#olivia cheng

[booasaur]

Warrior (2019) - 3x03

[warriorhbo]

warrior // trailer for s3

[moviesludge]

struck dead by the ambiance

[jijakarim]

📸: Josh Stoddard's Instagram

[ahhhsami]

misterhoonlee: Time to go another round! #Warrior on @netflix has broken into Top 10’s around the world and made it to #6 worldwide. Thanks to our amazing fans.

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

[gameofthunder66]

Supernatural (2005-2020) tv series

-(finished) watchin' Season 7- 11/27/2024- 3 stars- on Netflix (CW)

74% Popcornmeter- Season 7

[mirobraz]

Bruce Lee

[archivist-crow]

Thrilled to hear that Warrior, one of my favorite shows in recent years, has been picked up by Netflix after having been cancelled by Max in December.

Based on Bruce Lee’s original treatment for a TV show that may or may not have eventually become Kung Fu (depends on who you ask), Warrior is set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the violent Tong Wars and the Anti-Asian movement of the late 1870s. Following newly arrived immigrant Ah Sahm (played by the excellent Andrew Koji), searching for his lost older sister, Warrior quickly becomes entrenched in the gang warfare, political machinations, ethnic violence, and bigotry of 19th century San Francisco.

With a fantastic supporting cast—notably Olivia Cheng as brothel madam Ah Toy; Jason Tobin as Young Jun, son of the Hop Wei Tong leader; Dianne Doan as the Lady Macbeth-ian Mai Ling; and Hoon Lee as conflicted black market trader Wang Chao—Warrior really should be talked about by more people.

For example, while the show is mostly performed in English, the show’s creators have opted to have the actors shift their accents to denote what language they’re speaking. It’s an ingenious solution to the to-subtitle-or-not-to-subtitle problem and shows the care and subtlety with which they are presenting the story while also leaning into and showcasing the actors’ skill.

With three seasons moving to Netflix beginning in February, with a possibility of more if it performs well, I highly encourage everyone to check it out. Though incredibly violent, with its thrilling martial arts sequences, complex characters and settings—some loosely based on actual people and historical events—and presenting a little explored era and culture, Warrior is truly worthy of another shot.

And not for nothing, but it also has a pretty kick ass theme song.

[booasaur]

Warrior (2019) - 3x02

[warriorhbo]

things are getting worse out there.

warrior // teaser for s3

[moviesludge]

[jijakarim]

Andrew Koji in Warrior 3.

📸: David Bloomer/Max

[bleep-blop-lizard-hop]

People saying Ah Toy’s name with the same energy as “Cher” and “Beyonce”

[bluemango07]

Some Ah Toy/Nellie Screenshots S3E1

(Remember Lai excitedly crossing the field to greet Ah Toy?)

[purplehanfu]

Warrior: Episode 1

notes: Spoilers! It's the 4th of July! (that's not the spoiler) Master list of all recaps

An American show? In my primarily cdrama blog? Sure, why not. The show is Warrior and the first two seasons were on Skinemax Cinemax so you know it has all the non-stop swearing, graphic violence and gratuitous nudity one expects from premium cable. What an unwelcome detour from my usual fare! And that's not even taking into account all the crimes against costuming:

All of this character’s outfits look like things you would wear to seduce Captain Kirk. Everyone else gets to be from 1878, however. More on this phenomenon later.

Read on!

The Story            

It's 1878 and we are on the docks of San Francisco. Debarking from the hold of a ship that has just arrived from China is Ah Sahm- he's a master of martial arts (of course) who speaks perfect English due to having an American grandfather (sure), and has a head of artfully tousled modern hair filled with styling product (everyone else has a queue though). Side note: get used to this inconsistency in character styling. Why has Ah Sahm undertaken this arduous journey? He's here to look for his sister Mai Ling who ran away from an abusive marriage to a despotic warlord. Did I mention she only married him in exchange for her brother's life? Achievement unlocked: tragic backstory.

time to first altercation: 3 minutes 33 seconds

Due to his superior fighting skills Ah Sahm gets sold to the Hop Wei Tong (a tong is secret society that was often the front for organized crime) by Wang Chao whom I adore. 

Loveable sleazeball Wang Chao is consistently the smartest man in the room- loyal to none and profiting from all.

Ah Sahm impresses his new Hop Wei manager with his fighting skills and as a reward gets to go on a work outing to a local brothel where we meet Ah Toy, the madam. 

I hope she has that on her LinkedIn profile!

Ah Sahm immediately asks her and all the ladies there if any of them know his sister. Dude you had weeks on that ship to think up a plan, and this is the best you can come up with?

But Ah Sahm isn't the only one investigating here in Chinatown. We also meet "Big Bill" O'Hara an Irish police officer who was voluntold to be the head of a new task force looking into anti-Chinese crime. The only other member of his task force? Richard Henry Lee, the new recruit from Savannah Georgia. Many of the police, including O'Hara, are union veterans of the civil war. This brings up a certain amount of awkwardness. Richard mentions that even though he was too young to fight, the Civil War destroyed his family:

oof.

Ah Sahm doesn't have to look too hard for Mai Ling; she comes looking for him. Their reunion isn't very sweet- she tells him she's done waiting for others to rescue her and she is now her own #girlboss. 

To that end, she's married the aged head of a rival Tong, the Long Zii. She's the one running the Long Zii's business from the shadows. Oops, maybe Ah Sahm shouldn't have joined the first Tong he ran across. Now the siblings are on opposite sides of a war that's brewing in Chinatown.

It's Dark in Here

Both the subject matter and the actual show. There's quite a lot of graphic violence even outside the choreographed fight scenes. No spitting blood here, we're just straight up hitting people in the face with hammers. 

When all you have is a hammer, anything in the dark might be a nail

The show itself was shot in that murky unlit way that gritty action shows use to say "this is so intense that you don't need to see it". Don't worry, we'll soon be getting an eyeful of other things:

Nudity

Wow! You won't be seeing this on Chinese television anytime soon. 

Or this!

I would like to point out that we see full frontal on the ladies but no action jangling on the men. Another win for the patriarchy, I guess. But things only get nominally better when the clothes go back on:

Costuming

Look, I get it. This is meant to be in the style of an old western, so historical accuracy might not be a top priority. However, it is so jarring to see everyone in a reasonable approximation of 1870's clothing with the exception of a few characters- namely Ah Toy and Mai Ling. Make of that what you will. It really takes the viewer out of the show to have some characters dressed like this:

And to make it worse, these costumes are all wildly unflattering and poorly constructed. Olivia Cheng, the actress who plays Ah Toy is objectively a beautiful woman. Why are they doing this to her? Who wants a dress that pulls focus to your inner thighs? And go back to the picture at the beginning of this review- the thigh slit (very Victorian) on that green gown has wonky seams and the neck piece(?) looks like it’s bolstered with a cardboard insert. Again I ask why. 

Below: is this a bathing suit cover up? Are we headed to brunch at the beach?

This red look is giving “Mars Attacks but make it prom night”.

I don’t know what’s going on here but I do know that if you want to see what Ah Toy might have actually been wearing in the 1870′s, you can do no better than Chinese fashion history ramblings by @audreydoeskaren​. I’ve learned a lot there!

In Conclusion

The Good

I had a $2 digital credit from amazon, so this episode was free.

Opening theme song pretty good

Hoon Lee as Wang Chao 

Based on a show idea by Bruce Lee, hopefully his estate benefits from this

The Bad

Andrew Koji not selling it as a hero;  brings all the passion of running Saturday errands to his search for his sister. Nice abs, though.

Tom Weston Jones, who is British, playing a character from the deep south. At times his accent veers dangerously into Foghorn Leghorn territory. But I forgive him because he was Lt. Gore in The Terror.

Everything else outlined above

Bonus Round

We Now Resume Our Regularly Scheduled Programming:

oh thank goodness.

Master List of all recaps