The Wild Blade of Strangers

I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised with this historical actioner, while it doesn't dazzle story-wise there's another Ming Dynasty, a crown prince, protecting the heir to the throne, etc. This comes up over and over again, but the action is executed brilliantly in my opinion. There are usually two things that bother me about these historical Chinese films, namely the Wu-xia elements and the frequent wirework during fights, thankfully that doesn't happen here. There is in fact my favorite martial arts star Max Zhang (for me he is the successor to Donnie Yen!) and the guy with the sword performs downright martial arts mastery! Great choreography, he does everything with absolute ease and the action scenes are also very polished thanks to the awesome visuals (I even enjoyed the princess/assassin in the white robe). I also praise the finale where the two-meter giant with the dwarf on his back was downright Boss of Dreams and the final duel with the huge MO sword and the bad guy with two swords against him was delicious, I enjoyed that. For me, a decent action flick, which is a bit dragged down by the uninteresting story and the more boring passages outside the action, otherwise I'm satisfied. 75% (15.05.2024)