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Blades of the Guardians review – swords to the fore in martial arts master Yuen Woo-ping’s wuxia heaven

Impressive film is full of exquisite fight scenes and action-movie stalwarts who overcome a ridiculously tangled plot

Recently becoming the most successful wuxia film of all time at the Chinese box office, Blades of the Guardians offers a duly impressive spectacle, chock-full of epic set-pieces that lean more on physical effects than CGI, and of course lashings of exquisitely choreographed fight scenes mostly using – as the title suggests – swords.

One wouldn’t expect anything else, given it is directed by veteran fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, best known to western audiences for his contributions to films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the Matrix movies and Kill Bill. Asian viewers might revere him more for directing classics such as Drunken Master, the Tiger Cage pictures, Iron Monkey and many more. In addition, Blades puts megastar Wu Jing at the centre of the story, a performer who got his big break back in the 90s working with Yuen on Tai Chi Boxer. From there, Yuen fills out the cast with lots of stalwart action-movie faces, including good ol’ Jet Li as a levitating evil general and Tony Leung Ka-fai as a noble father, plus up-and-coming faces like popstar/actor Yu Shi as a bounty hunter and Chinese opera star Chen Lijun as a plucky princess who’s handy with a bow and arrow.

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