Brief Story Line
Story was set in the 19th century San Francisco, where the Chinese were enslaved by the Americans for cheap labor work which resulted to lots of turmoil in the state. In Chinatown, there were few gangs (referred to as "Tongs") occupying the city with the biggest ones Hop Wei Tong led by Father Jun (Perry Yung) and Long Zii Tong led by himself and his young wife Mai Ling (Dianne Doan) along with their strong enforcer Li Yong (Joe Taslim - The Night Comes for Us, The Raid etc).
A young man named Ah Sahm (Andrew Koji) just arrived in the city looking for his lost sister. He was immediately involved in fights and was recruited by Young Jun (Jason Tobin - The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift etc) into Hop Wei due to his amazing fighting skills. Little did Ah Sahm know that he would be entangled in the power struggle between Hop Wei and Long Zii. He also later on befriended with a brothel Madame named Ah Toy (Olivia Cheng) and mayor's wife Penelope (Joanna Vanderham).
Because of the continuous fights among the Tongs, the San Francisco mayor Samuel Blake (Christian Mckay - Me & Orson Welles etc) & his deputy Walter Buckley (Langley Kirkwood) created a Chinatown squad led by Sergeant Bill O'Hara (Kieran Bew) with officer Richard Lee (Tom Weston-Jones) to maintain the peace. Sometimes they would go to black market dealer Wang Chao (Hoon Lee - Banshee TV series etc) for information. To make matters worse, there was also the strong Irish mob led by Dylan Leary (Dean Jagger) who hated the Chinese for taking away their jobs.
With so many parties involved to acquire power in Chinatown, what would happen to Ah Sahm who only wanted to find his sister and return to China? Find them all in this amazingly crafted action series.
End of Brief Story Line
For a series that has only 10 episodes, surprisingly this one has a very complex story especially with the large ensemble cast and many characters involved. It was a bit challenge for me to enjoy at first, considering I had to wait for a week to watch the following episode. But once I got the chance to watch continuously, I enjoyed it far better. The first few episodes already strike me as a series with awesome action. And as the story progressed and I was more familiar with all the characters, it was becoming more entertaining.
Our main character here was the typical hero oppressed by the people and condition surrounding him (read: white people) which reminded me a lot of the oldies Kung Fu movies/series. Ah Sahm was played nicely by Andrew Koji (funnily enough he is actually a mix of English and Japanese heritage). Perhaps he was chosen because of his bit of similarity in style with the late Bruce Lee who happened to write the concept which this series was based on, plus of course his fantastic martial arts capability. His fight scenes were generally awesome and that fight with Li Yong (played by the pride of Indonesia, Joe Taslim) was absolutely spectacular and worthy of being my favorite scene. The fight choreographers here really did their job amazingly.
Aside from Ah Sahm, there were a lot of characters who were important in the story development. From the mysterious Madame Ah Toy, Long Ji's young wife Mai Ling with her secrets, the Chinatown squad leader Bill O'Hara with his personal problem, the mob leader Leary and even Mayor's wife Penelope. For me the main appeal of this series was definitely the superb action scenes which were professionally done. They were fast, bloody and violent. Definitely a treat for fans of such genre. The story itself was something to look forward to with some interesting characters development. Oh, despite the story was mainly focusing on Chinese people, the language spoken in here was mostly English, though the foreigners would hear them speaking in Cantonese. Definitely done to make the series has a western feel and make it more appealing for universal audience.
Due to the violence, coarse language and some nudities, the series was classified for 18+, so certainly not for children. The duration of each episodes varied from 42 to 58 minutes (the pilot was the longest). Of all 10 episodes, my favorites were episode 5 which has a strong classic western feel and episode 9. I also quite like the season finale, especially the scene before last (reminded me of the scene in one of Ip Man's movie). Btw, it was a good thing there was a second season since so many things seemed unresolved, though my worry might be uncalled for as the series was quite critically acclaimed with one even calling it as one of the best new TV shows on 2019. The executive producers of this series are Shannon Lee (daughter of Bruce Lee) and Justin Lin (Executive Producer of series like Scorpion, reboot of Magnum P.I, S.W.A.T and few others).
Overall this is the type of series that I like because of the classic Kung Fu movie feel, supported by breathtaking & violent fight sequence performed by wonderful martial artists with some good story telling and quite interesting characters. A series that I would not hesitate to watch the subsequent seasons. For those Kung Fu movie lovers who grew up watching some of them, this would bring back a lot of memories. So if you are fan of this type of genre, this one is a must-watch.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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