Wu-Hoo!

Being a lifelong fan of movies and television, it’s probably only natural that I would dabble in screenwriting and creating stories of my own. I tend to favor movies over television, as I prefer stories with a definite beginning, middle, and end, rather than on-going stories that don’t have endings in mind, and are designed to continue indefinitely, so long as the television network keeps renewing the series. That, and television series always seem to be about the same things. It’s always shows about either doctors, lawyers, or police officers. Frankly, I don’t care about doctors, lawyers, or police officers, unless I need them during medical, legal, or criminal emergencies. So if I ever did create a television series, it would be something unusual, and “unusual” is the right word to describe Netflix’s Wu Assassins.

Like I said, television has its obsessions with doctors, lawyers, and the police, so it’s rarer than seeing an albino animal in the wild for there to be a series based around something with such a particular fandom as the martial arts and the subgenre of Wuxia. The most infamous example would be “Kung Fu” with the late David Carradine, but that’s dating back to the 1970s. The most recent example would be Into The Badlands with Daniel Wu, although time will tell how that series will be remembered. “... Badlands” has come to an end this year, so it’s almost like Netflix jumped in to fill the void left behind, and add a more mystic elements while doing so.

Wu Assassins stars Iko Uwais as Kai-Jin, a chef living and working in San Francisco's Chinatown. That is until he’s chosen to become the Wu Assassin, a guardian who is given supernatural abilities in order to defeat the five Wu Warlords who possess the powers of earth, wood, metal, fire, and water. Don’t you just hate it when that happens to you?! Things get even more complicated when it turns out that Kai-Jin’s adopted father, Uncle Six (Byron Mann), has the Fire Wu-Xing (the elemental powers originate from these interlocking pieces that form a tortoise’s shell). It also doesn’t help that Uncle Six is the leader of the local Chinese triad, and he’s about to get into a turf war with a Scottish crime boss named Alec McCullough (Tommy Flanagan), who was once the Wu Assassin, but now possesses the Wood Wu-Xing.

Rounding out the cast are Lewis Tan as Lu Xin Lee, who is Kai-Jin’s best friend, but he secretly runs a chop shop out of his car dealership, Lee’s Wheels. Li Jun Li (Li-Li, isn’t that cute?) plays Jenny Wah, who owns Master Wah’s, the restaurant that Kai-Jin cooks for, and Lawrence Kao plays Jenny’s brother, Tommy Wah, who is the host of the restaurant, but he also happens to have a heroin addiction. Celia Au plays Ying Ying, a warrior spirit who appears to Kai-Jin in visions, and trains him to master the powers of the Wu Assassin. Juju Chan plays Zan, Uncle Six’s right-man woman, and lastly, Katheryn Winnick plays Christine Gavin, an undercover cop who is investigating Lee’s Wheels. Now for a rundown of each episode:

“Drunken Watermelon”: Like any pilot episode, this is all set up for introducing the characters and the premise of the series. Pacing felt a bit rushed at times, and it took a while for the exposition to explain who everyone is, and what their relationships to each other are. All of the action sequences were great though.

“Misspent Youth”: This one provides some backstory for the characters. Kai-Jin, Lu Xin, Jenny, and Tommy were all childhood friends. Present day plot threads are formed, like Christine interacting with Kai-Jin, Uncle Six learning that the Wu Assassin is out to get him, and Jenny saving Tommy from an opium den.

“Fire Chicken”: Uncle Six’s gang members are rounding up every bald headed, Chinese chef in the city, as that is the only clue they have of who the Wu Assassin is. This leads to a showdown between Kai-Jin and Uncle Six.

“A Twisting Snake”: More backstory explaining that Kai-Jin, Lu Xin, Jenny, and Tommy all survived from a burning building that was set ablaze by Uncle Six some 15 years ago. In the present, Kai-Jin and Uncle Six fight each other to a stalemate, and Christine has to take Kai-Jin to safety.

“Codladh Samh”: Having recovered from his fight with Uncle Six, Kai-Jin reveals that he is the Wu Assassin to all his friends. Meanwhile, Uncle Six meets with Alec McCullough, who tells his history of being an immortal Scotsman warrior. Gee, do you think the writers of this show love the Highlander franchise?

“Gu Assassins”: Jenny has an underground fighting match against Zan, and boy, was it brutal! Kai-Jin finds a means to remove the Fire Wu-Xing from Uncle Six by using the venom from five poisonous animals. Haha, get it? It’s a Five Deadly Venoms reference!

“Legacy”: Kai-Jin travels to Oregon to confront the Earth Wu Warlord, who turns out to be an insane serial murderer. Meanwhile, Lu Xin attempts to kill Uncle Six for the lifetime of scars that he caused with the fire from 15 years ago.

“Ladies’ Night”: McCullough, Zan, and the Metal Wu Warlord attack the police precinct that Christina is assigned to. Christina, Jenny, and Tommy all have to fight them as best they can. This was my favorite episode of the series, both with its set up (they do a timeline of what every character was doing leading up to the raid on the police station), and the sheer amount of action that takes place. Also, Zan’s weapons of choice are steel spikes embedded inside of her high heels!

“Paths, Part One”: The Water Wu Warlord (I won’t tell you who plays the role, it’ll ruin the surprise) joins McCullough’s cause. As it turns out, his plan is to use the combined powers of the Wu Warlords to travel back in time to be with the family that he lost as a result of being the Wu Assassin.

“Paths, Part Two”: Kai-Jin and his friends have their final confrontation with McCullough, who now has all of the Wu-Xings. We get a thrilling conclusion, and set up for a possible second season. Unless the show isn’t renewed, in which case, we have a cliffhanger that’ll go nowhere.

Other than “unusual,” the other words I could best use to describe Wu Assassins are “guilty pleasure”. As I mentioned, my favorite episode just so happens to be the one with the most amount of action and the least amount of story to it, but that’s because a series like this one doesn’t rely on story as its main selling point. Influences from other movies are a bit heavy handed, with the Highlander and Five Deadly Venoms references, but a fun show such as this one is going to wink at the audience like that. The action is top notch by television budget standards, as Iko Uwais does what he does best during the fighting sequences, but he fails to top anything that he did in either of the Raid movies.

Action aside, the series falls short in other areas. Iko Uwais, great martial artist and stuntman though he may be, he is horrible as an actor. He can speak English just fine, but both his voice and his facial expressions lack any kind of emotion. As a result, he is the least interesting character of the main cast, which is not a good thing, because he’s the lead! By comparison, all the supporting characters are far more interesting, and you’d rather have any one of them as the lead instead of Uwais, not just in terms of charisma, but in character development. Lu Xin Lee is a smooth talking, sharply dressed, ladies’ man who is always one step above the law, but he’s also haunted by the burn scars that he received from the fiery building that he managed to escape from as a teenager. Jenny and Tommy Wah are doing their best to live up to their parents’ high expectations, but Jenny had to get a loan from Uncle Six, only to pay it back by winning money in underground fight clubs, and Tommy struggles to stay off of heroin. Jenny is made even more interesting when it comes to her fighting spirit, as she fights Zan threes during the course of the series, even though she keeps getting beaten every time. If anything, she comes across as a far more likely chosen one to be the Wu Assassin in terms of having a relentless attitude towards overcoming the obstacles in her life. Kai-Jin is a chef, and that’s all there is to him.

Uwais isn’t the only one who could do better in the acting department. Celina Au as Ying Ying boardlines on cringeworthy at times. The delivery of her lines as well as the pacing of her scenes come across as rushed and forced. Her character is painfully underdeveloped and bipolar in terms of personality. In some scenes, she comes across a deadly serious teacher who will guide Kai-Jin to greatness, but in other scenes, she comes across as a juvenile jokester who loves to drink. It’s just so jarringly uneven.

Katheryn Winnick doesn’t really bring much to the table either. She’s not horrible, but she’s not great either. She's a strong female, but that's all she is. It feels like her character was created for the sole purpose of having a cop on the show so that it would be easier to classify as a crime drama. On a positive note, I think Winnick would be a fine choice to play Samus Aran, if Nintendo ever musters up the courage to make a live action Metroid movie. One final casting disappointment is the use of Mark Dacascos as the spirit of a previous Wu Assassin. His appearance is reflected over Uwais as a means for Kai-Jin’s identity to remain a secret, but they could have used him for more than this. I would have preferred that he be the spiritual guide for Kai-Jin, rather than Ying Ying, and he could have been used more during the fighting scenes. It’s a waste of talent if you ask me.

The other aspect where the series is lacking are the visual effects, which are rather inconsistent. There are times when they look seamless, and there are times when they look like they belong in a Playstation 2 video game. The magical abilities that each of the Wu Warlords possess are creative in their uses, especially with the Metal Wu Warlord, but there are times when the CGI struggles to do justice to the visual impact of these powers. Another laughable effect is this one time that Mark Dacascos’ face is superimposed over Uwais’ face. It looks horrendous! The post production should have taken more time to better render these scenes, although some might argue that dodgy CGI lends to the series’ B-movie charm.

Overall, I give Wu Assassins a solid three out of five stars. By no means is it a great series, but I do respect what it’s trying to accomplish. If you’re a lover of the martial arts genre, or an admirer of Asian culture in general, it’ll be worth the watch for you. That concludes this fanpicked review. And remember, when it comes to the media that you consume, be like Indiana Jones, and choose wisely.

Short Version

Pros:

• Well executed fight sequences.
• Intriguing supporting cast of characters.

Cons:

• Lead character is sorely miscasted and underwritten.
• Quality of the visual effects is inconsistent.

Verdict: *** (three out of five stars).