CHINA SHOULD LEARN FROM HOLLYWOOD WHEN MAKING TRAILERS FOR MARKETING PURPOSES!
They always have some witty one-liners to not only inject humor into the trailer, but explain to newbies to the franchise the gist of the movie in as few words as possible!
IMO, the script should have been modified slightly to reflect in the trailer as follows:
Dao Ma meets white-haired freak...
DAO MA: I like your hairstyle, can you fly or perform magic?
Then quickly cut to the scene where White-Haired Freak is about to get his arse whooped where a normal qigong practitioner can easily fly away or quickly slide backward by qigong force to move out of the way.
Then the viewer's perception will be unmistakable! -- Oh, I get it now, it's that kind of movie with ZERO comical super-powers featuring a young man with (normal) pre-mature grey hair instead of Anime Freak born with silver hair... Sure, I will watch it!
(It seems Blades of the Guardians trailer was committed to previewing the movie instead of marketing the movie for mass appeal!)
There will be a global release of this movie. I watched Nezha 2 around the CNY last year in North America.Anyways,…
IMO, I think in the end this movie will perform better than Condor Heroes 2025 but worse than anyone expects.
My divine intuition says Chinese in general like Jet Li a little better than Jackie Chan, but deep down they really don't like Jet that much... otherwise how can a racing movie (third part of) be leading the CNY box office this year?
There will be a global release of this movie. I watched Nezha 2 around the CNY last year in North America.
Anyways, movie temporarily ranks #3-#4, but almost twice the box office of Jackie Chan's movie so far.
I think the biggest MISTAKE the production team did was NOT trying to shake off the image of the movie being a hardcore WUXIA. Everywhere in the news media, all I read about Blades of the Guardians were wuxia this and wuxia that...
Look at it from the perspective of someone who never heard of the manhua nor watched the donghua. To these folks Blades of the Guardians is a silly fighting movie with people flying around unleashing their comical qigong!
(And it doesn't help that one of the characters is a young man with long white hair -- the classic CARTOONISH/childish wuxia young freak look!)
(It also doesn't help that Jet Li also made such "comical" wuxia qigong movies in the past -- ppl's false perception / misconception about something is all that matters to get their butt into the theater seat!)
8-PART BTS SPECIAL AIRS Feb 14, 2026!!Here is EP01 of the 8-part BTS special that began airing on Feb14, 2026:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hwg8QEl1OIIt's…
I thought each episode was gonna be at least 20 mins since they produced this mini BTS series as an apology for keeping fans waiting on EP177 of the donghua till Q2 of this year. It's only 8 mins long per episode (but hey at least something is better than nothing right?)
If anyone of you is following Records of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality, which is the closest you can get to wuxia from xianxia standpoint as the protagonist was once a mortal with human combat skills -- then head over this thread where I explained how this work is related to the YEAR of th HORSE:
"SUPERMAN" HAN LI and the YEAR OF THE HORSE:https://youtu.be/1qM52E6-JFE?list=PLBakWosU0sfhr6k1-ldCYx05AYZ8HwslC&t=92(Han…
The last Supergirl movie released in 1984 saw Supergirl fly alongside galloping horses upon arrival on Earth. The NEXT time she returned to the big screen will be in 2026 the Year of the HORSE!
He only shares similarity with "Superman" in looks or appearance.
One of his adventures (sub-arcs) actually MIRRORS Supergirl (1984) movie -- he must journey to the exit of "The Phantom Zone" where he cannot use his magical powers -- this exit is located at the top of a treacherous mountain like in the 1984 Supegirl movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4ZxNw65Ju0 (Supergirl and her helper points to the exit of The Phantom Zone -- where all her superpowers are suppressed -- at the top of a treacherous mountain)
In the 1984 movie, the very first living things Supergirl met upon arrival on earth was not a human being or beings. The very first living things Kara Zor-el met on Earth were HORSES GALLOPING FREELY IN THE PLAINS!
THE ANIMATION STUDIO "ORIGINAL FORCE" IS THE ONE CARRYING THE MORTAL JOURNEY FRANCHISE!!!There's really…
Same animation studio "Original Force" showing their talent to animate (flying) cultivator's soft landing in another donghua series (Shrouding the Heavens):
https://youtu.be/ycQZtu-Z-_g?t=586 (It's surreal how she just swoops into the scene to land softly on her feet [2nd spot to the right]. You can FEEL the distance from which she approached her landing spot!)
THE ANIMATION STUDIO "ORIGINAL FORCE" IS THE ONE CARRYING THE MORTAL JOURNEY FRANCHISE!!!There's really…
Another animation studio that tackles the same scene would do something like: cultivator leaps off flying mount. Cut to view from the ground showing cultivator's feet touching the ground.
Like Huawei chickening out from making electric vehicles because their Excel spreadsheet told them they would incur massive costs and losses. While Xiaomi just went ahead and do it anyways.
It takes a kind of fearlessness and bravery on the part of the animation studio to follow through the entire "jump sequence" to the end instead of cheating via cutting (out the part that mattered the most -- which was to make you FEEL like that bird mount she was on was really THAT high and far away; If you just cut to the ground view of her feet touching the ground without showing the entire jump sequence, you lose the scale of height and distance FEELING!!)
THE ANIMATION STUDIO "ORIGINAL FORCE" IS THE ONE CARRYING THE MORTAL JOURNEY FRANCHISE!!!
There's really nothing outstanding about Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan story itself. The proof is that readers of novels much prefer to read Renegade Immortal than Fanren.
As for the donghua, the animation studio is doing all the heavy lifting to make the series cool. Just take a look at this scene (cultivator flies off flying mount to land on the ground):
It's cool effects like this that keep viewers like me and others interested in the series. If this was done by some other studio than Original Force, the Fanren series wouldn't have as much mass appeal!
(I don't watch this, it's only in 1080p which I find rather "offensive" resolution for such a fine donghua series. BUT, I use this list to rip the ENG subs to pair them with the 4K raw videos I downloaded from elsewhere...)
S1 of the drama correlates with Ep1-64 of the donghua. BUT then the donghua gets really sick. I've only seen up to Ep146 of the donghua so far, but wow, it's like even better than S1 when it eventually gets adapted into an S2 drama. There are so many scenes involving the vast oceans and "paradise islands". I love this kind of stuff! (Whereas you hardly seen a body of water in S1 other than the pond where Han Li's first master lived)
Han Li also literally became Superman (he loses the flying boat and dons on a red cape which gives him super flying speed). There is even a story sub-arc where he gets trapped inside the Phantom Zone of the Superman lore where he cannot use his powers . But the classic Superman movies never did covered the Phantom Zone in depth. But it WAS covered in the Supergirl (1984) movie, where she must arduously work her ways towards the treacherous exit using only her mortal strength or stamina, like in the Fanren donghua.
Basically, don't give up on the S1 drama. S2 will be much better based on what I've seen of the donghua so far...
(BTW, they recently paused airing the donghua at Ep 176, why oh why did I only watched up to Ep 146 today? Well the 4K version is difficult to source, I only managed to get all up to Ep 176 in 4K recently. I never wanted to spoil this excellent donghua series for myself watching it in 1080p. Plus having a wall projector helps to giving this donghua a life-like experience -- the size of the video image I managed to project is almost 3/4th the size of my bedroom wall! That's a humongous image...)
Folks, this movie is NOT Wuxia (which is why it will SIGNIFICANTLY out-perform LoCH movie by Hark Tsui at the box office).
DEEPSEEK Chat: ----------------------
Wuxia (武侠) Key Elements:
- Jianghu: The underground society of martial artists, with its own rules, schools, and conflicts. - The Code of Xia (Xiayi 侠义): A chivalric code emphasizing righteousness, loyalty, courage, and honor. - Supernatural Abilities: Characters can fly ("Qing Gong"), touch pressure points ("Dim Mak"), and channel inner energy ("Qi" or "Neigong").
---------
Especially the last point. When Wu Jing swings his sword, there won't be Qi energy waves nor dragons coming out of the blade to meet his adversary. I don't think anyone can fly in Blades of the Guardians (except maybe carried away by the dust storm). There certainly won't be "Dim Mak" in the movie either.
AND most ppl who star in Blades actually know and practice(d) martial arts unlike Xiao Zhan who had what maybe 6 months to train for the LoCH movie?
This is why most ppl who sat out for LoCH will attend Blades in theater. Wuxia (simply Jin Yong-type) is too COMICAL for ppl to take seriously and spend their hard-earned wallet to watch on the BIG screen.
凡人修仙传奇 (The Game) is out already?https://www.notebookcheck.net/New-free-to-play-MMORPG-launches-on-Steam-with-promising-reviews-but-with-a-major-caveat.1216274.0.htmlMore…
Possible for game to come out on mobile with English translation in the future? Does anyone know?
transformers meghan fox could show up to hanli and he would be like uhhhh yeah no I'm married to the cultivation…
I dropped Transformers after the very first big screen movie. I didn't like how they could disassemble any and every piece of metal and re-mesh them together any way the designer felt like it and call that a robot.
Such "unrestrained" creativity was no longer cool to watch. BUT that's the way Hollywood always operated, as a second rate producer of visual art. Take Marvel Rivals for example, you put a Western IP in the hands of Chinese developers and designers and the result is actually quite amazing!
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.
They always have some witty one-liners to not only inject humor into the trailer, but explain to newbies to the franchise the gist of the movie in as few words as possible!
IMO, the script should have been modified slightly to reflect in the trailer as follows:
Dao Ma meets white-haired freak...
DAO MA: I like your hairstyle, can you fly or perform magic?
Then quickly cut to the scene where White-Haired Freak is about to get his arse whooped where a normal qigong practitioner can easily fly away or quickly slide backward by qigong force to move out of the way.
Then the viewer's perception will be unmistakable! -- Oh, I get it now, it's that kind of movie with ZERO comical super-powers featuring a young man with (normal) pre-mature grey hair instead of Anime Freak born with silver hair... Sure, I will watch it!
(It seems Blades of the Guardians trailer was committed to previewing the movie instead of marketing the movie for mass appeal!)
My divine intuition says Chinese in general like Jet Li a little better than Jackie Chan, but deep down they really don't like Jet that much... otherwise how can a racing movie (third part of) be leading the CNY box office this year?
Anyways, movie temporarily ranks #3-#4, but almost twice the box office of Jackie Chan's movie so far.
I think the biggest MISTAKE the production team did was NOT trying to shake off the image of the movie being a hardcore WUXIA. Everywhere in the news media, all I read about Blades of the Guardians were wuxia this and wuxia that...
Look at it from the perspective of someone who never heard of the manhua nor watched the donghua. To these folks Blades of the Guardians is a silly fighting movie with people flying around unleashing their comical qigong!
(And it doesn't help that one of the characters is a young man with long white hair -- the classic CARTOONISH/childish wuxia young freak look!)
(It also doesn't help that Jet Li also made such "comical" wuxia qigong movies in the past -- ppl's false perception / misconception about something is all that matters to get their butt into the theater seat!)
Here is EP01 of the 8-part BTS special that began airing on Feb14, 2026:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hwg8QEl1OI
It's recommended that you finish watching all 176 episodes of the donghua found here before embarking on the 8-part BTS mini series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDsI4ZD1mV8&list=PLBakWosU0sfhr6k1-ldCYx05AYZ8HwslC&index=112
so you would understand the CONTEXT of what they are presenting in the BTS mini series better!
(Luckily I managed to finish all 176 episodes of the donghua in 4K just yesterday!)
P.S: I posted the links again in a forum thread above for when this post eventually gets lost in the discussion clutter....
If anyone of you is following Records of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality, which is the closest you can get to wuxia from xianxia standpoint as the protagonist was once a mortal with human combat skills -- then head over this thread where I explained how this work is related to the YEAR of th HORSE:
https://kisskh.at/discussions/35477-a-record-of-a-mortal-s-journey-to-immortality/148286-superman-han-li-and-the-year-of-the-horse
Release date
June 26, 2026
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supergirl_(2026_film) )
Coincidence or careful planning by Hollywood?
https://youtu.be/1qM52E6-JFE?list=PLBakWosU0sfhr6k1-ldCYx05AYZ8HwslC&t=92
(Han Li dons on a red cape and flies at superspeed)
He only shares similarity with "Superman" in looks or appearance.
One of his adventures (sub-arcs) actually MIRRORS Supergirl (1984) movie -- he must journey to the exit of "The Phantom Zone" where he cannot use his magical powers -- this exit is located at the top of a treacherous mountain like in the 1984 Supegirl movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4ZxNw65Ju0
(Supergirl and her helper points to the exit of The Phantom Zone -- where all her superpowers are suppressed -- at the top of a treacherous mountain)
In the 1984 movie, the very first living things Supergirl met upon arrival on earth was not a human being or beings. The very first living things Kara Zor-el met on Earth were HORSES GALLOPING FREELY IN THE PLAINS!
https://youtu.be/UNN2IcaauvE?t=142
(Supergirl meets some galloping horses as the very first living things she encountered on Earth)
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR OF THE HORSE EVERYONE!!
https://youtu.be/ycQZtu-Z-_g?t=586
(It's surreal how she just swoops into the scene to land softly on her feet [2nd spot to the right]. You can FEEL the distance from which she approached her landing spot!)
Like Huawei chickening out from making electric vehicles because their Excel spreadsheet told them they would incur massive costs and losses. While Xiaomi just went ahead and do it anyways.
It takes a kind of fearlessness and bravery on the part of the animation studio to follow through the entire "jump sequence" to the end instead of cheating via cutting (out the part that mattered the most -- which was to make you FEEL like that bird mount she was on was really THAT high and far away; If you just cut to the ground view of her feet touching the ground without showing the entire jump sequence, you lose the scale of height and distance FEELING!!)
There's really nothing outstanding about Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan story itself. The proof is that readers of novels much prefer to read Renegade Immortal than Fanren.
As for the donghua, the animation studio is doing all the heavy lifting to make the series cool. Just take a look at this scene (cultivator flies off flying mount to land on the ground):
https://youtu.be/tvUaryd3wws?list=PLBakWosU0sfhr6k1-ldCYx05AYZ8HwslC&t=178
(It looks so surreal when you watch this in 4K on a projector, like an actual human being made that soft landing from a great height and distance!)
It's cool effects like this that keep viewers like me and others interested in the series. If this was done by some other studio than Original Force, the Fanren series wouldn't have as much mass appeal!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDsI4ZD1mV8&list=PLBakWosU0sfhr6k1-ldCYx05AYZ8HwslC&index=112
(I don't watch this, it's only in 1080p which I find rather "offensive" resolution for such a fine donghua series. BUT, I use this list to rip the ENG subs to pair them with the 4K raw videos I downloaded from elsewhere...)
Han Li also literally became Superman (he loses the flying boat and dons on a red cape which gives him super flying speed). There is even a story sub-arc where he gets trapped inside the Phantom Zone of the Superman lore where he cannot use his powers . But the classic Superman movies never did covered the Phantom Zone in depth. But it WAS covered in the Supergirl (1984) movie, where she must arduously work her ways towards the treacherous exit using only her mortal strength or stamina, like in the Fanren donghua.
Basically, don't give up on the S1 drama. S2 will be much better based on what I've seen of the donghua so far...
(BTW, they recently paused airing the donghua at Ep 176, why oh why did I only watched up to Ep 146 today? Well the 4K version is difficult to source, I only managed to get all up to Ep 176 in 4K recently. I never wanted to spoil this excellent donghua series for myself watching it in 1080p. Plus having a wall projector helps to giving this donghua a life-like experience -- the size of the video image I managed to project is almost 3/4th the size of my bedroom wall! That's a humongous image...)
DEEPSEEK Chat:
----------------------
Wuxia (武侠) Key Elements:
- Jianghu: The underground society of martial artists, with its own rules, schools, and conflicts.
- The Code of Xia (Xiayi 侠义): A chivalric code emphasizing righteousness, loyalty, courage, and honor.
- Supernatural Abilities: Characters can fly ("Qing Gong"), touch pressure points ("Dim Mak"), and channel inner energy ("Qi" or "Neigong").
---------
Especially the last point. When Wu Jing swings his sword, there won't be Qi energy waves nor dragons coming out of the blade to meet his adversary. I don't think anyone can fly in Blades of the Guardians (except maybe carried away by the dust storm). There certainly won't be "Dim Mak" in the movie either.
AND most ppl who star in Blades actually know and practice(d) martial arts unlike Xiao Zhan who had what maybe 6 months to train for the LoCH movie?
This is why most ppl who sat out for LoCH will attend Blades in theater. Wuxia (simply Jin Yong-type) is too COMICAL for ppl to take seriously and spend their hard-earned wallet to watch on the BIG screen.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/New-free-to-play-MMORPG-launches-on-Steam-with-promising-reviews-but-with-a-major-caveat.1216274.0.html
More info in this forum thread: https://kisskh.at/discussions/35477-a-record-of-a-mortal-s-journey-to-immortality/148030-the-game
Such "unrestrained" creativity was no longer cool to watch. BUT that's the way Hollywood always operated, as a second rate producer of visual art. Take Marvel Rivals for example, you put a Western IP in the hands of Chinese developers and designers and the result is actually quite amazing!
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.