Goro's Asian Movies and Stuff Blog

SEVEN SWORDS Trailer (CHI)

Oh Dear Lowered.  SEVEN SWORDS, the epic Tsui Hark movie that I've been going crazy waiting for, has finally released a trailer and it looks as good as I could hope.  There are a few instances of too-obvious undercranking and a moment where the wire-work looks less good than it should for such a major production, but overall, I'm given the full "WOW" awe factor.  Thank you KaijuShakedown [link] and DonnieYen.org [link].

Here's the Real trailer with english subs [link]
And here's a 4:50 WM trailer with no dialogue [link]
And here's WM Trailer 1 from the Official site [link]
And here's WM Trailer 2 from the Official site [link]
And here's the official site [link]

SEVEN SWORDS release date 7/29 (CHI)

According to CRI by way of KFCCinema [link], the official release date of Tsui Hark's movie SEVEN SWORDS is July 29th for China, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.  It was earlier slated to open the Venice Film Festival which is Aug 31-Sept 10 [link], but if it opens wide a month before that, it's a bit less special.  Interesting, because it was still debatable that the post-production would be completed in time for Venice and that provisions were (apparently) being made to premier with Chen Kaige's THE PROMISE if SEVEN SWORDS wasn't ready.  Maybe they'll go with THE PROMISE now, regardless.

Anyway, all I can say is, "the sooner it releases, the sooner I'll get to see it (on DVD :P)"

SEVEN SWORDS pictures (HK)

Here are several pictures from SEVEN SWORDSfrom Sina.com by way of KFCCinema Forums [link].  It looks awesome, so the production values on this are going to be phenomenal.  If the story, characters, and choreography measure up, then it could be as awesome as Donnie Yen has been saying.  I'm crossing my fingers.

SEVEN SWORDS Movie Comic book coming (CHI)

According to Kenji Kawai's BBS [link] via DonnieYen.us (the temporary site is up and fully running, it seems) [link], there's going to be a comic book adaptation of the Tsui Hark's new highly anticipated movie SEVEN SWORDS using various artists from Asia (natch).  This is interesting news just because I'm so excited anticipating SEVEN SWORDS.  Hopefully these will be very nice books with beautiful art and not like (say) the Star Wars comic books we had here in the US. 

SEVEN SWORDS One-sheet (HK)

Monkey Peaches has the SEVEN SWORDS one-sheet.  It's pretty cool as it shows the seven different swords used in the movie  [link].

SEVEN SWORDS may NOT open Venice Film Festival (CHI)

SEVEN SWORDS, still mired in post-production, may not be ready in time to open the Venice Film Festival.  If it is not ready then Chen Kaige's THE PROMISE may open the festival.

From DonnieYen.us [link].

SEVEN SWORDS II to begin production in 2005 (CHI)

Over at Wu-Jing.org again.  We already knew that Tsui Hark planned to have either 6 or 7 movies.  To what extent "plan" means is anyone's guess, but it surely doesn't mean that he had a full script for all 7 movies in hand.  According to this short blurb at WuJing.org, he had the scripts for the sequels "in his head" as he was filming the first movie and that he hopes to begin production on the second film by the end of the year.  "Script in his head" means more that he had a outline/treatment defined in his head and that making a true script should still take some time.

According to See Nan Sun, Tsui Hark already had the script for the sequels right in his head before production of Seven Swords began. After completion of Seven Swords, they'd be planning the second movie, "If time permits, we hope to begin production by the end of the year, for the filming location could be affected greatly by the weather."

SEVEN SWORDS post-production info (CHI)

Browsing over at Wu-Jing.org and they had a little blurb about the post-production of Tsui Hark's new epic SEVEN SWORDS. 

Apart from some special effects, the most important aspect of post-production for Seven Swords is digital transfer, part of the film needs frame-by-frame colour processing, which can take a minimum of ten weeks. This will help produce the best visuals, and is being handled by the special effects house from Lord of the Rings.

So this is interesting news as the image of LOTR films was absolutely beautiful and so we can look forward to the visual quality of the film to be excellent.  I'm glad to see that they are trying to do everything as perfectly as possible. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high, but it's really hard not to.

SEVEN SWORDS : More Info (CHI)

There's more SEVEN SWORDS info coming in daily and that's cool as I'm getting altogether too excited about it.  And the guys at Wu-Jing.org are also, apparently, as they are way on top of things.  So, the latest news they have is: [link]

• Sina.com is now the official SEVEN SWORDS portal, so all official news, pics, vids, etc. will be distributed thru them.  So that is cool, but doesn't really help me out as Sina.com is in chinese.  I'll just have to wait (still) for MonkeyPeaches or WuJing.com to translate it for me (as they always do) :)
• SEVEN SAMURAI and Kurosawa in general had a significant impact on Tsui Hark's works.
• He's talking about making SEVEN SWORDS a Hexology (6 movies) or even a SEPTOLOGY (7 movies).
• Tsui Hark talks about the characters a bit.
• Tsui Hark speaks about Leon Lai's seeming inappropriateness for the role
• 15 min promo reel at Cannes
• Full version expected for Venice Aug 31 - Sept 10.  Nice excuse to go visit Venice, right?

Check it out, it's good info.

SEVEN SWORDS : more videos (CHI)

Over at the forums at DonnieYen.us, they are posted links to videos.  There are two new ones, one a streaming video that is kinda brutal to try to watch (b-b-b-buffering!) but the Shooting Diary is way cool and contains english subs (nice for a change!).

And an additional note: "And it seems that Seven Swords wasn't shown in its entirety at Cannes as it's not fully complete" (DonnieYen.us)  Whether this was the initially rumored Promo Reel or whether it's just a not-finalized rough cut remains to be seen.  So it'll be interesting to see what comes out in the next few days about it.  I'm getting ever more excited (although I should've learned my lesson with UNLEASHED...)

Here are the two forums links (you may need to be a member): [link:BTS] [link:Shooting Diary]

And here are the direct links:

VOD.tom.com: BTS
Dream-movie.com : Shooting Diary