You Should Be Watching: Wu Assassins

When you start your brand new series with Iko Uwais dodging bullets, catching knives out of the air, and flat-out stomping dudes out like cigarette butts, chances are good that I am going to have an enjoyable time. Toss in Triad bad guys and some sort of Matrix-like legend about an all-powerful person and I think Netflix has a hit on its hands. For me, though, they had me hooked with that opening scene of Uwais delivering that Earth-shattering beatdown on those bad guys. How many reasons do you really need to watch?

• What is happening here: Kai is a chef who works days at a food truck and nights in a restaurant for a friend. A poorly timed run-in with the Triads and Kai ends up on the run and his plans of starting his own food truck are soon replaced with not getting killed by the Triads and some new deal about being the “Wu Assassin”. Quite the day….

• Kung Foodie: Food trucks are really big right now in my neck of the woods. I probably eat at one once a week but I’ve never seen a knock-down, drag-out fight in one like in this first episode of Wu Assassins. I shouldn’t surprise you to find out that this episode is loaded with good fight scenes featuring Iko Uwais and BPA favorite Mark Dacascos.

• The power of the Thousand Monks: I wish I could tell you exactly what it is, but all that I know is that a thousand monks sacrificed themselves to stop the five bad guys trying to take over China. Now they’re back trying to take over our world and Iko has the power within him to stop them. My guess is that is going to mean a whole bunch of epic fights to come.

• The right Mann for the job: Byron Mann plays Uncle Six, the leader of the Triads. He sees himself as the surrogate father to Kai but has never had his feelings reciprocated. Apparently, Kai doesn’t want help from Six and his gang. I like Mann much more in this role than the last time I saw him leading a tough guy gang in Deadly Target. It’s been quite a few years since then and I think Mann has really matured into the villainous role.

• Other Characters: There are plenty of characters and storylines running concurrently with Kai’s. Katheryn Winnick is an undercover cop trying to infiltrate Lewis Tan’s car boosting crew, and the brother/sister duo of Lawrence Kao and Li Jun Li own the restaurant that brought Kai into this whole mess in the first place. It’ll be interesting to see how all of these stories begin to line up with the main storyline as the season progresses.

I’m definitely planning on watching this season all the way through. I love a good Iko Uwais fight and even this first episode in the series has at least three. The episode caught me a little by surprise when it went to the fantasy stuff so early in the series but it certainly adds an element to the show that you won’t find in many others. Get on board now!