The Wild Blade of Strangers (2024)

A swordsman with a past has to spirit the infant crown prince out of a hostile city after a traitor usurps the throne.

The script is lacking in depth or detail but The Wild Blade Of Strangers holds together pretty well and has high production values - I wish these streamers would get over the orange & blue look today-ish though.

Max Zhang isn't the most expressive actor but even by his standards his character is a bit lifeless... not that the others fare much better. Action is nicely choreographed and filmed, with some flashy camera work but a fairly grounded, coherent grasp of space and motion.

In general the trend for these mainland wuxia produced (I assume) for streaming platforms seems to be positive, they're becoming more filmic and the action is starting to be at least competent. In some ways it feels like they're having to relearn everything Hong Kong already learned decades ago, and I guess that's largely true, but they're starting to find their own identity too.