Entertainment
Jet Li's New Martial Arts Epic Is Like Mad Max On Horseback, Incredible
By Chris Sawin
| Published
Blades of the Guardians is a martial arts film adaptation of a 12-volume manhua (Chinese manga), Biao Ren (Guardian), which was also adapted into a 15-episode donghua (Chinese anime) in 2023. The film is directed by Yuen Woo-ping, who is one of the most well-known Hong Kong action film directors and action choreographers, and has been an active filmmaker for the past five decades.
Some of Yuen Woo-ping’s directing credits include Drunken Master, Iron Monkey, and Tai Chi Master. Some of his action choreography credits include Fist of Legend, the original Matrix trilogy, Kill Bill, Unleashed, The Grandmaster, and Ip Man 3 & 4.
The film follows a bounty hunter named Dao Ma (Jing Wu, the Wolf Warrior films) traveling with a little boy named Xiao Qi (Charles Ju). In the opening of the film, Dao Ma becomes the second most wanted fugitive in the land. The leader of the flower rebellion, Zhi Shilang (Sun Yizhou), is the most wanted fugitive. Dao Ma is entrusted with an escort mission to take Zhi Shilang to Chang’an. They must travel across the desert as every clan and bounty hunter wants a piece of Zhi Shilang’s gargantuan bounty.
As a general rule, you never go into a martial arts epic with the expectation that the story will be well thought out or even coherent. Blades of the Guardians has this Journey to the West meets Mad Max-on-horseback kind of ambiance that generally works. At just over two hours, the film feels a little long in places, especially in the second half. It feels like the story purposely stalls as well to cram in a few more action sequences and leave room for a potential sequel if the film does well enough to become a franchise.
The general idea is that the story is always moving. These characters are constantly traveling and encountering a plethora of other eccentric characters along the way. The action isn’t a detour where everything stops as it’s purposely intertwined into the narrative. The action is meant to emphasize a character’s motivation or alliance, as each punch, kick, and weapon swing carries meaning.
Every shot of Blades of the Guardians is gorgeous thanks to cinematographer Tony Cheung Tung-Leung (14 Blades, Drunken Master II). The film has a $100 million budget, and it shows. Visual effects are extraordinary throughout, but the way Blades of the Guardians makes desert terrain look so colorful is even more wondrous. The film was shot in the real desert regions of western China, so most of the environments are genuine and not green-screen. Taking place in the desert, you’d expect Blades of the Guardians to be a dull kind of tan throughout, but it’s surprisingly lush-looking with nearly every color you can think of.
The action is interesting, not just because it’s visually impressive, but the training and preparation for Blades of the Guardians sounds rigorous and extensive. Actors performed their own stunts whenever possible and constantly trained in horseback riding, weapon handling, and hand-to-hand combat. Most of the cast brought their own experience in martial arts, sports, and even opera, but the training continued even after shooting began.
Blades of the Guardians is being touted as a film reviving wuxia (a genre of Chinese fiction). However, the longer action sequences float and fly in the air, the more of a turnoff it is. Wirework should be used to enhance the action while remaining as grounded as possible. Blades of the Guardians is a great balance, as most of the more superhuman moments revolve around the impact of a punch or kick, trailing behind or on the side of a horse while it’s running, and a spectacular move or two.
Jet Li’s introduction in the film shows him using a sheath to catch a sword thrown at him from across the room, without looking. The two-on-one action sequence that he’s a part of shows that the 62-year-old actor can still go, which should be incredibly exciting for anyone who’s a fan of Hong Kong cinema.
Yuen Woo-ping’s action sequences are of another breed compared to American or other Hong Kong action films. Every sequence is perfectly framed, not too close and not too far away, with everything you need to see in precise view. It’s amazing that Yuen Woo-ping has come up with such fresh ideas after doing this since the early 1970s. There’s a crucial one-on-one fight that takes place in a sandstorm, a fight in the snow while someone is holding a baby, and weapons covered in fire being swung around so beautifully it’s as if you’ve never seen anything like it before.
The film doesn’t shy away from blood either. Limbs and heads are cut off regularly, as blood is splattered in every direction in every fight. Dao Ma is a character who will kill, but prefers not to. He shows mercy more often than not throughout the film. However, there’s one sequence where he swings an axe into the side of someone’s neck, and they fall to their knees before he roundhouse kicks their head off their shoulders.
Blades of the Guardians is one hell of an action film and easily a contender for one of the best films of the genre in the first part of the year. Yuen Woo-ping continues to showcase his legendary talent as a director while four generations of Hong Kong action cinema deliver nonstop badassery over two relentless hours of pure, uncut awesomeness.
Blades of the Guardians is now playing in select theaters.
Entertainment
Moon phase today: What the Moon will look like on March 1
It’s a new month, and while the Moon may appear totally full, we’re still a couple of days away from this yet. But in the meantime, there’s still lots to spot on its surface.
What is today’s Moon phase?
As of Sunday, March 1, the Moon phase is Waxing Gibbous. According to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide, 94% of the Moon will be lit up tonight.
With just your naked eye, tonight you’ll be able to see the Mares Imbrium and Crisium, as well as the Tycho Crater. If you have binoculars hanging about, dust them off and pull them out to catch a glimpse of the Mares Nectaris and Frigoris, and the Endymion Crater. And proud telescope owners will see all this and more, including the Apollo 15 and 17 landing spots, and the Schiller Crater.
When is the next Full Moon?
The next Full Moon will be on March 3. The last Full Moon was on Feb. 1.
What are Moon phases?
According to NASA, the Moon takes about 29.5 days to orbit the Earth. Over the course of this period, it moves through eight recognisable phases, what we call the lunar cycle. While the same side of the Moon always faces us, the amount of its surface lit by the Sun changes as it continues along its path. The shifts in sunlight create the different appearances we see from Earth, ranging from a fully illuminated Moon to a thin sliver or near darkness. The eight phases are:
New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).
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Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).
First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.
Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.
Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.
Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)
Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.
Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.
Entertainment
Men are paying to have negative posts removed from Tea app
As reported by 404 Media, online service Tea App Green Flags will scrub negative posts from anonymous gossip app Tea and similar online forums where women post about negative experiences they’ve had with men they’ve dated.
According to 404 Media’s interview with Tea App Green Flags’ founder, simply identified as Jay, the company launched two years ago to tackle posts on the many Are We Dating the Same Guy Facebook groups. His focus has turned to Tea in the past year.
“We just want to take down posts about people who are being defamed,” Jay told 404 Media. “And when I say defamed, it means like, ‘this guy has a small penis,’ or ‘this guy smells.’ That doesn’t fit the mission statement of what the Tea app was for, which is to warn women against people who are harmful, who are abusive, who are cheaters.”
Tea App Green Flags’ site claims to have removed over 2,500 posts from the Tea App for over 759 clients. Most of the service’s clients are men, although Jay noted that occasionally the wives and girlfriends of men posted on the app will reach out.
Prospective Tea App Green Flags clients must provide their name, age, location, and photo to the service, as well links to specific posts targeting them. According to Tea App Green Flags’ FAQs, they can only remove posts with direct references to a client. On average, the site says, a Tea App “takedown campaign” will take 21 – 30 days. The lengths of other takedowns depend on the platform.
Price-wise, it costs $1.99 to report one Tea account and up to $79.99 to report 25 of them. The company also offers “24/7 Reputation Monitoring,” which costs $19.99 per month and alerts clients when they appear on Tea or Facebook.
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Jay would not share the details of the takedown process with 404 Media. Tea does have a free form for takedown requests on its website, and says that it will “only reply to takedown requests submitted via the takedown portal.”
Jay emphasized to 404 Media that Tea App Green Flags does not extend its services to people who have been accused of sexual assault multiple times on Tea, or who have been accused by one person using their real name and photo in a Facebook group.
“Sometimes we find along the process that there are pedophiles or people who actually did what they did, and they’re very bad,” Jay told 404 Media. “So we say, ‘we’re not doing this.’ We can’t take a rap for that. We’re ethical. We just want to take down people who are being defamed.”
Tea markets itself as presenting “dating safety tools that protect women.” In July 2025, it was the target of a large-scale cyberattack that exposed thousands of user images including drivers’ licenses, leaving users vulnerable to doxxing and harassment. These images were provided as verification for accounts, although the app itself is otherwise anonymous.
Jay claimed to 404 Media that Tea’s anonymity “causes a cesspool of defamation,” and that he would prefer if women shared their faces, even if they are speaking out against dangerous men who have done them harm.
While Tea is meant to be a women-only app, Tea App Green Flags is proof of men’s infiltration of these online dating spaces. (Tea itself was founded by a man: Sean Cook.)
“I have a Tea app account. I’m a dude,” Jay told 404 Media. “All my reps have Tea app accounts. They’re men.”
Mashable has reached out to Tea for further comment.
Entertainment
NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for February 28, 2026
Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is for people who love golf.
As we’ve shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.
Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier — so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
What is Connections: Sports Edition?
The NYT‘s latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication’s sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake — players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
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Here’s a hint for today’s Connections: Sports Edition categories
Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Here are today’s Connections: Sports Edition categories
Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:
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Yellow: Golf Equipment
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Green: Materials in a Baseball
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Blue: SEC School Locations
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Purple: First Names of Chicago Bears
Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer to today’s Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today’s Connections: Sports Edition #523 is…
What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?
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Golf Equipment – CLUB, GLOVE, RANGEFINDER, TEE
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Materials in a Baseball – CORK, LEATHER, RUBBER, YARN
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SEC School Locations – ATHENS, AUBURN, LEXINGTON, OXFORD
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First Names of Chicago Bears – CAIRO, CALEB, LUTHER, ROME
Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be new sports Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to today’s Connections.
Chicago Fire score twice in stoppage time, blank CF Montreal
Layne Riggs holds on to claim first NASCAR Trucks street race
