Blades of the Guardians

Story: Dao Ma (Wu Jing) is a bounty hunter who roams through desert towns and looks after little Xiao Qi. When Governor Chang (Jet Li) offers him the chance to train his troops, he declines because he does not want to get involved in political power struggles. After Dao Ma assists a tavern owner who is attacked by soldiers, he himself is forced to flee into the desert from Chang's men. Fortunately, Ayuya (Chen Lijun) comes to his aid; she is the daughter of his friend Lao Mo (Tony Leung Ka-fai), the village chief of Mojia. Lao has an important assignment for the bounty hunter. He is to escort a masked man through the desert to Chang'an. It soon turns out that Dao has a high bounty on his head due to his clash with the soldiers, and is consequently pursued through the desert by numerous bandits and soldiers. Furthermore, it is revealed that the man he is supposed to bring safely to his destination is the revolutionary Zhishilang, who has the highest bounty in the land on his head. Meanwhile, there are power struggles among the desert tribes, in which Ayuya, who accompanies Dao, also plays a role. The chase through the desert is therefore repeatedly interrupted by fierce clashes...

Review: I had the opportunity to see "Blades of the Guardians" on the big screen at the Fantasy Film Fest in Germany, which was a real stroke of luck, as the Wuxia flick turns out to be significantly more visually stunning than anything you usually encounter in the genre. The sweeping landscape shots of the desert score particularly high points, even though I was initially a bit skeptical about whether this setting would appeal to me. However, since the 80-year-old Yuen Woo-ping, who is responsible for films like "Tai Chi Master" or, more recently, "Master Z", took the director's chair once again, I was quite confident that the action would be on point. And I wasn't wrong at all, provided you have some enthusiasm for wire-fu. With big names like Wu Jing or Nicholas Tse in the roles, you should be on the safe side anyway, as both always deliver solid action. But the problems, naturally, don't lie there.

A big surprise for most will probably be seeing Jet Li again, who, due to an illness that affects his circulation, is no longer allowed to shoot demanding action scenes. Jet Li made an exception for Yuen Woo-ping, though, and thanks to some clever editing and a stunt double, it actually looks as if he is back. Unfortunately, it's only a cameo at the beginning of the film, but it leads to one of the best — perhaps even the best — fight scenes in the movie and shows right away what direction things are heading. It's hard to say that the action is given short shrift, but you do have to put up with being fed a bit of a story as well. Since the film is based on a manhua/comic by Xu Xianzhe, they likely tried to cram in as much material as possible here. With marginal success. Ultimately, the film feels overloaded by having too many factions, and it's hard to muster much understanding for this, because two-thirds of it could easily have been cut. Building up the main villain a bit more would have been perfectly sufficient.

Due to the multitude of characters, not only does the villain seem a bit flat, but so do the other characters, a few of whom are actually quite interesting. There's the archer Ayuya, who is initially simply adventurous and always in a good mood until harsh strokes of fate force her to grow and become bitter. The writers could definitely have done something with the changes she undergoes, but they happen rather on the sidelines, just like the rest of the political intrigue, which takes up an unnecessary amount of time. Then there is the rebel leader who always keeps hidden behind a mask, but anyone expecting something special to come of that will be sorely disappointed. The same goes for the swordmaster who calls himself a ghost and randomly joins the group. He possesses a certain factor of coolness but never gets the moments he truly deserves. Then we have Nicholas Tse ("Raging Fire") as the antagonist, who shares a common past with our hero, but this very background is only ever brought up right during their encounters in the form of a flashback, giving us no time to really feel emotionally invested.

One could go on forever; the sword fighter's captive also has a few nice moments, so overall, while the characters still feel like cardboard cutouts, they manage to create the feeling of a randomly assembled adventuring party having fun on their deadly stops in the desert. Wu Jing ("SPL 2") is convincing with his charisma — there's no need to even discuss the action scenes — and skillfully carries the film through its most important moments, but he also fades into the background too often. The individuals portrayed are colorful but have hardly any real character, much like in certain anime. The hero of the story has to take care of a child the entire time, so you'd think the writers would pull out some emotional stops here to give the events some special weight, but no such luck. Add to that countless scenes of riding through the desert. Surprisingly, however, these don't feel all that repetitive thanks to the visual splendor and the constantly erupting skirmishes.

The fights are in part highly innovative. A skirmish in a sandstorm comes to mind first, but a sword fight featuring burning blades also looks enormously impressive, even if you might have seen something like it a few times before. In general, everything feels a bit more epic and impressive, and that's not just because I watched the film in a cinema. Personally, I didn't care for the choice of weapons in the finale, but you certainly can't call the showdown bad because of it. It is annoying, though, that the story is pushed to the forefront once again, making you wonder why you should suddenly care about this or that faction. Somewhat typically for Chinese cinema, there are also one or two scenes that are a bit too melodramatic. Despite some points of criticism, however, thanks to the beautiful visual language, the epic nature of the (flat) story, and the consistently clean fight choreography by Yuen Woo-ping, this remains an extremely entertaining Wuxia flick, and perhaps even one of the best in a long time.

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