Blades of the Guardians: Wind Rises in the Desert
It’s not often that we get an action movie that doesn’t feel like it has a lot of fat on the narrative of late. It certainly happens, but so many films feel like they need to get into the 140-minute or higher range that it can feel exhausting to watch even the most entertaining action movies. With his latest film, action choreographer extraordinaire Yuen Woo-Ping clocks “Blades of the Guardians: Wind Rises in the Desert” at just over two hours, and honestly? It’s one of my favorite non-American action films from the past could of years.
The main character is Dao Ma (Jing Wu), and he is a bounty hunter with his nephew, Xiao Qi. He is propositioned by Governor Chang (Jet Li) to be a martial arts instructor to the Governor’s troops. He declines, but in the next two over, Chang’s men catch up to him, and he’s forced to escape violently with an innkeeper, who is actually an infamous swordsman (Jin Zhang). He soon finds himself escorting a revolutionary past the Emperor’s checkpoints to the city of Chang’an. He gets another couple of people joining them on the travel, which will be perilous as they are chased by bounty hunters and Chang’s troops. Who knew we were in for two action-packed movies about bounty hunters being followed by multitudes of people this summer?
If Woo-Ping’s name only vaguely rings familiar, he is best known to mainstream audiences for his revolutionary fight choreography on “The Matrix” trilogy, as well as “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” and directorial works like “Iron Monkey.” Even if you don’t love “Blades of the Guardians” like I do, you’ll be extremely happy to see some fantastic, thrilling action sequences on display. If you’re a fan of old school martial arts action filmmaking, this is a great example of it, but Woo-Ping also has a bit of a chase movie in it. A lot of the film takes place in the desert, and I was reminded, several times, of “Mad Max: Fury Road” in how the narrative and action plays out, even without the diesel-run vehicles of George Miller’s epic. One of the things I love about this film is that it is always moving, and doesn’t deal with easy, black-and-white heroes and villains. Dao Ma is a bit of Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name” as well as Max Rockatansky, someone thrust into a heroic role but not one accustomed to being a hero. The film also doesn’t get too bogged down in the politics of the era- the Sui Dynasty- that it is consistently on the run. It is thrilling and highly entertaining.
