Dai Li Wu, Lu Yi, Donnie Yen on Seven Swords

Having strong martial arts foundation, and being someone of great diligence, he would request to do all stunts himself, inasmuch as constantly sustaining a series of injuries. Once, when doing a scene where he leaps over the wall, due to bad-timing, he was slashed by his opponent's sword. On another occasion, he burnt his eyebrows and his eyes got stuck and could not open when doing a fight scene while carrying a torch. On yet another instance, they were filming a jump from the height of two floors. Tsui Hark insisted on using a stunt double this time round to ensure safety, yet unexpectedly, after the fall, the stunt double laid there unable to move. Dai Li Wu had a cold sweat, grateful to have escaped the disaster.  Netease

In part of an interview, Lu Yi talks about The Seven Swords. He says it's really tough doing action scenes. However, he performed most stunts himself, for the character he is playing, Han Zhi Bang, is not a very adept at martial arts and his moves are crude and straightforward, so, it wasn't particularly difficult. Originally, Lu Yi was first approached by the TV version of Seven Swords of Mt Tian, however, he turned down the series owing to lengthy time required and he still had some other projects to attend to. Subsequently, the movie version got in touch with him, regarding the same role. As the standard for movie is considerably higher, and takes shorter time to shoot, Lu Yi decided to take up offer.

He says Tsui Hark is very fussy about each scene, but he won't use stern attitude to make demands. Rather, he would communicate his ideas to the actors and actresses, and make amendments, in order to fulfill his goals. According to Lu Yi, the Hong Kong production tends to have a regular team, and is "very well accustomed to using doubles, even for drama scenes. In The Seven Swords, everyone would apply for a few days' leave and rare was the occasion when all seven swordmasters were present. So, this is where the doubles come into play, and when they returned, they would shoot with our doubles." It's quite an eye opener for Lu Yi since Mainland doesn't shoot in this way.  Anhui News

Donnie Yen, who has just finished filming The Seven Swords, says that "This is a most moving and earth-shattering wuxia movie I've done in years. It's also a major breakthrough. The locales, the sets, the costumes and make-up, the storytelling and characterisation are all strongly redolent of wuxia tenderness. Tsui Hark is a trendsetting director. While he may appear redoubtable, he is actually very open-minded, and receptive to suggestions from the cast - quite rare for a master-class director."

As Tsui Hark is well aware of Donnie Yen's experience and expertise in martial arts, he always gave Donnie Yen ample of freedom, like considering his views on whether an action scene should be approached differently. The only thing Donnie Yen was having trouble dealing with was having to fight non-martial artists on the set. He had to accommodate them and take care not to hurt them. He admits that doing a Tsui Hark film is very challenging for, "He is forever seeking changes, constantly moving on, he is the most insatiable director."  Nanfang City Daily