Seven
is an auspicious number. There are the Wonders of the World and Deadly Sins. It
also only takes seven hardnosed mercenaries to rally a small village’s
defenses. The template created by Akira Kurosawa and burnished by John Sturges’
classic western is transplanted to Republican China in Terry Tong’s Seven Warriors (trailer here), notably co-directed by Sammo Hung, which
releases today on DVD from Well Go USA.
Right,
you know how this goes. The women of a provincial village regularly plundered
by outlaws shame their men into recruiting some hired guns. They find seven volunteers:
Commander Chi, five of his former comrades-in-arms, and the over-eager country
bumpkin Wong Way-wu. It quickly gets personal when Chi discovers an old
colleague happens to be the chief warlord in question. The stakes also increase
for Wong when he secretly shelters the sister of Hung Sap Kan, the leader of an
aborted rebellion in a nearby village, who meets a premature end during the
prologue.
Viewers
should have a pretty clear idea what they are dealing with from the old school
foley effects and heroic synthesizer music. Compared to its two notable
predecessors, Warriors is definitely
the lesser of the Trio of Seven, but it still delivers plenty of high spirited
period action. Also serving as action choreographer, Master Hung stages some
nifty fight scenes. The overall body count is also rather impressive. Yet, what
might standout most are the frequency and severity of mistakes made by the home
team. You certainly cannot accuse them of comic book invincibility.
Master
Hung also shows his moves that defy the laws of physics during his cameo
smackdown as his namesake. It is also rather amusing to see a young “Little”
Tony Leung Chiu Wai (now so familiar to us as the mature smoothie) as the
rustic Wong. Both he and Wu Ma (best known for supernatural fare, like A Chinese Ghost Story) overdo the comic
relief, but there will be plenty of tragedy to offset it.
