[Warrior explores America’s racial history and its intersection
with the immigrant experience—it shows how, in a nation of
immigrants, nonwhite people are seldom considered “American” by
their white peers. ] [[link removed]]

PORTSIDE CULTURE

‘WARRIOR’ IS STILL THE BEST SHOW YOU’RE NOT WATCHING  
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Miles Surrey
October 1, 2020
The Ringer
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_ Warrior explores America’s racial history and its intersection
with the immigrant experience—it shows how, in a nation of
immigrants, nonwhite people are seldom considered “American” by
their white peers. _

, Cinemax/Ringer illustration

 

One of the casualties from HBO Max becoming WarnerMedia’s number one
priority is Cinemax, HBO’s somewhat unheralded sister network. As
announced at the start of 2020, Cinemax will no longer work on
original content
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will the brand be folded into the company’s glitzy new streaming
service. Now you might be thinking, “Wait, Cinemax has TV shows?!”
and, well, fair—lots of people slept on _The Knick_, and fewer
still could name three Cinemax original series. But the news also
means that _Warrior_, a supremely kick-ass and criminally
underappreciated martial arts Western based on the works of Bruce Lee
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will struggle to fight another day.

The series, which was brought to life by Bruce’s daughter, Shannon
Lee, director of four _Fast & Furious _films, Justin Lin (as an
executive producer), and Jonathan Tropper (creator of
Cinemax’s _Banshee_, who serves as the showrunner), focuses on
Chinese immigrant Ah Sahm (played by Andrew Koji, in a role Lee once
envisioned for himself) as he arrives in San Francisco in 1875. Sahm,
a proficient martial artist, is quickly sucked into
Chinatown’s Tong Wars
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the Hop Wei Tong, all while anti-Chinese sentiments grow more hostile
in the city—particularly among members of the Irish working class,
who believe that Chinese workers are taking jobs away from them. The
vibe is very much “What if _Peaky Blinders_ was racially diverse
and half the characters could roundhouse kick you in the face?”

After introducing Sahm and the grimy streets of 19th-century San
Francisco, _Warrior_ quickly becomes a true ensemble piece—its
deep roster of characters includes rival Tongs, brothel owners,
policemen, businessmen, corrupt politicians, and aggrieved spouses of
said corrupt politicians. To list every character and their
relationships to one another would require an entirely new blog, but
here are some standouts: Mai Ling, head of rival Tong the Long Zii,
who is also [_gasp_] Sahm’s secret sister; Buckley, a Machiavellian
deputy mayor whom everyone should be suspicious of because his name
is _Buckley_; and Wang Chao, a man I can only describe as
“_Warrior_’s answer to Varys and Littlefinger.”

Similar to the fourth season of Noah Hawley’s _Fargo_
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America’s racial history and its intersection with the immigrant
experience—it shows how, in a nation of immigrants, nonwhite people
are seldom considered “American” by their white peers. But
unlike _Fargo_ Season 4, which is mired in too many overwrought
monologues about America to have any fun, _Warrior_ makes itself an
extremely entertaining watch through the prioritization of bountiful
ass-kicking. With _Warrior_, you’re guaranteed at least one epic
action scene per episode, and one of the joys of the show is that each
fight has its own unique flavor. In the hands of series fight
coordinator Brett Chan
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a mix of different fighting styles and settings—from face-offs
involving judo and taekwondo to street duels with hatchets and drunk
Irish blokes bare-knuckle boxing outside a bar. It’s especially
thrilling when these different fighting styles intersect; watching a
racist Irishman get dropped like a sack of potatoes will never get
old.

At the start of the second season, which premieres on Friday, the
rival Tongs have attained a fragile peace—one that Sahm is hell-bent
on destroying. He convinces Young Jun, his best friend and the heir to
the Hop Wei, to smuggle opium behind his father’s back. Meanwhile,
Mai Ling continues to consolidate power for herself and the Long Zii
through back-channeling with Buckley, who’s making assurances that
their gang activity in Chinatown won’t get the police’s attention.
Also, the Irish mob, led by the eternally swole Dylan Leary, are
emboldened to bomb local factories that have hired cheaper Chinese
workers. San Francisco is, in short, a complete shit show teeming with
violence and racial animus.

If you know your history, _Warrior_ is heading toward the Chinese
Exclusion Act
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1882, the only American law that explicitly prohibited immigration
into the country for a specific racial group. It’s one of many ugly
stains in the country’s long history of racism, and the anti-Chinese
sentiment that forms the undercurrent of _Warrior_ has gained even
more prescience with the xenophobic treatment of Asian American
individuals and communities
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the COVID-19 pandemic. When it comes to America’s treatment of its
Asian citizens, history is very much repeating itself
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_Warrior_ does not shy away from such atrocities on-screen; injustice
is embedded in the show’s DNA. When Bruce Lee
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the basic idea for his vision of _Warrior_, about a Chinese martial
artist making his way through the American West, he said that studios
were reluctant to give the green light
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with a nonwhite lead would not find an audience. The premise was
then stolen and repurposed for the 1972 ABC series _Kung Fu_
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produced by Warner Bros. Television and starring David Carradine,
though the studio has denied any wrongdoing. (Lee did audition for
the lead role in _Kung Fu_
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before his death, but producers believed that viewers wouldn’t
understand his accent.)

Nevertheless, _Warrior_ also pays homage to Lee’s original vision.
In Season 1, Sahm and Young Jun spend a stand-alone episode holed up
at a Chinese-owned saloon in the middle of nowhere, which eventually
leads them to take out a band of racist outlaws. Then, in the second
season, another stand-alone sees Sahm enter a _Bloodsport_-esque
tournament on the California-Mexico border, overseen by a Southern
baron who comes across like a relative of Leonardo DiCaprio’s slave
owner from _Django Unchained_. In taking these detours from the main
action in San Francisco, _Warrior_ makes its world feel real and
lived-in—one where new conflicts and characters can be found all
across the American West.

Ideally, _Warrior_ would be able to continue that thread with more
stand-alone episodes—and, just as important, impressively
choreographed fight sequences—in future seasons. But Cinemax’s
already-imposed original programming shutdown, which was announced
after _Warrior_ was renewed for Season 2, means that the show is
effectively cancelled. The only hope, as Shannon Lee has explained in
interviews
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is for _Warrior_ to find an audience on HBO Max, where the series
will be placed after the second season finishes airing on Cinemax.

It would not be unprecedented for _Warrior_ to get a second life on
a streamer. We’ve seen it happen with other once-canceled shows
like _The Expanse_
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and HBO Max has already revived other WarnerMedia offshoots, including
shows from the short-lived DC Universe streaming service
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Quinn_, _Doom Patrol_). I’ve already gone to bat for _The
Expanse_—not that a fandom which mobilized to fly a banner over
Amazon Studios’ headquarters
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one measly blogger’s support. But _Warrior_ doesn’t appear to
have the same level of fanfare, in terms of ratings
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an online presence—some of which might come down to, again, a lack
of familiarity with Cinemax. (It’s not hard to
imagine _Warrior_ faring better on HBO proper.)

Perhaps, like _Cobra Kai_, which has gained newfound prominence on
Netflix
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this martial arts show just needs a bigger platform to find an
audience. After all, it shouldn’t take much to sell an action
enthusiast on _Warrior_. It would be great if HBO Max righted a
longtime wrong of a martial arts legend by finally bringing his vision
to life, examined the Chinese immigrant experience that Hollywood has
long overlooked, or provided a regrettably rare platform for Asian and
Asian American actors in meaningful leading roles. _Warrior_ does
all of that, and packs one hell of a punch.

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