Netflix’s First Martial Arts Series ‘Wu Assassins’ Delivers Best Fight Sequences Since ‘Daredevil’ – Review
What happens when an unassuming San Francisco chef becomes the latest in a long line of assassins chosen to keep the mystical Wu powers? Netflix’s latest original show Wu Assassins answers just that.
The show features legendary martial artist and movie star Iko Uwais (The Raid films, The Night Comes for Us), Katheryn Winnick (Vikings), Tommy Flanagan (Sons of Anarchy), and Lewis Tan (Iron Fist, Into The Badlands, Deadpool 2).
It’s nearly impossible to review this series without mentioning Iron Fist so I will get that out of the way now. Although I enjoyed Iron Fist (mainly because of the second season) it didn’t have the intense fight choreography that I was hoping for. Within the first minute of Wu Assassins, I immediately thought, this would’ve been a dope Iron Fist show. Unlike Iron Fist, this show fully utilizes Tan’s martial arts skills and shows off his impressive acting chops.
The show focuses on Kai (Uwais) who’s chosen as the Wu Assassin and his friends Lu Xin (Tan), Jenny (Li Jun Li), and her brother Tommy (Lawrence Kao). The story revolves around Kai and his childhood, which also involves Uncle Six (Byron Mann). I really enjoyed The relationship between Uncle Six and the group because on the surface you think you know how things will play out between them, but the writers do a great job of making their relationship much more complex. The show is at its best when the group is together kicking ass.
The fight choreography on this show will have you replaying the sequences over and over again. Like I said in the headline, this show is probably the first original show on Netflix that surpasses the epic sequences we saw in the Daredevil series. I was so blown away with the camera work, the stunts and the commitment. You could tell a lot of time and love went into making sure these scenes were top notch.
The one minor critique I have is that I wish this could’ve been a few more episode to flesh out the mythology and the world building a bit more. However, between the fighting and the budget, I know they were only given so much – which is also why I can’t really critique the VFX too harshly. For the most part it is passable. There were only a few times that it felt off, but thankfully show doesn’t rely to heavily on that and hopefully with a second season they get a bigger budget.
In a time when streaming services are becoming more competitive than ever, Netflix must find new ways to maintain its audience and one is to take chances, and creating fresh original content. Wu Assassins is definitely the right move by Netflix, and John Wirth did an incredible job bringing the action-fantasy to life.
Wu Assassins is available to stream now via Netflix. Be sure to check it out!
