The Art of Action

4 stars

Yuen Woo-Ping.

You may not recognize the name, but chances are you know his work. Whether you are a fan of the old school Hong Kong action classics he directed, like Drunken Master (1978) or Iron Monkey (1993), or his work as stunt coordinator on modern-day action masterpieces like The Matrix films or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), you’ve seen his art on the big screen.

It’s an amazing resume, and the 81-year-old action movie auteur’s latest film, Blades of the Guardians, deserves to be right up there at the top because, unlike far too many action movie directors, Yuen knows that a great battle means more than guys punching each other while shit blows up all around them. Even at their most intense, the fight sequences in Blades of the Guardians are designed to keep the audience focused on the people doing all that punching and kicking. He gets viewers emotionally invested in the conflict to the point where they not only root for the good guy (or gal) to win, but also want the bad guy (or gal) to do their best, too. 

The story told in Blades of the Guardians is relatively straightforward: Bounty hunter Dao Ma is entrusted to bring the mysterious Zhi Shi Lang to the city of Chang’an. It seems like an easy assignment, but Zhi is a revolutionary icon of the masses and has been declared the most wanted fugitive in the land by the ruling clans. Dao quickly learns he can not trust anybody, not even the few stragglers and strays he’s picked up along the way who seem to be on his side. It adds a special sort of tension to the scenes between the fisticuffs.

According to the press notes, a guiding production principle shaped the film’s entire approach to stunt work and performance: Real fighting. Real falls. Real riding. Wherever possible, actors performed their own horseback sequences, weapons work, and hand-to-hand combat, anchoring the film’s action in physical credibility.

Let all those green screen superheroes take note. Audiences can tell when you’re faking it.

Yeun has shown a talent for raising the thrills of combat to an art throughout his career. As a critic, I was lucky enough to get a screening link to watch Blades of the Guardians on my TV at home. I was so impressed by the look of the film (along with everything else) that the day after watching it at home for free, I went to the theater and paid to see it on the big screen. It was everything I hoped for, especially the epic fight that takes place in a desert oil field and the equally exciting brawl in the desert inn. They’re edge-of-your-seat thrills that are beautiful to look at, too.