Wu Jing: Hong Kong Cinema Still Shapes Every Wuxia Film
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- Wu Jing received the Excellent Achievement in Film Award at the Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest), where 'Blades of the Guardians: Wind Rises in the Desert' received a special screening.
- 'Blades of the Guardians' was directed by legendary Hong Kong action choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, adapted from Xu Xianzhe's martial arts comic, and grossed $215 million during this year's Lunar New Year holiday.
- Wu told the post-screening Q&A the film contains more than 3,000 shots across exactly 125 minutes and 48 seconds, adding that he remembers every minute and sound of the production.
- Wu identified two lasting legacies Hong Kong cinema contributed to the global film industry: action choreography and industrialized production expertise, noting a single Hong Kong producer could oversee three films at once.
- The film's cast spans nearly a century in age, from a nearly-100-year-old mentor who introduced both Jet Li and Wu Jing to the industry, to its youngest actor, born in 2020.
- Wu framed the project as potentially a final gesture for the genre: 'even if the genre was disappearing, we wanted to create one last great martial arts spectacle,' while arguing authentic filmmaking still depends on bodily performance over visual effects.
Why it matters: Wu Jing's MIFFest remarks position a $215 million-grossing film — directed by 80-plus-year-old Hong Kong legend Yuen Woo-ping — as both a commercial proof point for traditional wuxia and a self-conscious 'last great spectacle' from a generation that learned its craft in Hong Kong's action-cinema heyday, even as short-form video reshapes how younger audiences discover the genre.
