The best part of most early years is an international movie drop that no one was expecting, but was extremely happy to see. In my joys going through movie history I become very fond of a great martial arts movie, merging dance and violence into a bloody ballet of movie mayhem. Twilight of the Warriors was that film a few years ago, but it felt more like a swansong to Hong Kong moviemaking. Blades of the Guardians proves me wrong. So wonderfully, stupidly, wrong. We’re so back!
This manga adaptation is dense, so bear with me while I summarize the pitch. We’re following Dao Ma (Wu Jing), a roaming, free drifter around year 600, when the Sui dynasty is near collapse. Scary time to bounce around as the masked Zhi Shilang (Sun Yizhou) has risen up against the Emperor, who then dispatches roving groups like the loyal Governor Chang (Jet Li!!!!) ambitious He Yixuan (Chi Sha) and his loyal mercenaries to patrol the villages in the Gobi desert. Mojia Village leader Lao Mo (Tony Leung Ka-fai) and his daughter Ayuya (Chen Lijun) take in Dao Ma when he’s on the run from He Yixuan…but with ulterior motives. Lao Mo wants Dao Ma to escort Zhi Shilang to safety so he can continue to gather opposition to the Emperor, with Ayuya by their side so she can finally see the big city of Chang’an.
Yuen Woo-ping didn’t need to take this on. The legendary Hong Kong director is cemented as a directing legend, and the epic bloated scope and budget of Blades of the Guardians made me feel antsy this could have been his Ishtar. Instead, Ping rallies his troops and shows he works just as well going big as he did with Drunken Masters. The martial arts sequences here are the stuff of dreams for people like me, ready and willing to give over to it. The first 20 minutes is only table setting and arguably has the best battle in the movie, so good the legend Jet Li agreed to be a part of it as if to pass his blessing onto Wu Jing and Zhang Jin, the current, badass generation. The stakes only increase from there, as new character after new character get introduced, bringing new weapons/styles of battle to the proceedings. Chen Lijun and Liya Tong help remind everyone with martial arts the women are just as capable as the men, getting their own big action moments. Each new addition has us grow in anticipation that something big is coming, and woo boy! The sequence people will remember is right before the third act, with all our players already in the middle of a giant chase. Ping throws in something out of left field, completely upping the ante and expectation for what we’re going to see. Some of it relies on CGI chaos, but I was so amped for all the little battles going on onscreen I hit that wonderful guttural moment where I was a kid again, rooting and hollering along at the crazy spectacle right before me.
Woo-ping also deserves credit for wrangling the giant manga adaptation into submission. He smartly envisions this tale like a series of short films strung together. Some characters go on, while others leave/perish, leading to the next short film. Every 15 minutes or so we change locations, add a new character, or sometimes both, keeping the audience engaged and excited. There’s not a whole lot to these characters, but the extremely talented cast gives us the big acting necessary for a movie of this scale, with big emotional arcs along the way for multiple people. A lot of them go through the hero’s journey, but each tale is just specific enough per character to make them not feel repetitive. By the time the big third act battle was getting underway, I took a brief pause at who the participants were; only one of the characters from the opening 20 minutes was fighting in the battle. And yet, I didn’t care, as Director Yuen and his writers (Larry Yang and Chao-Bin Su) made us care just enough about these people to make the stakes clear and important enough to get invested in the newer participants just as much as our OG. Including the bad guys, most of which are surprising choices based on the usual classic tropes we’re accustomed to.
Blades of the Guardians ends in Lord of the Rings fashion, meaning it kind of just stops. I know this film worked, because as I realized the credits were gonna roll, I almost shouted aloud “Wait, no!” cause I didn’t want it to end. I hope this movie makes infinite money, so we can get the sequel we so rightly deserve: 2Blades2Guardians, with Michelle Yeoh as the Emperor!