Superhero Media: Wu Assassins

I was pretty keen to start Wu Assassins, a Netflix series starring Iko Uwais of The Raid fame, with a big Chinese-American cast and crew, it was an exciting possibility for something pretty unique. Sadly, the final product is pretty poor, though not for lack of trying on the part of the cast and crew. As much as I really appreciate that the Chinese-American characters are portrayed by Chinese-American actors, this did shrink the pool of talent from which the series cast, and sometimes that leads to some dodgy acting. Iko Uwais himself is reasonable, though like many martial arts film actors, his dramatic range is limited; thankfully, he has good chemistry with Byron Mann, who plays Uncle 6, the series foil for the most part. So who are the Wu? The Wu are five semi-immortal beings based on the classical Taoist elements of Fire, Wood, Earth, Water and Metal, and the Wu Assassin (Uwais as Kai Jin) is chosen once per generation to fight the Wu. 

One of the best elements of Wu Assassins is the inclusion of Chinese history and mythology in the story, which I've only normally seen in Wuxia films. I wish more time had been spent on this, as even with my "better than normal for a white guy" grounding in Chinese culture, there were a few elements that I didn't quite get and felt could have been explained better. For example, why are the Wu bad? There's an element of "power corrupting", but that's undercut by Uncle 6 using his powers to save the main cast in flashback and the villain of the series, Alec McCullough, the Wood Wu and previous Wu Assassin from dark ages Scotland, is only really after a way to travel back in time and reunite with his family. McCullough does achieve this in the finale, then Kai kills him, but I'm not sure why, as at that point, all of the Wu are dead or de-powered, so it really just feels like murder. Then there's the ending, in which everything is sorted and the core cast reconcile, before the world starts to shake in the last 30 seconds and Zan Hui, the original Wu Assassin, calls Kai to action once again. 

All-in, Wu Assassins is a bit of a mess, with some great ideas let down by the realities of making television. The mysticism is pretty unique to those not already fans of Chinese Cinema, but the character dynamics are bland and cliched, the mythology is interesting, but not explained well, the cast is unique, but not necessarily good. Even after doing some extra reading online, I'm still not sure how the Wu's powers work; the Fire Wu can control fire, fine, makes sense, as does the Wood Wu being able to heal (if you know your Taoism), but why are some of the Wus immortal and some not? Also, the Metal Wu has mind control powers because of hemoglobin? Yes, that makes sense in a "comic book" kind of way, but it's realised poorly on-screen and is only a point for around one episode before the Metal Wu is dead. Wu Assassins could have been really interesting and unique, but comes across as a mess and is really not worth the investment of time unless you want to see Iko Uwais kick more people.