Warrior

[Drunk Monk]

[Drunk Monk]

We have Cinemax for a week so I’m binging this. 

E2 had a sanguineous start. Still a race war between the Chinese and the Irish. I should watch this with Greg. We could wear team colors and wave pennants. The peacemakers are the rich token wife of the mayor and the Georgian cop. Not convinced album the Irish accents. Fookin cunts.

E3 It’s all about Joe Taslim fights. He’s the only one with any panache. The other fights cover with dark lighting, shaky cams and gore. It really needs more better fights. The drinking is wrong. Chinese always drink toasts with two hands. And a tonfa? Really? Not a nunchuck?

E4: At least they got a shillelagh right. But a James West forearm derringer sling? Like we’ve never seen that before. Hong Bao are also passed with two hands... even when passing bribes. Especially when.

E5: A divergent story - on the road transporting a corpse - yeah we all know that old plot twist. A nod to Lee’s Bill Wallace kill in ETD. It’s the seven samurai only it’s just two tong men facing bandits in a lone desert saloon - dragon inn - and rallying the civilians. It’s the spaghetti western tribute, complete with the ride into the sunset, man with no name hat and Kwai Chang Caine hat (1st real ref to carradine) and the classic ‘the end’ credit. All those guns and no one can hit a thing. This is almost a stand alone ep - it does nothing to advance the overarching story. 

E6: Chinese New Year parade because Chinatown. The opening sex scene had both actors in the buff but their pelvises were too far away to be effective. Rich Ting as Bolo isn’t bad in a scrap but the fights are still mediocre. Lots of throat slitting. Tobin’s double dagger work is wrong - Kung Fu uses them ice pick style, not straight stabbiness. Then there’s the Irish boxing. 

The soundtrack echoes Badlands with the rock guitar riffs. Same with the blood spattered faces. Also even though they say it’s sf, it doesn’t feel in the least bit sfish.

Still not that into this obvs. But it’s for work. I do like Koji. And Jason Tobin. And Taslim or course.

[Drunk Monk]

E7: Tong War. Cuz that’s what really happens in Chinatown. Ruthless tong wars. And Chinatown whorehouse madams protect virgins. WTH?

E8: The actual tong war, teased at the end of e7. Short, nasty brutish. Sets up Koji v Taslim. Koji’s pre-fight fight is in the dark, so shadowy I had to turn up my screen brightness to max and I still couldn’t see it. There was a choreographic nod to Fist of Fury’s ‘why why why’ scene. Taslim pre-fight fight had him shirtless in a decent single long take. Koji trains on a wooden dummy, not very well, so he screams a lot to make it more dramatic. Taslim spars, does iron plan and body, and looks good doing it. It’s all about Taslim. The rest of the fights are shyte. Will the virgin swordswoamn be the first female character who isn’t a whore?

E9: Koji v Taslim match. Bets anyone? Decent fight actually. Best one of the season so far. Because of Taslim. Koji is a high kicker but he doesn’t sell the impact. They should be working up to one better one in the season finale tho. James Lew as the flashback Sifu. Finally the James West derringer comes into play (I was hoping for the hairpin tho). And of course, Tai Chi heals ass whuppins. Or maybe opium. Finally Dustin Nguyen is played. And yet it’s another dark detail-obscuring fight scene.

E10: Koji delivers a decent warehouse fight with another nod to the Bill Wallace leg trap backflip kick. Didn’t know flying punches were part of Irish boxing. I want a martial arts flick called Warehouse Fight. Virgin’s dao form is weak.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

“Warehouse Fight” would be a fucking *great* martial arts movie!

[Drunk Monk]

E6: Chinese New Year parade because Chinatown. 

Called it

I'll tune back in to Warrior for the inevitable chase scene through the lion dance because what show based in Chinatown doesn't have that? 

“Warehouse Fight” would be a fucking *great* martial arts movie!

Right? It's not like we haven't seen it before but a flick just based on this? Task this to the Indonesian Silat squad.

[Drunk Monk]

S2e1 So den of geek has me interviewing some key peeps for the show in a few weeks and I’ve got access to all 10 eps of S2. There’s a chance they may offer me a gig doing an Ep Guide so I’m taking more notes but they’re more Ep Guide-esque so I’m not sharing them yet. That feels enough like work already. Here I’ll reserve for DOOM comments only.

Still doesn’t feel at all like SF. Barbary coast whatev. There’s robed sword hotties now so that’s cool. The characters are developing more which is also good. It still feels derivative of Badlands and I’m dying to tell Daniel Wu, but I have this outstanding project I did with him for Den and I feel uncomfortable reaching out until they run it. I’m liking Koji more and Olivia Cheng is getting lavish costumes and fight scenes.

I have about 2 weeks to binge 10 eps.

[Drunk Monk]

E2 delivers a fair long take fight with Koji & young jun. and a taslim right with Dustin Nguyen. Plus a moonlight sonata interlude.

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E3 is a lot of plot and character development and a bit shy on action. Waiting for the robed sword hotties to re-emerge or another taslim fight. There’s a new fighter, Hong, played by Chen tang, who plays Yao in Mulan.  I should start following the cast better. Maybe I’ll do that before watching on another Ep. It’s weird to take notes because I’m constantly tuning out of the process.

[Drunk Monk]

E4 - there was an opening back alley barroom fight, and a short steel mill fight, but not really any decent fight scenes in this ep. the soap opera-ness of the show is mounting. it keeps making these quick passing political references. for this ep, it was 'thoughts and prayers'.

[Drunk Monk]

S2E5 is the most ultraviolent ep so far. The centerpiece is a Taslim vs. Nguyen - the most veteran action stars in the show. There's a crazy sanguineuous police raid on the mongol tong. Lots of stabbing through the skull with the blade popping out the other side (this would be really hard). Very DOOM.

I'm annoyed that a trip to a Sonoma winery could be made in a morning from SF. The Barbary coast period predates the Golden Gate Bridge and it's a long way around by horse drawn carraige. There's also a scene when someone comments on the 'awful smell' of burnt opium. Opium smells like sweet flowers, super sweet.

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E6 is a NHB tournament on the border of Mexico. I thought it had the chance for some great Mr. Han easter eggs, but no. Some good fights tho - Michael Bisping makes a cameo and there's soem excellent capoeira. The ultravi is ramping up. 

The following eps have no title or synopsis (but I've noticed some errors in the synopsis anyway).

[Drunk Monk]

E7; If you sit by the river long enough, you'll see the body of your enemy float by. Quoted in this episode as Sun Tzu, which is a common misquote (it's actually a poor translation of Confucius). I knew it couldn't last. This ep had very little martial arts, just some scruffy fights. Fair intrigues, moving the overall story arcs well, but not a big action ep. 

I think I'm done for tonight. I should finish it all tomorrow. 

[Drunk Monk]

E8 - Another with minimal fight scenes. What gives? It was a lot of fallout from E7 because that ended with a major character death. I got wrapped up in other things today - housecleaning and a random stream-of-consciousness blog that I had no intention of writing until last night - so I'm not going to watch any more tonight. 

Just two more eps to go.

[Drunk Monk]

E9 is the Riot of 1877. It's basically one long street fight between the Irish and Chinese. I imagined Greg and I watching it together, with little national pennants and T-shirts, cheering on our home teams. Maybe Greg would have cheered the lynching? That concluded a long-running minor story arc from the very beginning of the series. Finally nunchucks. Finally Young Jun figures out how to grip Chinese daggers. Taslim still outclasses all the other fighters. 

E10 is the season finale. I'll watch that soon.

[Drunk Monk]

e10 - well, that was a weak season finale, mostly pick up from the previous ep. a giant mural of ah sahm (the bruce lee character) appears in chinatown before the bodies are picked up. really? chinatown taggers are that fast? and zing is shown in alcatraz, which wasn't a federal prison until 1934 so in the riot of 1877 was the previous ep, we lost like 6 decades. dylan leary is a thinly disguised denis kearny, and introduces the workingman's party of ca (a historical socialist movement that propounded the exclusion act) in this ep. the exclusion act is 1924 so the show has plenty of time to get there, even with the temporal shifts.

so the best eps are e5, 6 & 9 for ultravi. i do like the chemistry of ah sahm, young jun and hong. that's this show's saving grace. that a joe taslim. he's by far my fav character. 

i'm supposed to interview tropper, the showrunner, next week. after that, shannon lee, who i've interviewed before a few times but she won't remember me and working with her is always delicate. i last saw her at allen joe's funeral but we didn't chat. i'm also supposed to interview andrew koji - that one i'm looking forward to because he's cool. 

it's weird to binge tv for work. careful what you wish for, right?

[Drunk Monk]

Jenny Umbhau reposted my comments about her in my first episode review on her facebook page. 

https://www.facebook.com/jenny.umbhau/po...5526753060

I'm delighted. She's bad ass. 

[Greg]

Excellent.