Sword Master features some of the country's new stars like Lin Gengxin.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Derek Yee's film Sword Master, based on a 1970s Chinese novel, will hit mainland theaters on Friday－17 years after the director planned it. Xu Fan reports.

Martial arts movies, a pivotal genre that brought Hong Kong cinema to global attention, has kept veteran filmmaker Derek Yee busy for decades.

Over the past 17 years, he has been working on Sword Master, a film based on a novel by the late author Gu Long. The film is finally ready and will be released in the mainland on Friday.

Yee, 59, has been connected to the book's story for long－and not just through one film.

In 1977, when he was still a newcomer in the industry, he won quick fame by playing the lead role in Death Duel, a film adapted from the same novel, and made by Hong Kong's then most influential studio, Shaw Brothers.

After that, for a decade, Yee starred in 16 martial arts movies but felt exhausted reprising "handsome, powerful but unreal" characters.