Blades Of The Guardians: Wind Rises In The Desert

1400 years ago, during the reign of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, Dao Ma, a bounty hunter, fearsome swordsman, and the "second most wanted fugitive" in the Empire, is tasked with escorting Zhi Shilang, an anti-imperial rebel leader and the "most wanted“ fugitive, safely across the Western Regions to the capital city of Chang'an, all while dodging imperial blockades and rival bounty hunters.

Blades of the Guardians: Wind Rises in the Desert is an epic wuxia film based off of the manhua, Biao Ren, which tells the story of the bounty hunter Dao Ma, who travels ancient China with his three-year-old son Xiao Qi, all while trying to make a living off of his abilities with his sword.

It’s basically the same kind of set-up as the Incredible Hulk tv show from the 70s. Dr. David Banner rolls into some random town, haunted by his past, and meets a nice person. This nice person, it just so happens, is being menaced by bad guys for various reasons. Dr. Banner then explains to the bad guys what the consequences of their continued harassment will be, and how this will upset him, and how they shouldn’t do that, because they will not like the result, nor him, but the bad guys don’t listen, and then… well, it’s Welcome to the Thunderdome time. Finally, in the end, despite the potential of having a happy life in that random town, Dr. Banner must move on, as the shadow of the past that is haunting him looms fresh, so he moves on down that long and lonesome road

There’s always a lot of potential for adventures in this kind of set-up.

Just to clarify…

Wuxia basically translates into “martial arts and chivalry.” It’s an extremely popular genre of Chinese fantasy fiction that often concern the heroic adventures of martial artists in ancient China. The heroes are often extraordinary martial artists too, usually bordering on superpowered, which usually means a lot of ”wire work” and special effects. The characters are often “low born“ too, or “disgraced” in some way, so they do not serve a lord, hold any kind of military rank, or belong to the aristocracy, but despite this, a code of chivalry still drives them to stand up for the little people, redress wrongs, fight for righteousness, remove oppressors, and bring justice and retribution to those who deserve it. So, basically the ancient Chinese equivalent of superhero vigilantes.

Manhua are just Chinese-language comic books. The artform has existed in China for millennia, with examples of stone reliefs discovered that date back to the 11th century BCE, and pottery dating from 5000 to 3000 BCE, detailing historical events all through sequential art storytelling. Like its Japanese manga and Korean manhwa cousins, manhua tell stories from a myriad of genres, historical, romance, fantasy, sci-fi, thrillers, paranormal, and horror, although manhua from mainland China works under strict oversight regarding violence, sex, and GLBTQIA+ topics.

But back to the movie…

Blades of the Guardians: Wind Rises in the Desert is a massive action-adventure extravaganza brought to the screen by the famous director, Yuen Woo Ping, and which stars, amongst many others, Jet Li.

Yuen Woo Ping’s first directing credit was in 1978 for two seminal martial arts flicks that year, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, followed quickly by Drunken Master. These are the films that made Jackie Chan an international movie star. Yuen has directed multiple martial arts movie greats over the years, like Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Donnie Yen, and Michelle Yeoh, among many others. His work as an action choreography, especially on the incredible Fist of Legend, is what got him hired him as the martial arts choreographer on The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which led to him working on multiple Hollywood films, including Kill Bill: Volumes 1 and 2, and Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle. Basically, all those super cool fight scenes that you love? Yuen Woo Ping is often the guy who is mainly responsible for creating them.

Jet Li, meanwhile, is a legend. With a career of kicking ass of almost fifty years now, Jet Li is one of the most well-known martial artists in cinema history. He is such a skilled and charismatic martial artist, he’s the guy that was chosen to star in the remake of Bruce Lee’s The Chinese Connection, Fists of Legend. A major figure in the wuxia genre in “the East,” he is simultaneously a well-known action star in “the West," his films having easily earned himself a spot in the dull, terribly made, embarrassingly douchebaggy, and ridiculously dumb, but nonetheless packed with an undeniable list of who’s who in American action movies, The Expendables. Jet Li is one of the names in martial arts movies around the world.

So basically, you’ve got two guys here who have been in this game for a long time now, and Blades of the Guardians: Wind Rises in the Desert is them pulling out all the stops and going out in style.

And boy, do they ever…

So…

Dao Ma is a bounty hunter and deadly swordsman traveling the outlands of the Western Regions with his toddler nephew, Xiao Qi. He is known for using a bundle of cheap weapons in battle, and then abandoning each one as they break.

When a local Governor interferes with Dao Ma as he is trying to collect the bounty on a local innkeeper who was once known as the infamous Two-Headed Snake, all in order to force Dao Ma to be the new martial arts instructor of his troops, things go badly, as both the Governor and Dao Ma's bounty perish in the ensuing fight. Dao Ma and Xiao Qi flee with the Governor's troops hot on their heels.

For attacking the Governor, Dao Ma is now the most wanted fugitive in China.

Dao Ma takes refuge in Mojia Village, where the village chieftan’s daughter, the fierce warrior Ayuya, and her men, are able to drive away the Governor’s troops.

Ayuya wants nothing more than to leave her small village and travel to the big city of Chang'an, the capital of the Western Regions, so she asks to join Dao Ma, but he brushes her off, refusing to go to that city for any reason. It’s pretty clear that Dao Ma is a man haunted by a mysterious past, and that this past may involve some unknown events that took place in Chang’an.

Unfortunately, Ayuya’s father and the Chieftain of Mojia Village, Lao Mo, reminds Dao Ma that he now owes him a favor for driving off the Governor’s troops, right before he calls in that favor… He wants Dao Ma to escort a wanted revolutionary to Chang‘an, a man named Zhi Shilang, avoiding all of the Emperor's checkpoints.

Zhi Shilang is the ideological leader of the anti-imperial Flower Rebellion. His political vision is one of peace and equality and freedom, a philosophy that speaks to the low-born peasants of the Western Regions. As a result, there is a massive bounty on his head, one that is even higher than Dao Ma's. Zhi Shilang famously wears an opera mask to hide his identity.

As he has no other options, Dao Ma agrees to undertake this journey.

Hesitant, but again, with no other options, he also allows Ayuya, and her friend and fellow warrior Ani, to join him on the journey. But unbeknownst to Dao Ma, Lao Mo actually wanted Ayuya to go with him because he recently cancelled her arranged marriage to He Yixuan, the asshole warrior son of another clan, and he needs Ayuya to be anywhere else but Mojia Village.

Because He Yixuan did not accept the cancellation, and he still considers Ayuya to be his bride, so he's angry, and he has set out to claim her.

At the same time, and also unbeknownst to Dao Ma, a pair of very determined-looking warriors, known as Diting and One-eye, have shown up at the innkeeper's place, where Dao Ma killed the Governor’s troops, and are sniffing around Dao Ma's trail, asking questions.

So… One-eye has this claw weapon that is both ridiculously cool, but is also ridiculously stupid. It’s cool because they’re Wolverine claws and they flip out and make a little switchblade noise when they do, so that’s cool. But they’re also stupid for the usual reason that these type of “movie weapons” are always stupid. They’ve got a hinge for the flipping-out motion, and it’s at a point that would make them the weakest if you were to slash someone with them, which is literally the only thing you do with them, so that hinge means that the claws actually useless. I hate that. But at the same time, I get it. I get why they’re like that. Like I said, they make this cool little noise when they pop out, and also, the people love Wolverine. These claws are basically a microcosm for why genres like wuxia are cool and fun.

But still… I hate that fucking hinge.

Anyway, this grim and gritty pair of bad asses are set on finding Dao Ma for an unspecified reason…

Meanwhile…

The small group of Dao Ma, his precocious nephew, Xiao Qi, the warriors Ayuya and Ani, and Zhi Shilang are traveling by horse across the dusty desert, when they are attacked by a large assortment of bounty hunters, as well as by the Governeor's troops, who have also caught up to them.

This means one thing… It’s on like Donkey Kong.

After a fierce battle, Zhi Shilang swoons dramatically, loudly complaining that he is not accustomed to such rough and dusty travel, so he pushes his way into the back of a nearby horse-drawn carriage that was using the same road.

Inside the carriage, the group finds another bounty hunter, a mysterious figure named Shu, along with his bounty, an extremely crafty and resourceful sex worker named Yan Ziniang, a target that took Shu two weeks to catch, which is why he is keeping her in chains.

Shu allows them to join him in his carriage.

Unfortunately, it soon becomes apparent that Shu has plans of his own, as he not only wants to keep his current bounty, Yan Ziniang, he also wants to collect the bounties on Dao Ma and Zhishilang as well. Most of all, he wants to be considered to be the greatest swordsman in the land. That means defeating Dao Ma.

So they fight with flaming swords in a field dotted with pools of oil.

It doesn’t work out well for Shu.

But Dao Ma is a good guy and spares him. Shu accepts Dao Ma’s mercy and promises not to attack Dao Ma for the rest of their journey—which is probably the definition of a loaded promise—and he and Yan Ziniang join the party.

Meanwhile…

He Yixuan, backed by the local Imperial commander, Pei Shiju, and the various failsons of the other local clan leaders, as well as some mercenary raiders, attack Mojia Village, hunting Ayuya. They leave it in ruins and set off on the heroes' trail.

When He Yixuan finally catches up to the group on the road, he shows Ayuya the head of her father, because he's a jerk, and quite naturally, a battle starts. Most of He Yixuan’s forces are defeated by Dao Ma, Shu, Ayuya, and Ani, but then the clan leaders arrive with their armies, just in time to see that their failsons are all dead, and He Yixuan is able to use them to go after the heroes, forcing the heroes to flee into a massive sandstorm. This is the worst time for Diting and One-eye to arrive, but they do, and it’s basically chaos in a searing maelstrom of sand.

During all the hub-bub, He Yixuan takes Ayuya.

The party splits. Ani goes after Ayuya, while Dao Ma continues his mission to take Zhi Shilang to Chang'an. But just outside the city, Dao Ma regrets his decision, and asks Shu not only to take Zhi Shilang the rest of the way, but to keep an eye on his nephew as well, as he plans to rescue Ayuya, and probably Ani, but no one really bothers to mention her. Zhi Shilang refuses to go as well, and instead offers to trade himself and his Imperial bounty for Ayuya.

Finally, amongst the charred wreckage of Mojia Village…

Heroes and enemies all meet, traps are sprung, tricks are revealed, steel is drawn, blood is spilled, secrets are revealed, fates are decided, and in the end, a new group of heroes ride off into the sun…

Blades Of The Guardians: Wind Rises In The Desert is your basic road-movie, “putting the band together" fantasy Wild West wuxia film. A kind of Lone Wolf and Cub thing meets a Guardians of the Galaxy team of weirdos thing in a kind of play off a Magnificent Seven idea meets Fury Road. The action is just incredible though, it's all flippety-flippety everywhere and clashing swords, a balletic blast of stylized but basically bloodless violence, not to mention some super cool stunt-riding too, and all as it tells the story of a group of people who’re basically superheroes, each one charming and cool-looking and specializing in a certain type of fighting, versus multiple waves of disposable redshirts, who are led by a handful of unique mini-bosses, each one with unique weapons and fighting styles, until finally… it’s down to a couple of one-on-one grudge matches against a couple of intimidating Big Bads. And in the end, everyone is very tired, and most of them are dead.

It’s a good time.

It’s not deep though. And yeah, it’s a bit overstuffed. There’s like four or five different groups of bad guys, some of whom show up alone, while others show up in a big group, but often as a coincidence, not because they’re working together, but not always. There's also a ton of characters wandering in and out of the story, and while yes, some friends become enemies, some enemies become friends, sadly, nobody kisses. And overall, the characters arcs are all so obvious and cliched that I guess it’s fair to call them outright silly. But at the same time, this is the type of film that is more akin to a rollercoaster. It’s all about the thrills and the rush of the spectacle, and in that sense, Blades of the Guardians delivers just what it promises, a bunch of inventive martial arts choreography and some large-scale action, all while looking cool. As proof of this, Blades of the Guardians is currently the highest-grossing wuxia film ever.

So, if you’re looking for a fun and stylish good time, and you like some high-flying martial arts, then you’ll love this movie.