Set in the early Qing Dynasty, where a martial art ban was imposed to prevent rebellion, a remote village is under the threat of a brutal massacre. Three villagers decide to climb the freezing Tian Shan mountain to ask for the help of a reclusive sword master, allowing his four apprentices to aid the villagers. Each of the swordsmen wields a unique, mystical sword, and together, they face a fierce battle against the warlord Fire-Wind and his army.

Unlike some of Tsui Hark’s more recent films, the action sequence in Seven Swords adopts a modest Southern Chinese martial art style with practitioners led by Lau Karleung, who also plays an important role as one of the swordsmen. With rugged costumes and a final duel situated in a roughly one-meter-wide corridor, Tsui urges the audience to focus on the essence of each precisely choreographed slash.

Tsui Hark (b. 1951, Vietnam) spent his early years in Vietnam before moving to Hong Kong, where he completed his high school education. He then moved to the United States where he graduated from the film programme at the University of Texas at Austin. After a short spell of work in the US, he returned to Hong Kong and became a director at TVB. Later, during a brief stint at Commercial Television, he directed The Gold Dagger Romance (1978). The Butterfly Murders (1979), Tsui’s feature film directorial debut, was hailed as one of the early examples of the Hong Kong New Wave. Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind (1980) faced censorship from the colonial government for its uncompromising vision. Tsui would break ground with Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983) by introducing Hollywood special effects to the wuxia genre. For much of the 1980s, Tsui was one of the creative masterminds behind the hitmakers Cinema City.

In 1984, he and Nansun Shi founded Film Workshop, which launched with the critically acclaimed Shanghai Blues. Tsui and his company found much success in several popular long-running film series, including A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), The Swordsman (1990), and Once Upon a Time in China (1991). In a career spanning over four decades, Tsui has not stopped finding new ways to reinvent himself as a director, writer, and producer. His take on the wuxia genre has continued to evolve in The Blade (1995) and the Detective Dee series. His Chinese war epic, The Taking of Tiger Mountain (2014), impressed audiences in China and abroad for his creative storytelling and eye for spectacle.