The Seven Swordsmen - Qi Jian Xia Tian Shan - 七劍下天山 (2005)
16 July 2006This is the Hong Kong, Korean and Chinese co-Production of the Television Series that is based on the same story as the recent Tsui Hark ?? film called the Seven Swords (he also produced this and is listed as one of the screenwriters, unfortunately I can’t say which is more accurate to the original story but I have a feeling it is this series, because the story is far superior, and I might even be able to say the best martial arts story I have ever seen. I got so into this story it is ridiculous, and even saying I am a sucker for these Chinese Soap Operas, but this one is exemplary. Such a good story, and so well done. Sure you can tell it was shot quickly, but even with knowing that and that it was shot on video, I have never seen so many crane shots in one thing ever, and these in remote locations all over China. I wish I knew more about this to know if this is really the end of the story or if there is more to find out what happens after the series. The box set DVD includes English subtitles, and is well worth checking out. I watched the Mandarin version since at least some of the characters lipped synced, and I have gotten used to watching these in Mandarin (while I always used to watch these in Cantonese. IF YOU CAN SEE THIS, DO IT, THIS SERIES IS AWESOME! And it has 39 40 minute long episodes, so it is an epic that you must see.
The Manchu’s have recently taken over China from the Han Chinese, and have placed their own Emperor on the throne, though the current Emperor is inclined to make piece, but he really doesn’t have the power. The Prince Duo Geduo is waging a war against the Han, and martial arts have been declared illegal, and the Prince has sent out his armies to destroy the remaining martial artists, he also believes that the Martial Arts Village and the Red Spear Society they are part of has Little King Lu, who would be the last Han emperor, and could threaten Manchu power, so the Prince has sent his General Nanlan Xiuji to take out Martial Village and all of it’s inhabitants.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS… (AND LARGE PHOTOS SO MAY HAVE LONG LOAD TIMES)
Since I don’t know who most of these actor actually are, I am just going to give a
list of the cast and crew to start this off.
director
Clarence FOK Yiu-Leung - ???
Jacob CHEUNG Chi-Leung
Marco MAK Chi-Sin - ???
Gary SING
LAM Kim-Lung - ???
actor
CHIU Man-Cheuk or as I know him Zhao Wen Zhuo- ??? as Chu Zhaonan the eldest brother
WANG Xue bing as senior Fu Qingzhu
YU Cheng-Hui
GAI Chun Wa as Yin Longzi the 3rd brother
Ada CHOI Siu-Fan - ??? as Fei Honjin the Eagle of the Desert
SANG Wei-Lin
Gallen LAW Ka-Leung - ???
LI Xiao Ran - ???
CHEN Hao
Ray LUI Leung-Wai - ??? as Pring Duo Geduo
LIU Ye - ?? as Mulang the youngest brother
LEUNG Ka-Yan as the Master of Martial Village and Yufang’s father
producer
CHEUNG Kam-Yim
TSUI Hark - ??
action director
YU Cheng-Hui
Billy CHAN Wui-Ngai
YUEN Bun - ??
LING Chi-Wah
KUK Hin-Chiu
XU Xiang-Dong
SUN Jian-Kui
composer
Jonathan LEE
scriptwriter
TSUI Hark - ??
CHEUNG Chi-Sing
LI Chang-Fu
CHUN Tin-Nam
original story
LIANG Yusheng
The Prince is in the Middle and Nalan is on the right, along with the Prince’s other general.
General Nalan has been laying siege to Martial Village, but because of it’s single approach has so far been unsuccessful. One point I never quite got was where the women were, safe, but gone, or there just weren’t any anymore? Anyway, the head of the Village, set his daughter Yufang to protect the children that she taught, and 2 others Yuanyin and Zhibang (who has always been in Love with Yufang) to do jobs, which they didn’t do, while Yufang ran with the children, and with the help of a wandering martial arts master, Senio Fu Qinghzu was able to escape.
This is Yufang in the village.
This is Master Fu helping Yufang and the Children escape.
General Nalan stormed the village and many were killed, but the master and some other people managed to escape and hook up with Master Fu and Yufang. Master Fu Qingzhu turned out to be the former executioner for the Han and had killed many people, but because he had helped Yufang he was given the benefit of the doubt, and he was heading to Mount Heaven to find Master Shadow Glow and to get him to let his 4 pupils out and help save the people in Jiang Hu who are being attacked by the government troops. Master Fu went along with Yuangin and Zhibang, but Master Shadow Glow did not want to let his 4 pupils out into the world, though eventually he gave in, and he gave each of them a special sword, and made them the Seven Swordsman of Mount Liang.
Here is the eldest brother Chu Zhaonan who was given the greatest Sword the Dragon Sword, the youngest brother Mulang and the Second Brother Yang Yunchong who was given the Transcience sword.
Senior Fu was given a fixed version of his old sword so he could fight and not kill people and Yuanyin was given the Heaven’s Fall Sword with it’s sliding handle.
Zhibang here in front was given the Diety Sword that can cut mountains and clouds (pictured here with Yufang who he loved, but who only loved him as a brother).
The 3rd and most hot headed brother Yin Longzi was given a double knife sword with chains, and he can never give up his past, which haunts him and continues to haunt him through the series.
The 7 Sworsdmen head out and join up with the rest of the Red Spear Society, and he takes them to a hidden cave in the mountains with 1 exit to try and keep them safe as the General moves in with his troops. In the cave, they realize their is a traitor and Yufang is poisoned, so Chi Zhaonan is sent out to get her medicine, where he meets a beautiful slave girl names Green Pearl who he saves and begins to fall for, but lets her free since he must go save Yufang.
Green Pearl with Chu Zhaonan
Chu Zhaonan makes it back and Yufang is given the antidote, but it was a bit too late, so she isn’t fully cured and will still be troubled throughout the rest of the series, though only Mulang knows this.
The traitor is getting worse and Yang Yinchong is blamed, though he is innocent and is tied up, and is able to actually see the traitor, but the Red Spears won’t believe it is Qiu Qungluo, so as the Prince attacks with canons, the 7 swords attack his men allowing the children to attempt to escape with Yufang, but Yufang goes back to help Mulang. Chu Zhaonan helps the kids, but is trapped on a mine of the evil General Fire Wind, and the kids make it back to Yufang, Mulang and Zhibang, who escape down the river, as the Master of his village heads away with his men, and Senior Fu decides that Yang Yinchong should head back to Mount Heaven until his innocence can be proved.
FireWing with Green Pearl Meanwhile Chu Zhaonan has been captured by Fire Wind, and Fire Wind also has Green Pearl who has taken as his girl, and he keeps messing with Chu Zhaonan who claims he is only doing this for honor and good and the like, and who swears to help Green Pearl Escape. Eventually he fights Fire Wind, and beats him, but the Prince does not let him go. And the Prince makes a deal with Green Pearl where she will be given freedom and much gold if she can make Chu Zhaonan fall for her. And of course he escapes and takes her with him, and falls for her, and makes love to her, but he finds the poison the Prince gave her, and when they are confronted by Fire Wind he confronts her, and she says she did finally believe in love and kills herself on the dragon sword, and Chu Zhaonan dispatches Fire Wind and takes the body of Green Pearl in a coffin and heads back toward Mount Heaven. 
Chu Zhaonan with Green Pearl
Yufang, Muland, Zhibang and the kids head away, and search for a safe place, but when one of the kids gets sick, Zhibang takes a difficult job and steals medicine to save the, just to keep them alive, though it infuriates Yufang, and when they think they are trapped the hook back up with the rest of the Red Spears. The Master wants to have Yufang marry Zhibang to help escape, but Zhibang knows she doesn’t want him, so he lets Mulang do it in a fake wedding to help their escape, which works though barely.
Then we see Chu Zhaonan burning the body of Green Pearl in the desert when we see a beautiful woman in red leaving a band of bandits called the Eagles of the Desert past, this is Fei Hongjin.
Then we go to Yang Yinchong who is out alone in the desert and becoming a bit of a drunk, as not being trusted has not set well with him, and he makes a friend of an Aierjliang a singer who is being chased by the one he loves, and when they are both very drunk Aierjliang is taken by Fei Hongjin who also takes the transience sword.
Aierjliang
Yang Yinchogn follows, and though he is unable to save Aierjliang who it turns out had helped some government troops who later destroyed the desert people’s village and made the survivors wanderers, so they stones him, and the ever strong Fei Hongjin finished him off. Eventually Fei Hongjin starts to fall for Yang Yinchong who saves her and her men by finding a hidden water spot in the desert as the Prince and his men come in to kill them and the villagers after taking their water spot. On an attack against General Nalan’s men, Yang Yinchong is wounded by arrows, and the daughter of the general Princes Nalan Minghui is saved by him, so she saves him and nurses him back to health and the 2 quickly start to fall for each other.
The Princes Nalan Minghui
Yang Yinchong returns to the Eagles of the Desert and they have also hooked up with Chu Zhaonan who has fallen for fei Honjin, but she only has eyes for Yang Yinchong.
The Prince has decided he wants to marry Minghui, though she dislikes him, but he sends her away, where she is intercepted by the Eagles of the Desert, and Fei Hongjin plans on killing her for her fathers sins, but Yang Yinchong saves her because he loves her, and they escape, and make love in the desert, and she is happy to leave with him till she searches his bag and finds a piece of clothing that must be Fei Hongjins, and when the prince arrives she leaves Yang Yingchong and agrees to marry the prince in a year if he will stop killing and end the war.
Yang Yinchong won’t let Fei Hongjin kill Minghui
Yang Yinchong tries to stop the Eagles from attacking, but can’t, and Chu Zhaonan has a plan to turn himself in and kill the prince, though Fei Hongjin doesn’t trust him, but he does it anyway, but the prince is smarter and makes them think he is a traitor even though he isn’t. And when Yang Yinchong tries to get Minghui she realizes he is part of the attack and won’t go and decides she hates him, the Eagles are mostly wiped out and Yang Yinchong and Chu Zhaonan barely escape, very injured, and when they pass out Fei Hongjin saves Yang Yinchong, though not Chu Zhaonan who thinks even his brother has deserted him, and then the Princes men come and return his sword, and even give him money and clothes. This has really become the central story-line of the piece.
Senior Fu is with Yuanyin and Yin Longzi, and Yin Longzi disapears when his past re-appears in the form of cherry blossoms, where we see he found his wife and child and killed her new husband, and was then attacked by his own son for killing the man he knew as his father, and he loses it, and Senior Fu takes off to find him.
The Red Spears have gathered for the Princes wedding, to save the leader of their society who is jailed and to kill the prince, and wait for the rest of the seven swords to show up, though they have difficulty. And Yufang finds Minghui next door, who is pregnant with Yang Yinchong’s child, but is planning on having the kid in secret and having the kid given to his father and then marrying the prince.
Yang Yinchong heads back, but is followed by Fei Hongjin who won’t leave him, and they run into the Princes Master, but manage to escape and get back to the Red Spears, but just after Minghui has given birth and her father tried to get the child, but in fact Fei Hongjin has taken the little girl.
The
Prince’s Master
Chu Zhaonan again gives himself up to the prince, but isn’t trusted, and isn’t given a chance to kill him, and is forced to kill the master of the society who has made Zhibang the new leader, and kill other members, making him an enemy of the Red Spears, and on the wedding day they have a huge attack, and because of a sneaky attack it looks like Chu Zhaonan has purposely killed the Master of Martial Village, so Yufang who has loved him now wants to kill him, though she is very sick. And Yang Yunchong is badly wounded, but saved again by Fei Hongjin. The Rest of the Swords make a deal to meat with Zhu Zhaonan and attack the prince who has now married Minghui, but she is out of her mind, missing her child and scared of all swords.
They find Yang Yinchong who now has his daughter from Fei Hongjn who he has never trusted, but who has done nothing but help him, though the prince now has the Transcience sword which it turns out is the match of the Dragon Sword, and the seven swords attack, but Mulang has not killed a prisoner who has claimed to be one of them, and he has attacked the Red Spears, and killed almost all of them, and only Yufang and Hwazhaou the oldest of the kids manages to survive, and while Chu Zhaonan kills the prince, he has completely changed, and he can’t return the Transience sword because Yang Yinchong has died as has Fei Hongjin. Mulang takes the child back to his master, while Senior Fu sets off to find Chu Zhaonan with Yuanyin, while Zhibang takes care of Yufang and Hwazhou.
Ouch, what an ending, and I knew it was going to be tragic. I was just powering through this show, but had to stop near the end because I knew it could not end well, and of course it didn’t, but what an amazing show. SUCH A GOOD STORY! SO WELL SHOT! SUCH A GREAT SHOW!! This is certainly one of my all time favorites and I think everyone should check it out if they have a chance!!
Chu Zhaonan and Green Pearl
Yufang
Yang Yunchong and Minghui
Yang Yunchong and Chu Zhaonan
Mulang
Minghui and the Prince
Minghui
I know I am a sucker for these Chinese Soap Operas, but this one is really special, and such an improvement over the Seven Swords film. I mean they are really incomparable they are so different, and this one is so much better. I wish someone else had watched this with me so I could talk about it with them!!!
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