Next up for the month is a bit of a late edition.
Originally, I was going to look at some movies that featured actor Iko Uwais from The Raid movies. He’s done quite a bit since then. He and the director of the
Raid movies also had a precursor to The Raid called Merantau. I was going to
watch this and a couple of other movies, but I remembered that this show was on
Netflix and decided to finish it out.
Wu Assassins is a pretty recent addition to Netflix. It was
greenlit in 2018, and it eventually made it to Netflix on August 8th,
2019. Uwais was brought in immediately as the main star, and he also served as
a fight choreographer and coordinator on the show. I didn’t recognize too many
faces from the show. I did recognize Lewis Tan from a couple of things. Bryan
Mann was another recognizable face, but it took a while to remember what he was
in. He’s appeared in quite a few things. The role I should’ve recognized him
for was his time as Ryu in the 1990’s Street Fighter movie. Also, actors Mark
Dascasos, Summer Glau, Tommy Flannagan, and Kevin Durand appear in roles.
Wu Assassins takes place in San Francisco and revolves
around Kai Jin (Uwais), a Chinatown chef. He ends up being chosen as the next
Wu Assassin by the spirit of the first Wu Assassin. Basically, his job is to
take down the Wu Warlords. The Warlords have control of the elements like fire,
water, wood, metal, and earth. What Kai doesn’t know at first is that Uncle
Six, his adopted father and Chinese Triad boss, has control of the Fire Wu. He
also has to deal undercover cops, shady friends, The Triad, other gangsters vying
for power, an annoying friend who’s an addict, and a mentoring spirit who can
kinda be grating at times. Oh yeah, there’s a whole lotta butt-kicking going
on!