Seven Swords [Blu-ray]

Product arrived well packaged and in good condition.

Seven lead heroes with backstories and complications. It can be hard to keep things straight. In the original language one character spoke only Korean while the rest spoke Chinese. But the sub-titles or English translation hides the facts the she cannot understand or be understood by anyone but the one hero who also comes from Korea.It has the magic of a non-American film. The images, the dialogue, the movements of the actors and even the pace of the scenes gives you the authentic feel of otherness that makes this type of movie, when well done like this, an interesting view.Why only 4 stars, at times it got a little hokie, and leaves you wondering is that comic relief or just bad writing.

Seven unique swordsmen(including one swords-woman) band together to save a village and its people from the evil General Fire-Wind. And that's about all you need to know about the plot... and that's what is so great about this film! Although two and a half hours long it has so many fantastic characters and battles you won't find yourself checking the timer on the DVD player once. For those who find Wuxia films like Hero, House Of Flying Daggers, and Curse Of The Golden Flower to be perfect you may lose interest in this quickly. Gone is alot of the "beautiful" and artistic fights only to be replaced with more brutal swordplay action that leaves heads split and limbs detached... and thankfully next to zero flying! Many reviewers have blasted the movie for cutting its original runtime of over four hours(!) to the aforementioned two and a half, and although I'm one of the fans who would love to see the full version too, I can't knock the reasoning for the edits(although a second disc with the full-length film would have been nice Dragon Dynasty!) and they seem to have been done as well as was posible. It's true that you don't get to know all of the characters as good as you would like, but you get enough to keep you more than interested in them until the very end. Another knock is the stylish garb of the villains, who look like they have been displaced from a Mad Max movie rather then ancient China. But still, once you see just how vicious and ruthless they are, the costumes seem like a perfect choice. This is a must see for fans of Asian cinema, epic action films, or just plain old good movies... not to mention it's a nice return to form for director Tsui Hark(The Blade, Zu Warriors From The Magic Mountain, Once Upon A Time In China 1-3).

For this review, I'll address on what most people will probably be asking about this Dragon Dynasty blu-ray release, "how is the Picture and Sound quality?"Picture quality: Very good. The details are exquisite, you can see what type of fabrics that were used for the clothes. When the camera zoom-in, you can even see the fine details and design of each costume. It is quite mesmerizing. I'm very impressed with the image quality on this release, as the color is quite natural to give an extra boost. Do be adviced though, while the image is clean, color is great, don't expect any 3D pop or insane sharpness like most recent blu-ray release. From a scale of 1(trash)-10(best), the image quality easily fit in 8/10. No edge-enhancement was found.Audio quality: This release ONLY came with Dolby Digital 5.1 Mandarin and English. YES! ONLY DD5.1!!! This is where I'm most disappointed. I mean, Blu-ray have been around quite long already, I just can't see why Dragon Dynasty only released this action pack movie in DD5.1, especially the Hong Kong Blu-ray Edition of this movie have DTS-HD Master 7.1 / PCM7.1, and that release was many years ago. To add more disappointment to Dragon Dynasty release, the DD5.1 mixed is very uneven and scattered. Many sound effect were lost as the result of compressed audio DD5.1. It can really be irritating, especially, when the DD5.1 bass simply can't reach low enough to match the director's vision. Also, the beautiful soundtrack is completely drowned by it ugly compression of DD5.1. Which to me, is serious disappointment. From the scale of 1(trash)-10(best), I'll give the audio of this release a (4/10). Just because Mandarin track is included. A very disappointment release.After my experience with Dragon Dynasty of "Seven Swords", I will no longer pre-order anything from this company again. "Seven Swords" from Dragon Dynasty is a disappointment. You have been warned!Note: I wish Amazon.com would revise they spec listing for Blu-ray. Hello? there is such thing called "DTS-HD MASTER" and "Dolby TruHD" on Format? Plus, it is not "DVD Release Date", it is "BLU-RAY" release date. Time to upgrade the list?

This is a terrific, Chinese epic film based on a wuxia novel. The story and characters were meant to be very complex. The movie however just touches a little on it. There were also supposed to be eventually a few sequels. The movie is not perfect with some issues that are easy to point out; however, I found it to be really engrossing with a witty filming style. It's a little more on the violent side, but the good certainly outweighs the bad.The basic premises of the story is... In the mid 1600's, the Ching dynasty takes over and many harsh laws are imposed. Martial arts are outlawed and anyone can be executed if they resist. A general named 'Fire-Wind' from the previous dynasty is corrupt and causes trouble in the western area of China; however, gallant sword-fighters come to the rescue and fend off the corrupt army. Each swordsman carries a uniquely casted weapon. The fantasy aspect is rather subtle, and war is more of the focal point.The Dragon Dynasty 2-disc DVD has plenty of special features. Mandarin and English are the selectable language tracks.

After purchasing this film and watching it, I decided to read the very unfair reviews.There is alot of complaints about it been edited and how terrible the story line is, but I didn't find this to be the case.I watched this film in two parts due to my busy lifestyle. After the first half, I was left wondering how they would finish the film, it was intriguing,The fight scenes were brutal but Well choreographed, the story was easy to comprehend and also a very well acted one, the character development yes, it was a little shallow and we didn't know much of the history behind the original 5 swords members but we had a slight history of the additional two.The cast were amazing, leon lai and donnie yen amazed as always, these two have been paired before and they preform wonderfully.I would definitely recommend this to people who aren't looking for donnie using his usual fighting techniques, but a good story, some wonderful characters and some gory action.*my only bug with this film was Donnie's hair.Thoroughly enjoyed this film.Quick postage and packaging from zoverstock, amazing as usual

Bought ages ago

Good movie

stunning action, only drawback gets a bit confusing midway

He watches it at least twice a week!!