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The film, adapted from Liang Yusheng's martial arts novel, does not come with an obvious theme other than saving lives of the endangered. The philosophy of abandoning revenge as advertised in the distributor's teaser is very implicit if not inexistent. In a genre similar to "The Magnificent Seven" (Dir: John Sturges, 1960) under the western genre and Akira Kurosawa's homage "The Seven Samurai" (1954), a.k.a. "Shichinin no Samurai" in Japanese, it closely resembles the martial arts spirit, story plotline and standard visuals of horse riding in extreme long shots.

Director Tsui Hark uses a linear narrative supplemented by occasional flashbacks in the second half of the film. These flashbacks either depict the background of the characters or reveal the critical details temporarily omitted by earlier plots. The narrative, basically simple in structure, moves from unrestricted to restricted to spark off the hypothesis forming mechanism of the audience by the search for the spy in the second half of the film. Under this device, the audience are exposed to a mild degree of suspense when the story development becomes more complicated. Tsui also builds up elements of romance between Chu Zhanan (Donnie Yen) and Luzhu (Kim So-yeon) and portrays the weaknesses of some warriors/characters to further manipulate the sentiment of the audience.

Cinematography and martial arts choreography are what the audience expect most in this film. Tsui imitates Kurosawa's "Kagemusha" (1980), a.k.a. "The Shadow Warrior", and "Ran" (1985) in juxtaposing various sounds (ambient, vocals, swords…) in many fighting sequences (some in slow motion) to entangle the audience with the visuals. Dialogues are short and condensed. Costumes of the antagonists and their flags are visible varied imitation of the Japanese samurai from Kurosawa's movies. Subdued brightness, very low key lighting and attached shadows are the dominant lighting features in all covered locales and night shots, visually strengthening the mystery atmosphere. Costume and the many medium still shots (but not freeze frames) of the 7 warriors retain a strong comic feel. Tsui adopts crane movement in many establishment shots of open locales. Musical motif (extreme aerial long shots of the 7 warriors riding horses on the plateau) is used as well. Yet visual aesthetics and narrative structure are less impressive than "Hero" (Dir: Zhang Yimou, 2002) and "House of Flying Daggers" (Dir: Zhang Yimou, 2004).

In terms of action choreography, martial arts action is crystal and fast, emphasizing the strength and momentum of the swords. Unlike what QT does in "Kill Bill" (Dir: Quentin Tarantino, 2003), Tsui downplays the violent visuals by not bringing massive blood streams into mise-en-scenes. Most notably, Tsui also makes a sequence of martial arts between Chu Zhanan (Donnie Yen) and the antagonist Fire Wind (Sun Hong-Lei) under slit-staging (actors staging in narrow space). The replacement of long-range flying by local acrobatic choreography enhances the degree of reality of the martial arts in the flick. Stunt coordinator Liu Chia-Liang (also as Fu Qing-Ju in the film) and action choreographer Tung Wei do very well in the production.

The film is full of acoustic and action choreographic richness. The latter aspect with an emphasis on sense of reality in action differentiates this product from those of the same genre from Zhang Yimou. Audience who do not seek for deep meaning and who like more down to earth (realistic but not real) martial arts will find the product from the Hong Kong Kurosawa a "must see".

註：本評論純屬影評作者個人意見，並不代表本網立場。
Note: This views presented in this review is solely the views of the critic who wrote it and do not represent the stance of our website.

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