Twitchfilm reviews 3 Dev Adam & Seven Swordsmen!
Twitch, that font of news about indie, cult and world movies, has posted 2 reviews that rather pique my interest. Both of the reviews are by Todd, Twitch's founder and editor, who's a true movie buff and has great taste too (or so I gather from his reviews and posts).
The first is for the Turkish cult film 3 Dev Adam- which I wrote about 3 posts down. Sounds like Todd liked it:
3 Dev Adam is essentially the equivalent of the Dozier produced Batman TV show on acid. Played resolutely straight faced it is nonetheless a monumentally ridiculous film loaded with goofy action sequences, bizarre set pieces and absolutely littered with plot holes. The script is the flimsiest of things, existing only to get these three unlikely co-stars from fight to fight. It's as camp as camp gets, a film that aspires to B status, and appreciated on that level it's great fun.Mmmm... sounds tasty! I'll be placing my order for a copy of the 3 Dev Adam DVD.
The second review is for the Tsui Hark-produced TV series Seven Swordsmen- based on the same story as his movie Seven Swords, which I reviewed quite positively for Aint It Cool News here. Mind you, that review should be taken with a grain of salt- I really did enjoy the movie but I glossed over it's many, many faults in my review. Now, it's main problem was that Tsui Hark was trying to cram too much story into too little screen time. Todd describes the problem well:
Now, the Seven Swords TV series is 39 episodes long- ample time to tell the long, convulated story of the Seven Swordsmen of Mt Tian (who give both the and the movie and TV series their titles). Todd gives Seven Swordsmen a pretty positive review overall, though he didn't like it's soap operatic tendancies (unavoidable for a Chinese wuxia series, really). Here's his final word:
The edit was rushed and cramped and far too many supposedly key figures – including most of the titular heroes – slipped by the wayside doing little more than poking their heads on screen to remind people that they were still around.
While it stops short of being a classic or essential viewing and is not without some serious shortcomings Seven Swordsmen represents a significant step forward over the theatrical Seven Swords in the area where fans felt it needed it most: in the story. Very similar in tone to the theatrical release this version gives fans far, far more in terms of characters. While Swords often felt cramped and rushed Swordsmen has ample space for everyone to stretch out and get their moment.As a fan of the movie who really wanted to see more of the intriguing story it told, I can't want to see this series!
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