Great Dragons Conceal Their Power: Blades of the Guardians (2026) Review

Director: Yuen Woo-Ping

Notable Cast: Wu Jing, Yu Shi, Chen Lijun, Nicholas Tse, Sun Yizhou, Ci Sha, Li Yunxiao, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Max Zhang, Jet Li, Zhang Yi, Kara Wei, Liu Yaowen, Xioung Jinyi

 

Considering the substantial cast and having an icon like Yuen Woo-Ping sitting in the director’s chair for this one, I could start this review out by stating things how Blades of the Guardians is an action fan’s dream come true or that Yuen Woo-Ping has delivered his best film in decades - both of which are true - but I think I want to start this off with a bit more heat. 

 

Thank you, Chinese streaming movies. 

 

Sure, Blades of the Guardians is the big title being released for Lunar New Year, and it’s probably going to slaughter in the international box office. It’s the kind of grandiose combination of spectacle, A-list names, and entertaining action cinema that will appease fans and newbies alike. And yet, as the film played out, using its dusty setting, well-choreographed action set pieces, and broad-stroke classic wuxia characters was not a reaction to the success of low-budget wuxia films on streaming sites like iQIYI. 

 

While the Chinese box office has been dominated by big CGI-focused fantasy-driven wuxia films over the last 10 to 20 years (which is fine for films like Creation of the Gods, but feels unwieldy and bloated for films like Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants), there was something of a counter movement in the streaming sector that pulled away from that. Smaller stories, big characters played by charismatic actors (often names from action films versus fantasy ones), and a focus on strong intimate action featuring plenty of stylish wire-work sword play. Films like Eye for an Eye, Blade of Fury, or Butcher’s Blade have reignited my own love of the gritty wuxia film. 

 

And, dare I say, Blades of the Guardians has far more in common with those films than it does with the fantasy-driven wuxia, and it’s better for it. Yuen Woo-Ping and his team pull away from the bloat that weighed down some of his previous wuxia efforts (particularly The Thousand Faces of Dunjia) and instead drive home a film about heroes, villains, justice, and a whole lot of sword-slashin'. The monsters here are people driven by power lust, not creatures from folklore, and the plotting has far more in common with Mad Max: Fury Road than with the Shakespearean politics of a film like Creation of the Gods. Blades of the Guardians is old-fashioned, brilliant action, slathered in modern spectacle and driven by heartfelt characters. And yes, I will argue that it’s one of Yuen Woo-Ping’s best films. Period. 

 

Moving Mountain Project: The Wandering Earth II (2023) Review

Director: Frant Gwo

Notable Cast: Andy Lau, Wu Jing, Li Xuejian, Sha Yi, Ning Li, Wang Zhi, Zhu Yan Man Zi

 

Not that most of us can remember a world pre-pandemic at this point, but if you do and you were following the rise in dominance of the Chinese film industry upon the global market - you might remember Frant Gwo’s massive blockbuster hit, The Wandering Earth. 

 

Unleashed during the Lunar New Year in theaters (yes, even with a limited release here in the US) the film took one of those silly sci-fi concepts and managed to make a film that embraced the Hollywood formulas and style established by Roland Emmerich and Michael Bay. However, it managed to capture the fun of a sci-fi disaster film and embed a ton of heart into the mix. 

 

It’s not all that surprising that a big-budget sequel, The Wandering Earth II, would get greenlit. What is surprising is that not only is it a prequel and not a sequel - a choice that could have easily and horrifically backfired, but it manages to be better than its predecessor in almost every facet. The Wandering Earth II is a science fiction opera that douses its audience with massive spectacle, bold cinematic heroics, and intriguing themes around sacrifice. Yet, it still manages to craft melodrama that sprints the line between corny and tear-drivingly effective while delivering on the white-knuckle disaster spectacle Hollywood made famous in the 1990s. 

 

The Wandering Earth II never wanders. It’s an expertly crafted slice of blockbuster brilliance and, if it’s still in theaters when you read this, you should definitely see it on the biggest screen possible. 

 

The Climbers (2019)

Director: Daniel Lee

Notable Cast: Wu Jing, Zhang Ziyi, Zhang Yi, Jing Boran, Hu Ge, Wang Jingchun, Chen Long, He Lin, Choenyi Tsering, Jackie Chan

China’s attempts to be the next Hollywood are only getting larger. Whether it’s big-time disaster films, comedies, or science fiction (and to some extent all three at once in the blockbuster The Wandering Earth) the industry is hellbent on taking inspiration and attempting to out-Hollywood Hollywood at its own game. The Climbers is a product of this mindset. This film exists to a) be a huge action-packed and dramatic blockbuster to draw in audiences with its stars and big-name talent and b) as continued jingoistic propaganda for China. For all of the hype around Wu Jing teaming up with director Daniel Lee to tell the story of the Chinese expedition in 1975 to crest Mt. Everest, it’s almost fitting that the film ends up as a gigantic mess. It tries incredibly hard to be everything a major blockbuster film needs to be as a huge four-quadrant success and, unfortunately, lacks the balance of pacing and tonality to fit it all in there. There are a handful of things to respect in how The Climbers approaches its material, but for everything it does right, it makes a half dozen choices that don’t work in obscenely baffling ways.

The Wandering Earth (2019)

Director: Frant Gwo

Notable Cast: Qu Chuxiao, Li Guangjie, Ng Man-tat, Zhao Jinmai, Wu Jing, Arkady Sharogradsky, Mike Sui, Qu Jingjing, Zhang Yichi, Yang Haoyu, Li Hongchen, Yang Yi, Jiang Zhigang, Zhang Huan

Although I spend a large portion of my day either commenting or writing about various elements of cinema and the various stories that break out, I really wanted to go into China’s first big science fiction blockbuster, The Wandering Earth, as blind as possible. There was definitely a lot of talk about the film prior to its Lunar New Year premiere and the fact that it was even getting a minimal theatrical roll out in the US was inspiring. Still, I went in without seeing trailers and only snapping glances at a handful of posters and the cast. This experience was refreshing. To add to it, the theatrical showing I saw the weekend after the start of the Lunar New Year was a sold out showing, filled to the brim with an audience that was electrified to see the film. Perhaps it was the context of seeing the film in this way, but The Wandering Earth was, with all puns intended, an otherworldly blast. Pulling heavily from the Hollywood text book of thrilling big budget sci-fi blockbusters, The Wandering Earth might try to jam a bit too much into one film, but the focus on developing fun characters in a wild adventure plot cannot be understated. Often times the film is eye-rolling, potentially falling apart in front of the audience’s eyes like the setting of the film itself, but there is so much heart and entertainment to be had that it’s easy to forgive it its cinematic sins.

Wolf Warrior II (2017)

Director: Wu Jing

Notable Cast: Wu Jing, Celina Jade, Frank Grillo, Hans Zhang, Yu Nan

Wu Jing’s vanity project, funded by what seems to be the military recruitment fund of China, was 2015’s military action flick Wolf Warrior. That film, ultimately, was a mixed effort. Thin in its writing and big in its ambitions for action, it seemed to be a throwback to 80s style action with a modern military action slant that was much more enjoyable than it was ‘good.’ Even with that in mind, Wolf Warrior II was something of a surprise. As is the intent with most action vehicles, this film intends to be bigger, badder, bolder, and beefier than its predecessor and I’ll be damned if it doesn’t succeed in almost every regard. It’s still not a film that I would call great by any classical film critique standard, but Wolf Warrior II is so much energetic fun that it’s hard not to be swept up in its unstoppable current as an addictive action tour de force.

Call of Heroes (2016)

Director: Benny Chan

Notable Cast: Sean Lau, Eddie Peng, Louis Koo, Wu Jing, Yuan Quan, Jiang Shuying, Liu Kai-chi, Berg Ng, Sammy Hung, Philip Keung, Xing Yu

From the time that it was announced, under the title The Deadly Reclaim before it was changed to Call of Heroes, there was a lot of hype behind this film. Between the stacked cast of current A-list actors, the legendary Sammo Hung as action director, and Benny Chan behind the director’s chair, this film was going to have to live up to a lot of expectations. With a concept that can be described as a wuxia western, Call of Heroes lives up to a lot of those expectations in many surprising ways. The film is one that had to sit with me for a while before writing this review because many of its themes and approaches were ones that didn’t necessarily strike home initially, but blossomed over a bit of time and reflection. Call of Heroes is not a film for everyone, particularly those who are unable to jive with modern Chinese cinema’s use of spectacle and CGI, but for those looking for a solid entertaining time with some shockingly creative results than this film fits that just fine.