Seven Warriors (1989/Well Go USA Blu-ray)

Picture: C+ Sound: B- Extras: D Film: C+

From an earlier time when might made right, many ex-soldiers become marauding bandits, robbers, and highway men, preying on helpless villagers and travelers, taking their harvest, women, money and whatever they want. The village elder finally decides they had enough and hires seven warriors to help, train the villagers, and to fight back to protect what is theirs and that tiny village, harassed by corrupted soldiers-turned-bandits is the subject of Sammo Hung's Seven Warriors (1989)

The village's only hope is to find 7 honorable soldiers who would be willing to fight for the village. Unfortunately, when the 7 soldiers arrive to help, the villagers are paranoid, paranoid that the soldiers they hired would end up no better than the bandits afterwards. These 7 warriors prepare traps, fortify the village and train the villagers, they eventually earn the villager's trust. The warriors are able to systematically destroy the bandits, but not without losing a few of their own in the process.

This was retelling of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai with a Chinese twist, particularly in the themes loyalty and respecting elders and chain of command. The young men and soldiers who rushed into the fight without a plan usually got themselves or others killed. This movie looked like it was filmed years ago from the grain in the 1.78 X 1 digital high Definition transfer looking older than it should for a Blu-ray, while the theatrical monophonic sound has been upgraded to DTS-HD Master Audio (MA) 5.1 sound with mixed results. The only improvement was crisper subtitles.

- Ricky Chiang