S01.E07 Gymkata

[arc]

Quote

With the ghosts gathering in Los Angeles, the family regroups until an unexpected visitor disrupts their plans. A momentous occasion descends into chaos.

Ohhhhhhhh snap, it's Martial Club! They've worked on Paper Tigers, Shang Chi, Everything Everywhere All At Once -- just seeing them in any production tells me there's gonna be some good-ass martial arts scenes.

And then wow, Big Sun is up and walking! The mere fact that he kept up his fake coma while getting a needle stuck up his fingernail, much less that he's been faking his coma this whole time, suggests he actually was at least the co-brains of the Jade Dragons.

Big Sun: "You must always give good face. It shows the world that you are the best. Most powerful." -- so, whatever happened to that cloak of secrecy where no one knew who the triad bosses were? I really like this show, but the central conceit makes no sense.

Anyways, I like that Big Sun is a legitimate threat to Eileen. Positioning Charles as his choice for dragon head is a great way to undercut Eileen, way better than challenging his own wife head to head. It really looks like he's outfoxed her, though based on showbiz realities (Michelle Yeoh is an international megastar and Johnny Kou is ... not) I gotta assume Eileen will win out by the end. Still, I take back what I said last episode about the consigliere guy being the real evil. Big Sun is definitely rotten. I guess I should have known back when he told his 14 year old son to take out an assassin.

Did this interagency task force pin everything on Charles' phone? They're not staking out the hotel in person??? You have gotta be kidding me.

Oh come on, Bruce and Charles don't even take the same jacket size. But I gotta hand it to Bruce; most people would have stopped with a double cross, but he's done a triple cross, selling out the triads to the Boxers, and then selling out the Boxers to June and meanwhile the cops are also looking to bust everyone. Side note, did the cops ever realize they had a secret Boxer? Did they even know he blew himself up? Surely they must have pulled the security cam footage from Ka Spa.

OK, so Eileen did have some backup plans. Nice work maneuvering with Frank Ma. Actually, now I'm wondering where the Sun consigliere is. Did Big Sun leave him back in Taiwan?

This restaurant fight scene is nuts, but it does make me wonder about the triad opsec if the restaurant staff could be fully infiltrated by the Boxers on short notice. (I guess the alternative explanation is that the restaurant world is full of trafficking victims and so like-minded staffers at Golden Soup helped the Boxers.)

Ahahaha, after the gymkata pommel horse move, they transition straight to Charles doing a John Wick. And then Grace vs June is a Raid 2 reference? My god, this show has ambition.

TK saved the day! But come on, if cops are rolling up in force to a major gang meeting, they're not leaving any doors to be guarded by one single dude.

[Chaos Theory]

Bruce is written a little TOO MUCH as a coward for my liking.  He has been annoying the hell out of me the whole show.   Hope he pulls out if it in the final episode.

On the other hand Charles has been entertaining and good man candy.  Love his obsession with cooking.

The fight scene was insane.

[Raja]

On 1/16/2024 at 4:21 AM, arc said:

Ahahaha, after the gymkata pommel horse move, they transition straight to Charles doing a John Wick. And then Grace vs June is a Raid 2 reference? My god, this show has ambition.

At least dude checked off his bucket list with his Thomas Flair being used in a fight.  As I never saw Raid I was left in wonder how Grace, and all the other Boxers was able to hold out as long as she did against June. 

For the second time Michelle Yeoh looked like she was about to add her martial arts to the mix and left me hanging. When she started banging on the door for help in the earlier episode I was in on the joke. This time I guess that she is not working stunts for this show. We will see in the finale.

[arc]

6 hours ago, Raja said:

As I never saw Raid

The first is a classic. The second one is actually the story the filmmakers wanted to tell, but with budget constraints they decided to scale back and do the first Raid movie in a smaller setting. It's brutal but a martial arts masterpiece. The second one is still good but suffers a bit from losing a bit of focus.

6 hours ago, Raja said:

I was left in wonder how Grace, and all the other Boxers was able to hold out as long as she did against June. 

Well, this is a world where nearly everyone is a very skilled martial artist, besides Bruce and maybe Mama Sun. The Boxers overall have been some vicious killers, from the giant in ep 1 to the squad that attacked at Ka Spa. June is indeed apparently a major league assassin in her own right for someone who probably doesn't have expensive training -- given how poor she was growing up -- cause she murked that LA drug runner who was Sleepy Chan's LA guy. Maybe Grace made up for any combat deficiencies with sheer righteousness?