Reviews
Warrior – Season 2: Episode 5 “Not for a Drink, a Fuck, or a Goddamn Prayer” Trust That Goes a Long Way
Trust is a hard thing to come by. You trust your family, you trust your friends, hell you trust the people at McDonald’s not to spit in your burger. This episode explores the theme of trust and the characters who experience it.
Warrior – Season 2: Episode 4 “If You Don’t See Blood, You Didn’t Come to Play” Silence Doesn’t Save Lives
I should mention this as it will come out in a later review but over the past few weeks, the US has been experiencing attacks on the Asian community recently. On January 28th, Vicha Ratanapakdee was attacked in the driveway of his home and died in the hospital. Two other Asian elders have been attacked by slashing and beaten due to Racism.
Warrior – Season 2: Episode 3 “Not How We Do Business” Not Everything is What it Seems
After winning another fight at the Barbary Coast, Vega proposes to Ah Sahm participate in a tournament for a bigger reward. He declines as Wang Chao enters to watch the fights. Chao speaks to Ah Sahm, knowing of the deal with Happy Jack but is suspicious of his relation to Mai Ling. Ah Sahm brushes it off but Chao assures that Chinatown will suffer because of his and Mai Ling’s quarrel.
SPACE SWEEPERS Review: An Enthralling Sci-Fi Space Adventure Worth Multiple Rewatches
The least anyone expected in the past year would be to have to wait out a whole pandemic in order to have some semblance of some semblance of fun (yes, I wrote it like that, and you read it correctly the same). Moviegoers the world around were resigned to such a fate even as trailers for Jo Sung-hee’s latest star-spangled space rouser, Space Sweepers, made the rounds with small trailer bits touting a hopeful release last summer, and so with its delay came the usual brouhaha over releasing films onto smaller screens despite helmers priming their work for more grandiose theatrical showings.
Warrior – Season 2: Episode 2 “The Chinese Connection” The Duality of Right and Wrong
For those who don’t know, Bruce Lee’s film “The Big Boss” was to be given the title of “The Chinese Connection”, capitalizing on the popularity of the film “The French Connection” as both films deals with drug smuggling. The problem was the titles were switched as “Fist of Fury” was given the title of “The Chinese Connection” and “The Big Boss” was titled “Fists of Fury”.
Warrior – Season 2: Episode 1 “Learn to Endure or Hire a Bodyguard” Real Strength through Media
Teddy Boys – A British subculture that young men wore clothes that were inspired by dandies of the Edwarian period. Originally started in the UK in the early 1950s of post WWII, it was associated with American Rock and Roll music. It was to differentiate the teenagers from the adults. On 1956, at a screening of the film “Blackboard Jungle”, the Teddy Boys rioted in theatres where the film was shown.
BATTLE IN SPACE: THE ARMADA ATTACKS Review – Science Friction
Make no mistake, ‘Battle in Space: The Armada Attacks’ (‘BIS’) is a unique take on the science fiction space opera genre, and though it veers into cliché it still manages to stand out amongst its contemporaries not so much in what is shows; but rather how it delivers the story.
Warrior – Season 1: Episode 10 “If You’re Going to Bow, Bow Low” The Purpose to Keep Fighting
Episode 10 starts a week after the events of episode 9, a man wakes up Chinese coolies switching up those who worked the night before for those who are ready for the day. Among them is Ah Sahm, who has given up.
Warrior – Season 1: Episode 9 “Chinese Boxing” The Cry for Representation is Clear
Episode 9 starts with Leary negotiating with Byron on hiring his men for the railway contract while Li Young and Ah Sahm prepare for their match.
HAYMAKER Review: A Modest Fight Drama Sealed With A Kiss
Having only worked on a small handful of film and TV productions, it’s with Haymaker that visual effects artist Nick Sasso officially makes the case for his starring and directing debut.
Arrow Review: Park Chan-Wook’s JOINT SECURITY AREA (JSA), A Lamentation Of Peace Through A Darkly Pragmatic Lens
It was around 2005 or ’06 when I finally managed to observe the work of director Park Chan-wook with an online buy of Oldboy. At this point, Park had already reveled in the ceremony of his previous work, notably with his 2000 film, Joint Security Area (JSA), which still stands on ceremony to this day with film fans as one of the most highly regarded of the last two decades.
Warrior – Season 1: Episode 8 “They Don’t Pay Us Enough to Think” The Downward Spiral
David Bloomer/Cinemax/WarnerMediaThe episode immediately starts from episode 7 with the Hop Wei and the Long Zi charging at each other in the streets of Chinatown. Both sides experiencing casualties in a bloody battle.Penny wakes up to Mayor Blake and Buckley discussing a solution for the Chinatown brawl. Buckley tells Mayor Blake must side with Senator Crestwood with handling the Chinatown violence leaking out. Penny hears the news as she worries and Blake gives the railway contract to Byron, inviting him to a dinner in Crestwood’s honor.Wang Chao visits the Hop Wei to discuss a resolution with Mai Ling, Father Jun accepts the meeting as he tells Young Jun that they must fight smarter and wanting to understand Mai Ling’s motives as he knew Long Zii’s.Father Jun and Young Jun meet with Mai Ling and Li Young coming to terms of not breaking their truce. Lao Ting proposes a fight between a fighter from the Hop Wei and a fighter from the Long Zi. If the Hop Wei wins, the truce still stands 5 more years but if the Long Zi wins, they get a piece of Hop Wei territory to sell opium independently. Father Jun and Mai Ling agree to the terms.O’Hara and Lee continue their route in Chinatown as O’Hara is still haunted by Damon. Finally the Foon Hai come to collect which causes O’Hara to snap and beat down the men. Lee stops O’Hara, trying to reason with him on how they can resolve the payment. O’Hara tries to find a way out of being in the Chinatown force while Lee continues investigating the Foon Hai.Ah Toy speaks with her business partner Patterson about the property she wishes to buy, only to be outbid and to be blackmailed Timmons. Ah Toy chooses to pay along with the plan of silencing Timmons. Patterson goes to pay for the land as Timmons try to persuade him to conduct business without Ah Toy. She intrudes on the meeting and kills Timmons, cementing her claim on her property.Ah Sahm visits Penny as she opens up on her concerns, knowing it has no future. Ah Sahm tries to reason with Penny only to be dismissed of what they have done. He returns to the Hop Wei only to be tested by Father Jun has chosen him to fight Li Young.David Bloomer/Cinemax/WarnerMediaAh Sahm agrees to the fight but goes to the brothel to drink away his emotions, even fighting a white customer on the treatment of the women. Ah Toy stops Ah Sahm, telling him that she is done looking out for him as he has no purpose and will not beat Li Young. He leaves to be greeted by Mai Ling.Mai Ling urges her brother not to fight as Li Young is stronger and sees right through Ah Sahm’s motives whereas Ah Sahm asks her who really killed Long Zii, seeing through her motives.The episode ends with Ah Sahm and Li Young training for their fight, Lai finding Ah Toy’s sword, training with it. Byron hiring Leary’s men while Buckley watches from afar and O’Hara and Lee find the body of Timmons, suspecting the swordsman is spilling out of Chinatown.This is not going to be easy on who or what to focus on after re-watching this episode because I only focused on one scene when I first watched it. Now we are going to focus on Ah Toy, O’Hara, Penny and Ah Sahm.With Ah Toy being highlighted in the previous episode, her business partner Patterson has informed her of Timmons and what he plans to do if she does not step away from buying the property. Ah Toy shows how she handles business if she is not heard, from scarring one girl for bringing the Long Zi into her brothel to disfiguring Zan and Holbrook. Ah Toy goes so far to get what she worked hard for.Because Ah Toy chose to run a brothel, she still wants to be seen as an equal businesswoman but as my mother put it, it’s a glass ceiling. Being Asian, a woman and a boss in a world of men.O’Hara has been dealing with the fallout of Damon’s death since episode 6 and it is slowly catching up to him when the Foon Hai approach him in person. O’Hara is desperately trying to resign his position in the Chinatown force but both Lee and his wife Lucy still stand by him.O’Hara being the one that quotes the title of the episode, he tells this to Lee as he never had to think outside of doing his police work. And it is a talk with Lucy that brings him back to the reality. Lucy knows what Bill has been up to, even understanding that they are in trouble. Lucy reassures that she will still stand with Bill and urges him to fix it.O’Hara’s internal conflicts have finally come out and now with the help of Lee and Lucy, this brings him back onto his path whether he likes it or not.Penny’s decision to call off the affair with Ah Sahm has impacted her emotionally as she attends Crestwood’s dinner party. As she sees her father attending, she overhears Blake and Crestwood discuss the problem with the Chinese population and how they affect the city.Penny openly expresses her opinions on Crestwood’s views on the Chinese and Mayor Blake tries to silence her but she defies both of them. Though her opinions fall on deaf ears, Penny is coming to and breaking away from the community she knew of.With respect for Jacob and what she has experienced with Ah Sahm, Penny is ready to have a voice for herself and finally come to make something of her own. Something we will see in the second season.Now we come to Ah Sahm and his pursuit of purpose, when Lu gave him a boost of confidence back in episode 5, Ah Sahm wanted to be with Penny. As we saw in the episode prior, he had to back out of his date with Penny to save his sister. This was brought up along with the Tong fight in the streets by Penny. Hoping she would reach him on how his lifestyle will be a dead end, she ends the affair as he tries to reach out to her with a better life. The scene itself brings it back to the moment they met where Penny only sees Ah Sahm for what he is, prompting him to leave.This loss of purpose and a probable goal is added to his emotional state when he is chosen to fight for the Hop Wei. And after assaulting a drunk man, Ah Toy has no support for his antics and cementing the fact that Li Young is training and will win the fight compared to Ah Sahm. The spiral continues to go down as he sees Mai Ling.Mai Ling knowing her brother who always has to prove himself, states he will not win. Ah Sahm seeing that Penny, Ah Toy and Mai Ling left him in a state of mind where he has nothing, pushes him to train for the fight. This mindset and internal conflict is not over yet.Reviewing this episode definitely hits on a personal level for me, among other episodes and especially when we get to Season 2. Ah Toy, O’Hara and Penny are finally coming to accept what they are capable of but Ah Sahm is heading down a spiral that will lead to something else.
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