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BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS (China 2025) ***`1/2
Directed by Yuen Woo-ping

Based on the comic by Xianzhe Xu, the historical action film BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS is directed by master filmmaker and action director Yuen Woo-ping; boasts an all-star cast including Wu Jing (Wolf Warrior series), who also produced the film, Jet Li (Once Upon a Time in China), Nicholas Tse (Raging Fire), Yosh Yu (Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms), and boyband sensations JUN (Wen Junhui) of Seventeen and Winwin of NCT. BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS was produced by Peace Film Production and written by Yu Baimei, Chao-pin Su, Chan Tai Lee, and Larry Yang.

Set during the Sui Dynasty under the rule of the oppressive Emperor Yang Guang, BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS follows a skilled mercenary, Dao Ma (Biao Ren), as he treks across the harsh deserts of the Western Regions. Tasked with a seemingly simple escort mission, the warrior unknowingly becomes caught in a perilous scheme that promises danger at every turn.  Dao Ma, a hardened mercenary, carries the title of the empire’s second-most-wanted fugitive. Despite his outlaw status, Dao Ma is hired for a high-risk mission:

He must escort Zhi Shilang, the number-one most-wanted fugitive, from the western desert regions to the imperial capital of Chang’an.

What appears to be a straightforward transport job quickly proves suspicious. The prisoner is mysterious, highly valuable, and wanted by multiple powerful factions.

Dao Ma accepts the job anyway—motivated by debt, obligation, or his own moral code 

The film is directed by legendary Director Yuen Woo-ping, who is widely regarded as one of the most influential martial-arts choreographers ever, with credits including:

CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, THE MATRIX, and KUNG FU HUSTL,E among countless others.  His involvement signals high-quality, authentic fight choreography, which is a big selling point.  The choreography is evident in the ultra-impressive fight sequence at the film’s first 10-minute mark between a governor and Dao Ma.

BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS has been elected as the prime movie to celebrate the Lunar New Year, a time for Chinese as important as the movie Christmas season.  As this is the only wuxi film, there is little competition to this much-anticipated auctioneer.

The film is one up on Hollywood productions, as unlike many CGI-heavy films, the production prioritizes real horseback chases, practical and exciting combat with lots of actor training, and is choreographed by Yuen.  The cast includes major action names like Wu Jing,

Nicholas Tse and Jet Li.

The film boasts old-fashioned filmmaking with little AI, CGI, and prosthetics used.  To meet director Yuen Woo-ping's high standards for action scenes, all main actors had to join the crew in advance before filming began, undergoing systematic closed training including traditional martial arts, swordsmanship, and horse riding. To closely resemble the protagonist's character, Wu Jing made long-term physical preparations, growing a beard and long hair in advance, and undergoing rigorous equestrian and action training.  The film is to be praised for this and many other reasons, another being the replacement of the actress with Chen Lijun playing Ayuyah, which caused a delay in the film’s release and an increase in budget.

The film is shot on location in Xinjiang deserts with sweeping IMAX-style visuals.

Yuen Woo-ping’s BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS is set for a Chinese New Year theatrical debut opening Tuesday, February 17th.  A worthwhile action-packed film to watch, like in the good old days of cinema.

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HOW TO MAKE A KILLING (UK/France 2026) **

Directed by John Patton Ford

Many black comedies have been made about doing away with human obstacles by killing in order to secure an inheritance.  The new black comedy HOW TO MAKE A KILLING is one of the latest ones, inspired, according to press notes, by the film KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS and perhaps, a little by THE WRONG BOX.  But HOW TO MAKE A KILLING fails, for several reasons, the most important one being that it is not funny nor remotely credible.

Disowned at birth by his obscenely wealthy family, blue-collar Becket Redfellow (Glenn Powell) will stop at nothing to reclaim his inheritance, no matter how many relatives stand in his way.

The film goes on with the relatives being done away with one after another, with a cop and an assistant investigating.  The film is bookended with Becket in a prison cell waiting for his death, akin to Jane Fonda waiting for her hanging in Elliot Silverstein’s CAT BALLOU.  But in all films with a beginning like this, when an unexpected hero is to be saved at the last moment, just as CAT BALLOU was by her friends in one of the best comedy westerns of all time.

Glenn Powell, one of the fastest rising good-looking hunk actors of all time, is in cruise mode in this movie, showing non-emotions as well not revealing any physical attributes.  Being in romantic comedies and supporting (Clint Eastwood and Tom Cruise) roles in action films, Powell is an actor who deserves better to show his true colours.

It does not help that there are two romantic females involved with Beckett. For a black comedy, there is one action scene, quite a ridiculous one, involving Ed Harris with a rifle and Beckett with a crossbow, shooting at each other in a family mansion.  The action set-piece comes from nowhere and is as silly as it is laughable.

HOW TO MAKE A KILLING is not the sophisticated crime movie it intended to be, for the many reasons laid put already.

HOW TO MAKE A KILLING opens in theatres Friday.

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MEDUZA (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Roc Morin

MEDUZA is a many-layered film about a few subjects.  Though labelled a documentary and is actually one, it feels like a live-action fiction story.  The film is called MEDUZA as it is the Ukrainian/Russian word for “jellyfish” and also evokes Medusa from Greek mythology. The filmmakers use this layered meaning to reflect the film’s themes.

The film begins with a voiceover talking about travelling faster than the speed of light across the universe before focusing on the manufacture of ammunition in an American arms factory.  The bullets are on display, the ammunition of snipers, the sniper being the subject of this mysterious feeling documentary.

When his hometown is invaded, a Ukrainian actor who once played a sniper in a movie becomes a real sniper on the front line. Meduza follows Ukrainian artist-turned-sniper Pavlo Aldoshyn from the first days of the war in 2022.  Pavlo is from a small village near a salt lake.  The film follows the real-life transformation of a Ukrainian actor into a frontline soldier.  When Russia invades Ukraine in 2022, his life imitates art: he joins the military and becomes an actual sniper.

Through all this, the film tracks Pavlo’s journey from artist to combatant, which includes the psychological toll of war with his inner reflections as he confronts real violence

This documentary stars famous Ukrainian actor Pavlo Aldoshyn (“White Raven”), who was also a contestant on Ukraine's version of The Voice before the war. The shoot took place over two years following the invasion, with some pre-invasion footage obtained from Pavlo and his wife, Katarin. The team was Director Roc Morin and Leïla Wolf, Morin’s producer and longtime film collaborator, who passed away in January. Morin had reported on the war starting in 2014 as a print journalist, and following the full-scale invasion, flew to Poland, walked across the border, and hitchhiked to Lviv because there was no organised transportation heading into the country at that time.

Throughout the film, Pavlo's inner life connects to a range of stories around the globe, including a Japanese widower searching the ocean for his wife, and an Amazonian tribesman describing the loss of a mythical ladder connecting earth and sky.  The interwoven global stories that echo themes of loss and survival.

 The doc shows Pavlo’s unique spiritual perspective of himself in the context of the war. Witnessing Pavlo’s psychological transformation over the course of the two years of filming, and the impact of his involvement in the war on his spiritual mythology and relationships, forms the core of the film and shows the intimate costs of war. Pavlo is still fighting on the front lines for his country, even today.  Beware:  If you are not into new age beliefs, healing, reincarnation nd the like, you might consider all that is shown mumbo-jumbo nonsense.

The film was shot in the United States, Ukraine, Japan, India, and Ecuador. The film is tied to the 4th anniversary of the war in Ukraine.

MEDUZA is a slow-burning film that allows the audience to appreciate life while meditating on the effects of war and its futility.  The audience sees the world through the eyes of different characters, with a focus on Pavlo, who is an artist at heart and not really a sniper.  He says that the military is not his profession.

MEDUZA opens on digital platforms on February 20.

MIDWINTER BREAK (UK/Netherlands 2025) ***½

Directed by Polly Findlay

MIDWINTER BREAK is a film based on the novel of the same name by Bernard MacLaverty.  He is a Northern Irish writer who has moved to Scotland, much like the protagonists in the story of the film.  Bernard MacLaverty is regarded as one of the greatest living Irish writers.

In MIDWINTER BREAK, retired couple, Gerry (Irish actor Ciaran Hinds) and Stella Gilmore (British actress Leslie Mann), fly from their home in Scotland to Amsterdam for a long weekend—a holiday to refresh the senses, to do some sightseeing, and generally to take stock of what remains of their lives. Their relationship seems safe, easy, and familiar.  They enjoy each other's company.  But over the course of the four days, the deep uncertainties that exist between them are revealed.

Gerry, once an architect, is forgetful and set in his ways. Stella is tired of his lifestyle, worried about their marriage, and angry at his constant undermining of her religious faith.  Things are not helped by memories that have begun to resurface of a troubled time in their native Ireland.  As their midwinter break comes to an end, we understand how far apart they are—and can only watch as they struggle to save themselves.

The film, thanks to the source material, is an accurate, compassionate observation of a couple’s relationship that is a tender, intimate, heartrending story.  Yet it is also a profound examination of human love and how a couple can live together, with a lot of gives and fewer takes.

The film takes its time to unfold, but the wait is well worth it.  Both Hinds and Manville are superb, and besides the writing, performances, and direction, MIDWINTER BREAK is indeed a masterful film.

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PAVANE (South Korea 2016) **

Directed by Lee Jong-pil

The film PAVANE comes from the classical music piece called PAVANE, which is the favourite musical piece of the girl in the story.

Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess) is a work for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, written in 1899 while the French composer was studying at the Conservatoire de Paris under Gabriel Fauré. Ravel published an orchestral version in 1910 using two flutes, an oboe, two clarinets (in B♭), two bassoons, two horns, a harp, and strings.  The Pavane lasts between six and seven minutes and is considered a masterpiece.

Pavane (Korean: 파반느) is an upcoming South Korean romantic drama film directed by Lee Jong-pil. It stars Go Ah-sung, Byun Yo-han, and Moon Sang-min. Produced under The Lamp, the film is based on the novel Pavane for a Dead Princess written by author Park Min-gyu, and it tells the story of a woman who was deemed unattractive by society and a man who sees beyond her looks. 

One would expect the film about an unattractive girl pursued by a beau who sees beyond her outside appearance to be charming and engaging.  Instead, this all-over-the-place teen romance is both dull and boring, especially running at close to two hours.  A few silly CGI segments serve to show how disorganised everything is.

The film is to be released on Netflix on February 20, 2026.

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THE SWEDISH CONNECTION (Sweden 2026) ***

Directed by Therese Ahlbeck and Marcus Olsson

Swedish Foreign Ministry bureaucrat Gösta Engzell, overlooked during WWII, rescued thousands while turning supposedly neutral Sweden into a moral force. His efforts challenged the status quo and left a lasting humanitarian legacy.

In 1942, Sweden remained neutral, though surrounded by German-occupied countries.  Sweden remained neutral, according to the film and history, by granting whatever Hitler wanted.

But when it is learnt that Jews are sent to death camps, Jews with a Swedish connection (i,e. Swedish citizenship) are then questioned if they could be exempt because of the country’s neutral status.

The film is based on little-known historical events, but it is still based on true events.

The hero of the story is a mild-mannered employee named Gösta Engzell.  Gösta Engzell (14 February 1897 – 7 March 1997) was a Swedish jurist and diplomat who is known for his activities to rescue Jews during World War II. He was the ambassador of Sweden to Finland between 1954 and 1963 and served in other diplomatic posts.  On 7 September 1942, a Latvian refugee named Gillel Storch met Gösta Engzell and informed him about the increasingly negative conditions of Jews in the German-occupied territories. Engzell then began to influence the policy of the Swedish government, which would help Jews in Nazi-controlled regions.  He initiated actions to save Jews in Norway and Denmark.  In addition, Engzell encouraged Swedish diplomats Carl Ivan Danielsson and Per Anger to take steps to protect Jews in Budapest in 1944.   As a result of the activities of Engzell and his staff, approximately 30,000–40,000 Jews were rescued.

Henrik Dorsin plays the hero Gösta Engzell.  Dorsin is a pudgy, balding family man, not the typical hero one would expect to save thousands of Jews.  The film notes that this is a timid man, at first just letting the atrocities go, until he is unable to any longer because of his conscience, especially urged on by his son, to whom he tells stories at bedtime.  The son asks his father what he does for a living, working for Hitler?  A diplomat, comes the answer.  The son takes it that when there is trouble, the father’s job as a diplomat is to offer a song and cake to calm the troubles.  But when Engzell finally stands up for the Jews, one can applaud the man for finally becoming the hero he was meant to be.

THE SWEDISH CONNECTION is based on true events and on a hero who is driven by conscience and humanity.  This is not an action film, but one that shows the difficult processes of red tape and conflict that went through for Jews to be saved.  And there are sympathetic Germans, too.  The film covers themes of how one overcomes obstacles through moral courage within a rigid system, and how the power of small bureaucratic actions can be used.  Sweden’s wartime neutrality vs. humanitarian duty prevailed.  This is quiet, non-violent resistance.

THE SWEDISH CONNECTION premieres on the streaming service Netflix, a Netflix original film from Sweden that is an important watch for historical education and also for entertainment.

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