A few people got the memo. The martial-arts legend’s new directorial effort, Blades of the Guardians, opened in the U.S. on Feb. 17 to just $761,881 at the box office — a meager total compared to more aggressively marketed releases, but a genuine win for its distributor, Well Go USA, one of the top purveyors of Eastern import cinema in North America. The opening was big enough to encourage another weekend in theaters, which means the Quentin Tarantino buffs, Christopher Nolan devotees, and Peter Jackson acolytes who swear they love epic blockbusters haven’t missed out yet.
Blades of the Guardians, based on the Chinese manhua of the same name, follows Dao Ma (Wu Jing), a biao ren — a combo of a professional bodyguard and bounty hunter — who, by defending himself against a corrupt governor (Jet Li), becomes the “second most wanted fugitive in the land.” At first, he survives by zigging and zagging through a gray zone between a warrior’s code of honor and the official brutality of imperial power. But when Dao Ma’s benefactor Lao Mo (Tony Leung Ka-fai) tasks him with escorting the revolutionary Zhishilang, deemed the actual “most wanted criminal in the empire,” everyone is suddenly on his tail.
Naturally, a nice ride through the sunny sands of the Gobi Desert devolves into a relentless gauntlet of ambushes and betrayals. Dao Ma’s nephew Xiao Qi, the fierce warrior Ayuya, rival bounty hunters, and political operatives all collide in a nonstop pursuit. It’s dense with names and locations, but basic in its storytelling: Dao Ma really just needs to get all of his new friends out alive! As a director with a knack for precision, Yuen trusts the audience to understand relationships through action, glances, and blade work rather than exposition dumps.
Yuen’s importance to modern action cinema is difficult to overstate. From his early Hong Kong collaborations with Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, to redefining Hollywood fight grammar after the Wachowskis gave him a ring, the Chinese filmmaker has shaped how violence is staged, framed, and felt for half a century. He’s been a less consistent director than choreographer, but Blades of the Guardians feels like a culmination of career. Yuen swings for the fences with full awareness that this may be his most personal statement yet, and at the age of 80, possibly his last hurrah.
In speaking on the film, Yuen has emphasized how he sees Blades of the Guardians as a return to the physical foundations of wuxia cinema. Bodies matter. Weight matters. Consequences matter. The camera does not hide action through frantic cutting or digital trickery; it respects the training, and seems to dare performers to push past what seems humanly possible. Beholding the fights, you feel it all.
In an effort to go as hard as possible, the film plays like a wuxia Mad Max: Fury Road: a sustained chase across hostile terrain punctuated by eruptions of combat. Crosscutting between time and location allows Yuen to stage battles in snow-choked courtyards and blazing infernos, drawing additional power from elemental chaos. A set piece inside a dust storm — maybe the most overt evocation of Fury Road — uses the wind to justify the wuxia acrobatics as fighters glide through gusts to deliver their blows.
The casting is equally maximalist. Legends like Jet Li, Tony Leung Ka-fai, and Kara Hui share the screen with contemporary stars such as Nicholas Tse and Max Zhang. Rising performers like Yu Shi, whose horsemanship is as impressive as his martial skill, steal the spotlight. This is a cast built for physical cinema.
But it’s Wu Jing as Dao Ma who carries the film with a concentrated-but-charismatic performance that feels more Steve McQueen-y than any warrior in the wuxia canon. He’s part Han Solo, part Ogami “Lone Wolf” Ittō, and part John McClane; an antihero with morality forged in motion. Wu is formidable in combat — there is seemingly no prop he can’t use to win a fight — but just as compelling in stillness, anchoring the film’s excess with genuine emotional heft.
For all the ways Hollywood has borrowed from Hong Kong action cinema — from Yuen’s own work stateside to the rise of 87North’s John Wick factory — you will see nothing like Blades of the Guardians in theaters this year unless you actually see Blades of the Guardians in theaters this year. It is a master’s towering reminder of what spectacle looks like when it’s built from discipline and human presence.
Swords clash with sickening clarity. Limbs are severed. Wirework defies gravity with a grace that American action cinema still cannot replicate. Gun-fu may hit hard, but the visceral thrill of a perfectly executed aerial spin kick remains unmatched. Hollywood can’t do wuxia right — sorry, Warriors of Virtue. Blessedly, even at 80, Yuen Woo-ping absolutely can.
Blades of the Guardians is currently in theaters.
