Customer Rating:  
Summary: Chinese Drama
Comment: This movie is a 39 series Martial Arts Drama made for TV in China. This movie starts out as a new Dynasty has come to power in China and currently bans martial arts to help curve rebellions. An emperor who wants to unite the people rules the New Dynasty. But his most trusted warrior, Prince Duo Gedou feels that to end all wars and bring peace to the country, he must capture the last remaining royalty from the previous empire, a little boy named, King Lu. So the Prince along with his generals marches toward a town called Martial Village. They believe that the Red Spear Society in Martial Village is hiding King Lu.
During the invasion, Prince Duo Gedou and his army runs into a former executioner, Senior Fu of the previous Dynasty who decides that due to his evil past deeds, he must be a better person and joins the fight to defend the Red Spear Society. Along with his 4 martial arts brothers and 2 Martial Villagers, they become the 7 Swordsmen from Mount Heaven. They each were given a special sword made by Master Shadow Glo. Each of these swords are special and specially tailor made for each warriors. Each of the members of the 7 Swordsmen form Mount Heaven have a past that will test their wills, beliefs, and their souls as they venture off to save these people from execution. The battle in this movie is between the new empire and The Red Spear Society. Actually it's a one sided beating if it weren't for the 7 swordsmen aiding the Red Spear Society along the way.
Many of these series eventually concentrates on each of the 7 seven swordsmen. It deals a little with their pasts and their current situations. When they left Mount Heaven, they were sure of whom they were, what their purpose was but the more they kill, the more they become tested and the line between good and evil begins to blur.
Along the way, they will be betrayed, they will betray, they will love and they would lose what they hold dears to them. In the end, they will no longer be the same again.
Acting:
Well done, as far as asian movies are concern.
Storyline:
Good overall. Sometimes, its predictable and at times you wonder why? But its still an enjoyable movie. Weak ending. They spent the least storyline on the Emperor and one of the brother.
Special Effects:
Average, considering the technology we have now but I guess they decided to go cheap since it's a TV show.
Action:
Decent action. Enough of fights, swordplay to keep you entertain. There were small battle scenes but nothing like Braveheart or Lords of the Ring type of battle.
Good:
They spend a great deal of time on each characters even the villains, which was good. It makes them real and you learn to appreciate them. For a moment, I even have sympathy for the Prince, who is the main villain. Most of the time the Prince is extremely ruthless, cold hearted, calculated and yet intelligent. Most movies don't spend anytime making the villains humans, just cold-hearted killing machine with no purpose except to kill the heroes and innocents. Towards the end of the series, the movie will focus on the softer side of the Prince as he pursues his general's daughter's love. It shows that even a man like the Prince, who deems to have no weakness that uses other's weakness to attain victory, will bend over backwards to win the heart of his general's daughter.
Bad:
If you know anything about Asian movies, there are a lot of tragedies. Unlike Hollywood movies, there is not always a happy ending.... At least not for everyone. There will be a lot of tragedy, sadness, and it sometimes it leaves a bitter taste afterward.
Overall, a very good movie. With enough of fighting and swordplay. The storyline is very good but yet still left me disappointed when the movie ended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: beware of english subtitles
Comment: Poor translation into english. Too often I had to pause the dvd to make sense of the subtitles.
Customer Rating:
Summary: No Ending
Comment: No ending! A decent example of its genre, up to the end of episode 39 which ends in a cliffhanger. Then, no episode 40! The last few episodes were stuck repeating the same themes, as though the screenwriters were trying to stretch out the series. The movie version is nearly as satisfying and has an ending, if not a final conclusion.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Noooo!!! This series is NOT complete!
Comment: I persistantly watched 39 episodes of chinese drama (over 30 hours) and felt very disappointed and frustrated... NOoooo!!!! Where is the ending to the series!! (Arrrrr!!! after all that time I spent watching all the dragging episodes!)
Btw...
The action and the plot of the story is quite interesting. I must agree with the other reviewers that the story sometimes really drag. In addition, the maudlin and sentimental melodrama can be a bit tooo much.
Definitely worth watching once, but beware.... The series is not complete yet. You will probably wait (I don't know how long) for a part 2 for the series.
Customer Rating:
Summary: 'Seven Bores of Mt. Tien'
Comment: As a fan of wuxia and martial arts films, I was completely disappointed by this sophomoric adaptation of the Yusheng Liang novel. Despite its attempts to be a grandiose, momentuous saga, 'Seven Swordsmen' is dull, drawn-out, and full of contrived subplots and romances.
The main storyline is decent but takes too long to accumulate much interest or excitement. None of the characters are particularly likeable or charismatic, and most of the women are downright pathetic. Yufang and Green Pearl, for example, constantly have to be rescued by men, and Yufang spends at least 3 episodes fainting and crying over the man she's in love with. On a related note, Green Pearl has reddish-brown hair and looks more like Tila Tequila than a woman from 17th-century China. Way to be authentic there, casting department.
Finally, the fighting. A tv series based on seven swordsmen should have decent, if not slick and impressive, fighting scenes. Instead, we get the typical dizzying camera work accompanied by dated, super-cheesy special effects like flying and glowing swords. Acceptable in the 80's but not so much in a 2005 epic about 'masterful swordplay.'
Overall, 'Seven Swordsmen' suffers from lousy execution, and the few redeeming factors (it has a good premise and some interesting moments, plus the casting of Ray Lui and Ada Choi) aren't quite redeeming enough.
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