and asked him what he thought of Liang Yusheng's "Seven Swords". After Tsui Hark finished reading the novel, he felt that the structure of the story was very full, the relationship between the characters was very complicated, and the subversive appearance of the team, the relationship between the team and the individual knight was very challenging for him.
So it took Tsui Hark four years to make this "Seven Swords".
But unfortunately, multi-national teams joined, with big IP and nearly 140 million cost blessings, in the end only 80 million box office in exchange.
, coupled with the controversy between the media and the general audience, made Tsui Hark’s plan to create a six-feature film of "Seven Swords" impossible at the beginning of the project.
Some people believe that "Seven Swords" is Tsui Hark's attempt at the "documentary martial arts" style after "The Knife". It is Tsui Hark's most underrated martial arts film; but some people think that the drastic adaptation has lost the essence of the original work. , The facial makeup of the characters, and the unreasonable storyline, you can only see that Xu Kejiang is exhausted and gradually walked off the altar of the master.
So what kind of movie is "Seven Swords" that led to such polarized comments? The
movie "Seven Swords" tells the story of the Manchu army under the leadership of Fenghuo Liancheng (Sun Honglei), massacring martial artists in exchange for silver. Wuzhuang is their final goal.
To solve the danger of Wuzhuang, Fu Qingzhu (played by Liu Jialiang) brought Wu Yuanying (played by Yang Caini) and Han Zhibang (played by Lu Yi) to Tianshan for help. The three of
received the sword presented by Master Huiming, and together with their disciples Chu Zhaonan (played by Donnie Yen), Yang Yuncong (played by Liming), Xin Longzi (played by Dai Liwu), and Murang (played by Zhou Qunda) went down the mountain to save the people of Wuzhuang.
Seven swordsmen save the people. At first glance, the plot setting looks like the "Seven Samurai" directed by Akira Kurosawa, but after watching the movie, I found that the film is completely different from "Seven Samurai". The irony of human nature is relatively less, and more about the love of children, the growth and change of swordsmen.
Among the many characters, the two female characters Liu Yufang (Zhang Jingchu) and Wu Yuanying are the most complete. Although they are not absolutely perfect, they have many highlights in the limited plot.
Liu Yufang is a teacher in Wuzhuang. She has a kind heart and hopes to solve problems without violence. But when she witnessed the heavy casualties in Wuzhuang, she looked a little scared. After Chu Zhaonan told her that she would not be afraid after drinking the enemy's blood, she admired Chu Xinsheng. But when she learned that Chu liked Luzhu (Jim So Yeon), her admiration came to an end. When witnessing the traitor Qiu Dongluo killing the people of Wuzhuang and extending her claws to the children, she picked up the knife and slashed at Qiu without hesitation.
From her refusal to use violence, to finally becoming the executor of violence, her changes reflect the impact of the complex environment on ordinary people. She used to be a romantic idealist. Whether it's her career or love, she can go step by step. It wasn't until Wu Zhuang suffered a massacre and met Chu Zhaonan that she began to question her previous ideas and whether the person she loved was suitable for her. The combined effect of these factors made the last knife she slashed extraordinarily heavy and meaningful. The role of
Wu Yuanying is a tragic role just like Yang Caini's village girl in "Evil Drugs". Not confident enough, she seemed weak as soon as she appeared and needed protection. She was kind-hearted, and in return for Fu Qingzhu's life-saving grace, she colluded with Yu Fang and Zhibang privately and took him away from Wuzhuang.
When she got the Heavenly Waterfall Sword, the body of the sword that was able to move forward and backward made her wonder whether she was suitable for this sword. Later, Yang Yuncong told her the trick that she slowly began to learn to use it.
Learning to use the waterfall sword is the beginning of her self-confidence. So when the last six swords of the film went back to save Chu Zhaonan, she played a key role. Emotional shakeUncertainty is also part of this character. On the way to Tianshan, she hugged her ex-boyfriend Zhibang, and blurted out and asked: You don’t think of me as Liu Yufang, do you? When she ran into Zhibang and Yu Fangyunyu in the stable, she was full of jealousy. Full of gratitude to Yang Yuncong, she lay in Yang's arms in the middle of the night, but learned that Yang Yuncong had no intention of love between men and women.
The emotional wavering and indecision are the weakness of her human nature, and she is doomed to ask for it.
Compared with Wu Yuanying's cautious love, Chu Zhaonan's love for Luzhu has the feeling of being warm and firm. Chu Zhaonan first snatched her from Feng Huo Lian Cheng, and unconditionally believed that she was protecting her at all times. Then he rode a horse galloping with the green beads, looking at hometown. He didn't believe that Lu Zhu would betray him, and Lu Zhu was seriously injured but did not forget to report. This is the power of love.
The martial arts director of this film is Liu Jialiang, Dong Wei and Xiong Xinxin. Liu Jialiang also plays Fu Qingzhu in the film. This role is the spiritual leader of Seven Swords. The martial arts instruction style of the three of
is based on actual combat, which gives the fighting scenes of the film a strong sense of reality. The most brilliant fighting scene is the end of the film, the matchup between Yang Yuncong and Chu Zhaonan. In addition to solid fighting movements, this paragraph also uses a combination of movement and static, with the fluttering of flames to express the strong sword energy.
The soundtrack of this film is the famous Japanese composer Kenji Kawai. His soundtrack focuses on the circumflex, vigorous and profound. Through the change of melody, it reflects the changes of the plot and the mood of the characters. On the other hand, Kenji Kawai’s soundtrack for "Seven Swords" emphasizes the sense of the picture more and complements the movie. After cooperating with "Seven Swords", in 2013, Tsui Hark and Kawai Kenji once again collaborated on "Di Renjie: The God of Dragon King". This cooperation made Kawai Kenji nominated for the best original film music in the 51st Golden Horse Awards.
In Tsui Hark’s original plan, the film is only a prologue among the six feature films, telling the story of the previous generation. It is said that the full version of the film is 4 hours long, but based on commercial considerations, it has been drastically reduced to 150 minutes of release. The deletion of
for nearly half of the time caused the problem that the details were not clearly explained, and there were many facialized characters. Without the story and characters, it is fatal to the film, which directly led to the film’s word-of-mouth box office failure, and the sequel was stillborn.
But it is worthy of affirmation that the service, aesthetics and artistic standards of this film were in an advanced position at the time. Although the film adopts the "documentary martial arts" style that is in the same line as "The Knife", the weapons and even the clothes in the film are full of evil points that can only be seen in Tsui Hark's martial arts movies. After the filming of this film, Tsui Hark did not take on major productions for a long time. In five years, he made several small production films such as "Looking for People in the Deep Sea" (2008) and "Women Are Not Bad" (2008), but the box office general.
It wasn't until 2010's "Di Renjie's Empire of Heaven" that he gradually began to find his state and return to his peak. In Director Tsui Hark’s mind, word-of-mouth box office failures, and it’s not important for others to say cold words. The important thing is to enjoy the movie, not to enjoy success, and to show the things you like to the audience on the big screen, rather than let the audience in front of the screen feel that they are successful.
is also precisely because of such a relaxed mentality that Tsui Hark was able to change his heart for many years and bring so many classic film works to the audience. (Mike Crazy Talking Movie·Zhang Liyuan)
