Seems like it’s taking a break until next season. There’s some comment about it below.
It's not a big deal to wait. Anyone feeling "Mortal's Journey to Immortality" withdrawal symptoms can go watch "Shrouding the Heavens". It's still airing with a new episode weekly and being animated by the same outstanding studio (Original Force), but under the direction of Tencent instead of BiliBili.
Original Force is probably my pick for top animation studio from China. Sometimes in "Mortal's Journey" or "Shrouding the Heavens" you feel like you're not watching cartoon characters and fake environments but ppl and settings that emulate real life.
Compared to something like "Legend of Ravaging Dynasties 1 & 2" CGI movies, I feel works by Original Force is on the same level if not slightly better. They don't rely on using CGI models of known celebrities but still manage to obtain an equal footing in visual output.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBDtviSAv4YBTS motion capture tech is nothing new. They been publicly showing…
Bujingai (the final video game product) after all that "hard work" (NOT, this guy just doing rhythmic solo dancing NOT kungfu fighting) behind the scene doing motion capture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBDtviSAv4YBTS motion capture tech is nothing new. They been publicly showing…
Not only that, if you're a fan of Play Station (1/2/3 or whatever) Chinese-themed 3D action games, then you also came across Bujingai from Japan and watched their BTS video. This was uploaded over 16 years ago:
BASICALLY, take away message is, you CANNOT animate a 3D CGI character (in a Chinese-themed work like donghua series or 3-D action video game) without motion capture technology.
BTS motion capture tech is nothing new. They been publicly showing it since Legend of Ravaging Dynasties (CGI movie) that was released A GOOD DECADE AGO:
(Some ppl claimed they've watched all sorts of donghua but are rather neophytes to anime if they view motion capture technology as something novel. Maybe in the future a lot of these techs will be replaced with AI that have watched humans performed live many times over.)
Every CNY, Chinese movie goers rally around one domestic movie. This movie always makes at least 5 billion RMB. Let's hope that this year, Blades of the Guardians is THAT movie.
Although it is a wuxia genre that has historically underperformed at the box office, I see nothing else being announced that could be this year's CNY top movie. Also, once you attach Wu Jing + action genre to any project... His past records have done really well in this category!
Thanks for the summary🤩😍. Excited about this, grew up watching Yuen WooPing’s WuXia show. This definitely…
'"The Shadow's Edge" grossed RMB 1.2 billion'
Jackie Chan movie b.o.'s are not worth mentioning . 1.2billion RMB is pathetic. Even "crappily" animated movies like Nobody grossed plenty more!
I have a set mental target of over 4.5billion RMB for Blades of the Guardians (the amount Zootopia 2 managed to gross in China). If this target not met, I will come back here and say all Chinese movie goers are suckers for supporting Hollywood movies over domestic!
And remember, to financially break even (becoz of the reshooting of the female lead), Blades of the Guardians will now have to gross something like over 2.5 billion RMB, so do support this movie by watching in the theater if you can!
TARGET AUDIENCE OF MOVIE NOT (40-80 Y.O.) DIE HARD WUXIA FANS
Legend of the Condor Heroes movie by Hark Tsui proved you cannot extract money from this demographics group that makes up most hard core die hard wuxia fans.
Wu Jing actually made this movie for young male audiences who have recently become dads! (I didn't think any old timer contributed seriously to WW2 nor WE1/2 nor Changjin box office figures!)
I think the old wuxia fans need to tame their expectations a little with regards to the movie. The re-appearance of Jet Li as the chief antagonist is a controversy in itself. They're no longer the center of attention being catered to.
I think lots of ppl (old die-hard wuxia fans especially) will need to see a psychiatrist after watching the movie becoz they have pre-conditioned themselves to think Jet Li can only dish out his moves onto the bad guys in a Chinese martial arts movie. (He may have made some kungfu moves in Lethal Weapon but that don't count as a Chinese martial arts movie).
They might accept Jet Li playing the antagonist in a Chinese non-martial arts movie. That would have been something novel to them.
But for Jet Li to actually attack other good Chinese characters? Their brains will explode!
I think to make up for it, Wu Jing will have to star in a xianxia genre movie next. "Aha so you've gone on to destroy the xianxia genre I see!" This move will appease a lot of their anger...
Personally, I think Wu Jing is brilliant. I think it was his idea to recruit Jet Li... TO PLAY THE BAD GUY!! Only him can convince Jet Li to return to the big screen martial arts genre let alone play the bad guy.
The main reason becoz he wanted to be seen as being neutral not taken any sides ( unlike certain posters here -- OMG it's Jet Li that's an automatic pass, must see! Ha ha ha! )
He probably considers other people's feelings especially ppl like Jackie Chan. Can you image if he got Jet to play as his mentor? That'll probably rub Jackie the wrong way like he's trying to take sides siding with Jet and trying to suppress his stardom or try to outdo him. In other words, Wu Jing is a master adept at filmography "diplomacy" or whatever you wanted to call it.
The next thing, I think he's also partially responsible for recruiting Nashi to play the female lead at first. Nashi is NOT exactly the type of smoking hot woman, fall in love at first sight. She's borderline ugly. Here too Wu Jing is trying to be neutral towards the hot young male stars of the current and next generation. He don't want to appear as a lady killer and rub these budding actors the wrong way.
I think the biggest danger Wu Jing is trying to navigate around C-ent is making himself out to be to guy that hogs all the beautiful women to himself. Hence recruiting an ugly actress is probably the safest bet he could have made (diplomacy wise NOT money wise as her recent scandal made a big dent in the movie's production budget)
In short I think this movie shows off some of Wu Jing's brilliant strategizing and navigating around C-ent "politics"!
I don't know why ppl look up to Jet Li as some kind of national hero. 1. He's know to badly hurt / physically…
Man, you post so toxic. Go suck one! Since when I ever personally insulted another poster like you? You know likes attract likes. It's widely known Jet Li is a scumbag. Not my own word, but general consensus everywhere. Only scumbags look up to and support another scumbag...
BTW, I live in North America and hold citizenship there. What purpose does it serve me to blindly support and be patriotic to China? Will China invite me to live there if I spread her ideology? So once again, go suck one Mr. Toxic Poster!
The Cast - From DoubanWu Jing - Dao MaNicholas Tse - Di TingYu Shi (Yosh) - ShuChen Lijun - AyuyaSun Yizhou -…
I don't know how much of this is true (I've never read the manhua):
who is Chang Guiren (character played by Jet Li) in Blades of the Guardians?
DEEPSEEK REPLIES: --------------------------
In the Chinese manhua "Blades of the Guardians" (《镖人》) by Xu Xianzhe, Chang Guiren (常贵人) is a significant supporting character. Here’s a breakdown of who he is: Key Identity
He is a high-ranking court eunuch in the service of Emperor Yang of Sui during the late Sui Dynasty. He holds considerable power and acts as the emperor's eyes, ears, and enforcer in many matters. Role in the Story
Antagonist Faction: He represents the corrupt and oppressive imperial authority that the main protagonists often clash with. He is cunning, ruthless, and deeply loyal to the emperor.
Mission Giver and Enemy: He is the one who hires the master swordsman Qin Qilang for a crucial mission. However, his schemes and the true nature of his orders inevitably put him at odds with other major characters, including the protagonist Dao Ma and his allies.
Political Manipulator: Chang Guiren is deeply involved in the palace intrigues and power struggles of the Sui court. He often manipulates events from behind the scenes to consolidate the emperor's power and eliminate threats.
Character Traits
Calculating and Intelligent: He is a master strategist who plans several moves ahead.
Cold and Cruel: He shows little empathy and is willing to sacrifice anyone to achieve his goals or protect the emperor's interests.
Powerful Fighter: Despite being a eunuch, he is depicted as a formidable martial artist, making him a dangerous physical threat as well as a political one.
Unwavering Loyalty: His primary driving force is his absolute loyalty to Emperor Yang of Sui.
Significance
Chang Guiren is a pivotal character who connects the world of the wandering blades (the "bodyguards" or "镖人" of the title) with the highest levels of political power. His actions directly drive major plotlines, forcing the protagonists to navigate not just the martial world, but also the treacherous waters of imperial politics.
In essence, Chang Guiren is the face of the corrupt Sui imperial court in the narrative, serving as a powerful and persistent antagonist who embodies the systemic oppression that the heroes must confront.
This will be Chen Lijun third film and Li Yunxiao debut film, Yunxiao has acted in a TV drama last year but they…
This is the original teaser poster with Nashi as the female lead before she was replaced with Chen Lijun (whoever made this original casting deserves to rot in hell):
So I will pre-emptively say it. If Blades of the Guardians China box office does NOT surpass Zootopia 2 in this region, I will come back and say all Chinese movie goers are Westerner/Hollywood worshipping idiots!
I didn't even finish watching Zootopia 1 at home on TV. How can such boring IPs be making bilions of Yuan in China?
I wonder how much of this is true:https://www.imdb.com/news/ni65661814/Jet Li’s Blades Of The Guardians Suffers…
Article confirms CNY 2026 release date, but makes you wonder why the FL never appeared in the trailer, or maybe she did but went by 2 fast for me to make out:
I know nothing of the manhua or maybe even novel? BUT from what I've seen of the donghua, I can only surmise Jet Li either plays Dao Ma's sifu (but then Jet Li's scenes will have to be flashbacks from long ago becoz he'd be really old in the movie's timeline) or perhaps an evil overlord. What do you guys think?
Yuen Woo-ping directed it, and Jet Li is in it, so I'll watch it without hesitation. Otherwise, most live-action…
I don't know why ppl look up to Jet Li as some kind of national hero.
1. He's know to badly hurt / physically damage the stand-ins in his movies just to show off how powerful his kicks and punches are. Jackie Chan on the other hand would never actually hurt these kinds of ppl. His moves appear powerful becoz of camera trickery not becoz he actually "assaulted" them like Jet Li. Stand-ins probably pray to God all the time they were cast in a Jackie Chan movie instead.
2. He cheated on his first wife.
3. He gave the middle finger to China long ago by first moving to live in America and now Singapore all becoz one earthquake scared the sh1t out of him while he was on vacation there. Hello, infrastructure improve after ppl come to experience a natural disaster so they can survive the next one. How can Chinese still support this like of hanjian who don't even like their motherland?
Original Force is probably my pick for top animation studio from China. Sometimes in "Mortal's Journey" or "Shrouding the Heavens" you feel like you're not watching cartoon characters and fake environments but ppl and settings that emulate real life.
Compared to something like "Legend of Ravaging Dynasties 1 & 2" CGI movies, I feel works by Original Force is on the same level if not slightly better. They don't rely on using CGI models of known celebrities but still manage to obtain an equal footing in visual output.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvquixLOQcM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl1zwaBRgB8&pp (<- video was uploaded over 16 years ago)
BASICALLY, take away message is, you CANNOT animate a 3D CGI character (in a Chinese-themed work like donghua series or 3-D action video game) without motion capture technology.
BTS motion capture tech is nothing new. They been publicly showing it since Legend of Ravaging Dynasties (CGI movie) that was released A GOOD DECADE AGO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkt7xFWIBFg (<- notice video was uploaded over 9 years ago)
(Some ppl claimed they've watched all sorts of donghua but are rather neophytes to anime if they view motion capture technology as something novel. Maybe in the future a lot of these techs will be replaced with AI that have watched humans performed live many times over.)
Although it is a wuxia genre that has historically underperformed at the box office, I see nothing else being announced that could be this year's CNY top movie. Also, once you attach Wu Jing + action genre to any project... His past records have done really well in this category!
Jackie Chan movie b.o.'s are not worth mentioning . 1.2billion RMB is pathetic. Even "crappily" animated movies like Nobody grossed plenty more!
I have a set mental target of over 4.5billion RMB for Blades of the Guardians (the amount Zootopia 2 managed to gross in China). If this target not met, I will come back here and say all Chinese movie goers are suckers for supporting Hollywood movies over domestic!
And remember, to financially break even (becoz of the reshooting of the female lead), Blades of the Guardians will now have to gross something like over 2.5 billion RMB, so do support this movie by watching in the theater if you can!
Legend of the Condor Heroes movie by Hark Tsui proved you cannot extract money from this demographics group that makes up most hard core die hard wuxia fans.
Wu Jing actually made this movie for young male audiences who have recently become dads! (I didn't think any old timer contributed seriously to WW2 nor WE1/2 nor Changjin box office figures!)
I think the old wuxia fans need to tame their expectations a little with regards to the movie. The re-appearance of Jet Li as the chief antagonist is a controversy in itself. They're no longer the center of attention being catered to.
They might accept Jet Li playing the antagonist in a Chinese non-martial arts movie. That would have been something novel to them.
But for Jet Li to actually attack other good Chinese characters? Their brains will explode!
I think to make up for it, Wu Jing will have to star in a xianxia genre movie next. "Aha so you've gone on to destroy the xianxia genre I see!" This move will appease a lot of their anger...
The main reason becoz he wanted to be seen as being neutral not taken any sides ( unlike certain posters here -- OMG it's Jet Li that's an automatic pass, must see! Ha ha ha! )
He probably considers other people's feelings especially ppl like Jackie Chan. Can you image if he got Jet to play as his mentor? That'll probably rub Jackie the wrong way like he's trying to take sides siding with Jet and trying to suppress his stardom or try to outdo him. In other words, Wu Jing is a master adept at filmography "diplomacy" or whatever you wanted to call it.
The next thing, I think he's also partially responsible for recruiting Nashi to play the female lead at first. Nashi is NOT exactly the type of smoking hot woman, fall in love at first sight. She's borderline ugly. Here too Wu Jing is trying to be neutral towards the hot young male stars of the current and next generation. He don't want to appear as a lady killer and rub these budding actors the wrong way.
I think the biggest danger Wu Jing is trying to navigate around C-ent is making himself out to be to guy that hogs all the beautiful women to himself. Hence recruiting an ugly actress is probably the safest bet he could have made (diplomacy wise NOT money wise as her recent scandal made a big dent in the movie's production budget)
In short I think this movie shows off some of Wu Jing's brilliant strategizing and navigating around C-ent "politics"!
BTW, I live in North America and hold citizenship there. What purpose does it serve me to blindly support and be patriotic to China? Will China invite me to live there if I spread her ideology? So once again, go suck one Mr. Toxic Poster!
(I think Jackie Chan can sleep a little better knowing his eternal, life-long arch nemesis will NOT return to the silver screen as a protagonist)
who is Chang Guiren (character played by Jet Li) in Blades of the Guardians?
DEEPSEEK REPLIES:
--------------------------
In the Chinese manhua "Blades of the Guardians" (《镖人》) by Xu Xianzhe, Chang Guiren (常贵人) is a significant supporting character. Here’s a breakdown of who he is:
Key Identity
He is a high-ranking court eunuch in the service of Emperor Yang of Sui during the late Sui Dynasty. He holds considerable power and acts as the emperor's eyes, ears, and enforcer in many matters.
Role in the Story
Antagonist Faction: He represents the corrupt and oppressive imperial authority that the main protagonists often clash with. He is cunning, ruthless, and deeply loyal to the emperor.
Mission Giver and Enemy: He is the one who hires the master swordsman Qin Qilang for a crucial mission. However, his schemes and the true nature of his orders inevitably put him at odds with other major characters, including the protagonist Dao Ma and his allies.
Political Manipulator: Chang Guiren is deeply involved in the palace intrigues and power struggles of the Sui court. He often manipulates events from behind the scenes to consolidate the emperor's power and eliminate threats.
Character Traits
Calculating and Intelligent: He is a master strategist who plans several moves ahead.
Cold and Cruel: He shows little empathy and is willing to sacrifice anyone to achieve his goals or protect the emperor's interests.
Powerful Fighter: Despite being a eunuch, he is depicted as a formidable martial artist, making him a dangerous physical threat as well as a political one.
Unwavering Loyalty: His primary driving force is his absolute loyalty to Emperor Yang of Sui.
Significance
Chang Guiren is a pivotal character who connects the world of the wandering blades (the "bodyguards" or "镖人" of the title) with the highest levels of political power. His actions directly drive major plotlines, forcing the protagonists to navigate not just the martial world, but also the treacherous waters of imperial politics.
In essence, Chang Guiren is the face of the corrupt Sui imperial court in the narrative, serving as a powerful and persistent antagonist who embodies the systemic oppression that the heroes must confront.
https://cityonfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Blades-of-the-Guardians-1.jpg
(Looks like the original site took down the pic but it still shows up in Bing image search...)
I didn't even finish watching Zootopia 1 at home on TV. How can such boring IPs be making bilions of Yuan in China?
http://www.china.org.cn/2026-01/19/content_118288486.shtml
Four generations of Chinese kung fu stars join together for 'Blades of the Guardians'
https://www.imdb.com/news/ni65661814/
Jet Li’s Blades Of The Guardians Suffers Heavy Losses Over Major Controversy Involving Lead Actress
(Obviously, they still gonna release it in CNY 2026, but still makes for interesting news)
1. He's know to badly hurt / physically damage the stand-ins in his movies just to show off how powerful his kicks and punches are. Jackie Chan on the other hand would never actually hurt these kinds of ppl. His moves appear powerful becoz of camera trickery not becoz he actually "assaulted" them like Jet Li. Stand-ins probably pray to God all the time they were cast in a Jackie Chan movie instead.
2. He cheated on his first wife.
3. He gave the middle finger to China long ago by first moving to live in America and now Singapore all becoz one earthquake scared the sh1t out of him while he was on vacation there. Hello, infrastructure improve after ppl come to experience a natural disaster so they can survive the next one. How can Chinese still support this like of hanjian who don't even like their motherland?