Before my long holiday, I started to watch this series as it had Iko Uwais name as the lead role. But sadly I was unable to complete the series and it dragged until last night when I completed the last 3 episodes. Well anyway, let's get on with the series now.
Brief Story Line
Kai Jin (Iko Uwais - Stuber, Triple Threat etc) was a half Chinese half Indonesian chef who had been living in Chinatown San Francisco from his childhood years. He was raised by Uncle Six (Byron Mann - Skyscraper, Crying Freeman etc) who was a ruthless Triad leader. Jin was also best friends with Lu Xin Lee (Lewis Tan) who had some shady business, a restaurant owner Jenny Wah (Li Jun Li - The Exorcist TV series etc) and her drug-addict brother Tommy Wah (Lawrence Kao) who loved to hang out with the Triads.
Due to some reasons, Jin somehow became a Wu assassin with the responsibility to recapture supernatural powers based on the five elements of Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood called Wu Xing which were in the hands of some powerful people. Being a Wu assassin, Jin would possess some enhanced martial arts from the previous assassins before him, including his "mentor" named Ying Ying (Celia Au). Jin's life got even more complicated when a police detective called CG (Katheryn Winnick - Vikings TV series etc) went undercover to try bringing down Uncle Six. Not to mention the appearance of another crime lord named Alex McCullough (Tommy Flanagan - Sons of Anarchy TV series etc) who became Uncle Six' competitor.
So what would happen to Jin and could he collect all Wu Xing and complete his tasks as Wu assassin? Find them all in this action series.
End of Brief Story Line
Hmm to be honest, this one was a bit lower than my expectation. The premise seemed to be interesting enough, but during the execution, I was a bit surprised to find that the topic was kind of boring. The supernatural element was too much and made the story not that interesting to me personally. The mythical parts were OK if this was a Chinese/Hong Kong movie or series, but when it was transformed into a Western series, it felt a bit out of place. Not to mention Iko Uwais playing a half Chinese character seemed a bit over-stretched. I felt his character was too forced, like it was not specifically created for him, but due to his popularity and rise to fame, they had to make the story as such.
I am not against Iko Uwais at all, in fact I am quite a fan of many of his movies, but I personally thought that he did not suit this character at all, aside from his superior martial arts capability. And in this area, he truly excelled and the fight choreography was the only thing that I liked about this series. But it was a surprise when I did not see Iko Uwais name as fight choreographer, so credit has to be given to the fight coordinator Dan Rizzuto who managed to make the stunts and fights convincing.
There were other areas that I felt a bit dissatisfying, like the finale fight scene which was too short, and the costume. Being a fan of Chinese historical period series/movies, I had seen numerous costumes that were awesome. But in here, Celia Au's costume was terrible, as well as the costume for Mark Dacascos. They really seemed like made by people who had not done any research of Chinese culture. Dacascos was one of several quite well known names who had recurring roles in this series, aside from Tzi Ma, Summer Glau and Juju Chan. Frankly, of the many main roles and guest stars, my favorite one was Byron Mann whose acting felt natural, plus his character was awesome too.
The series itself had 10 episodes. Pretty standard for a Netflix original series, but its duration was not too long and only the pilot episode was around 50 minutes. Rest of them were around 40 minutes or so. The music was quite nice, with some songs liven up the mood. Of all the episodes, my favorite one was the 8th episode titled "Ladies Night" which was completely different from the storytelling of the rest. It was directed by Tony Krantz, the co-creator of this series (together with John Wirth). The pilot episode was so so and quite intriguing, while the finale was the most disappointing one.
Overall this was not the best series I had ever watched in Netflix and certainly not my favorite Iko Uwais series (although this is his first ever attempt in a Western series) with reasons I said above. The season finale hinted of something for second season, though it might not really that appealing for me, unless of course if there was a major improvement. So if you are fan of Iko Uwais and just want to see him kick some ass and not worry about the plot at all, then this might satisfy you. But if you expect something more, then this series would not be to your liking. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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