Blades of the Guardians is currently screening across China, having already amassed over $200 million at the domestic box office.
No Spoilers
Yuen Woo-Ping’s career in film is a remarkable testament to someone who is able to pull off the ‘style is substance’ mode of filmmaking, and that, across 5 decades of endless change. Those who question the ability of this style to create works of profound art, only need look at the endless littering of canonised Classics in Yuen’s filmography.
Whilst acknowledging Yeun’s seminal contribution to the martial art film (especially wirework), he has proven to continually engage the imagination of a given contemporary audience. In Blades of the Guardians, Yuen continues his fascination wide scope narrative Wuxia — this time focusing on a setting not of the Modern Chinese era, and instead in a pseudo-Yuan era China.
The consequence of this cinematically lesser explored era of China’s past, is the establishment of a truly global theatre, likely intentional to suggest a new outlook for the Chinese historical fantasy. This effect is quite striking in the context of wuxia, a genre typically set in either a platonic world of warring factions or a China being exploited by imperial powers.
Thematically, the film plays out more akin to the American Western ( The Gunfighter, 1950 and/or True Grit, 1969), as opposed to the Demi-god pantheon chronicles of the traditional wuxia. Since Iron Monkey (1993), and arguably earlier, Yuen has incorporated the Western hero story into the matrix of his storytelling, and this culminates in a hero, in Blade of the Guardians, who spiritually shares more in common with Achilles than Wong Fei Hung. Well, except the fighting style, though the Wolf Warrior (played by Wu Jing) does use a sword.
Blade of the Guardians is a thoroughly enjoyable wuxia, which promises to set the groundwork for a sprawling franchise, especially after boasting huge returns ($200 million as of writing) from the Chinese Box Office. Yuen never fails in delivering a spectacle out of hand-to-hand combat, and each move propels the character forward in their pursuit of self-forgiveness. There is an impressively economic approach to world-building, achieved through setpieces, passing dialogue, and probing flashbacks, all whilst being generous with spectacle.
Blades of the Guardians features a lineup including Jet Li (Hero), Wu Jing (Wolf Warrior), Nicholas Tse (Raging Fire), Leung Ka Fai Tony (The Shadow’s Edge), Max Zhang (Ip Man 3), Kara Hui (My Young Auntie), Chen Lijun (New Dragon Gate Inn), Yosh Yu (Creation of the Gods Trilogy), Ci Sha (The Shadow’s Edge) and K-pop star Jun (Wen Junhui) (The Shadow’s Edge).
Image credits: Film stills from Blades of the Guardians, accessed from DOUBAN (Copyright belongs to the respective owners).
