Jet Li and Wu Jing ‘Speak the Same Martial Arts Language,’ Says Yuen Woo-ping of New Hong Kong Film ‘Blades of the Guardians’ (Exclusive)

When Yuen Woo-ping needed horses, he used real horses. When he needed desert landscapes, he shot in actual deserts. And when he needed actors who could perform Hong Kong-style wirework and martial arts sequences without relying on digital enhancement, he assembled a cast of wushu champions — led by Wu Jing and Jet Li — who could deliver the physical authenticity his vision for “Blades of the Guardians” required.

“Getting shots in camera has always been my way of working,” the director tells Variety. Yuen’s influence on martial arts cinema spans decades, from choreographing Jackie Chan’s “Drunken Master” to defining the visual language of “The Matrix” trilogy and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” For “Blades of the Guardians,” that meant returning to practical filmmaking methods. “In Hong Kong filmmaking, many stylistic choices were born from necessity and limitation. We invented wirework because we didn’t have visual effects and that became…