Meanwhile, the baby boy is in the protective arms of his mother Nie Ling Er (Xia Meng). The two are seen frantically trying to escape the city as well as the royal soldiers chasing them. By coincidence they meet master Tian An Ye, a coal seller and master swordsman, who defeats the soldiers and gives them refuge. As Tian’s story begins to unfold, we find out that he used to be the chief training officer of Mo Dao (blade) Army, a special Tang’s force.
Equally, the swordswoman Qin Gu (Liang Lu Xia) is a mystery herself but at the same time harbors similar motives to saving the baby, she however has her own reasons. Afterwards the Prince has sealed all gates of the city territory the company of Tian has to look for another way out of Chang’an. Unnecessary to add, General Zhang and his guards are not so friendly and will not allow anyone to leave alive.
Li used to be an assistant director for Zhang Yi Mou and some of his visuals may be attributed to his work, particularly the snowy terrains and the coloring and dressing in the pavilion set at the very end. Even so, he understands how to utilize the enormous budget as he does possess a great aesthetic sense and the final product is worth it. The specificity of both the garments and the interiors is astounding and feels genuine. The film’s plot is much about its main character’s secret skills and true identity and the age old storyline of good and evil is rather commonplace in many wuxia adventures. So in that way it does not offer anything new. I would like to commend Guo Yong for crafting such outstanding action scenes which show fluidity in motion.
Hand to hand fighting is not part of the their many weapons used which are mostly different types of blades. But other than the wire assisted ending fight, the action is kept subdued for the majority of the time. And the low quality use of CGI for blood and guts together with some of the scenes does look bad to say the least.
In the previous paragraph it was stated that Max Zhang possesses the necessary skills and he only must find a good movie in which he will portray a major part that would ultimately take him to the upper tier. It is a shame that this recent tailor made project for him was a local box office failure and in result it was hastily streamed online to recover the losses. In fairness however, Zhang’s leading role is still impressive and he certainly has enough screen presence and is able to do so. Besides, he most certainly excels in the action department and quite frankly he fits the role of someone with a massive long handled blade.
Thus, clad in a black and white two side cloak to camouflage herself, Jiang Lu Xia portrays Qin Gu a swordswoman who bears a greatly upsetting history. Moreover she is also an interesting character who mysteriously appears and disappears but only this time, she wields a sword. Jiang is captivating in her role but the action scenes would be much better if the filmmakers allowed her to spend more time doing them quite often. In other scenes, Geng Le appears to be enjoying himself as the cold-blooded General Zhang Xi Qing who walks around with a pair of blades while making Tian’s life very difficult.
Finding a wuxia film on the big screens has become impossible, however, the streaming platforms are filled with these pictures, with few exceptions. But most of them really do not even deserve a second glance. However, once in a while, real masterpieces appear and “The Wild Blade of Strangers” is one such film. Together with online productions such as the like “Eye for An Eye” series and “The Hidden Fox,” at least some filmmakers exist in order to maintain the existence of the wuxia genre.
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