Following the phenomenal success of Smallville, of course, director Alfred Gough had to replicate that magic. His fans even pressured him to do so. Bowing to public demand, he crafted something new and distinctive, something rarely seen in the American television landscape. Aided by writer Miles Millar, he made a post-apocalyptic action thriller that is arguably the greatest martial arts action TV series of the 21st century.
Hong Kong martial arts legend, Daniel Wu, stars as a maverick fighter who can take down hundreds of armed foes as effortlessly as anyone flicking a socket switch. Several other great actors support him, including Edi Gathegi and Sarah Bolger. All three seasons of Into the Badlands have a noticeably darker tone than that of Gough’s previous works – it is a penetrating, riotous, no-holds-barred homage to old Samurai films – and is easily one of his slickest, coldest, purest, and most tirelessly captivating. Even though the series is an easy binge-watch, free of narrative conundrums, it has largely been forgotten. That seems unfair!
There Are No Guns in ‘Into the Badlands’… Just Melee Weaponry
Into the Badlands takes us 500 years into the future, where war has ruined civilization. So, there is hardly any remnant of social order. Consequently, feudal barons control the world. A few technological elements, like electricity and ground vehicles, have endured through the apocalypse. However, there are no firearms, and society now relies on melee weaponry and crossbows. Enter Wu’s character, Sunny, a “Clipper” (lackey) working for the powerful Baron Quinn. When he meets M.K., a boy possessing a mysterious, dark power, his life changes in ways he never expected.
The show presents to us the kind of action hero character we’ve always adored. Everyone else in this post-apocalyptic world appears to be an angel of destruction, enthusiastically engineering the total annihilation of foes, murdering all and sundry without the tiniest pang of conscience. In contrast, Sunny goes to great lengths to avoid slitting throats and only does so reluctantly. While he desires to exist as a “sheathed sword,” he is frequently frustrated by the necessity of violence. Interestingly, the carnage he reaps is on the same scale as that of those conducting mass post-apocalyptic slaughter. This is evident from his numerous tattoos (he bears a mark as a statistic of every impetuous nincompoop he killed).
While Into the Badlands was made on a noticeably smaller budget than other popular martial arts TV shows, and in about a fraction of the production time, it never looks like a rushed job. It is as cleverly scripted and as artfully rendered as blockbuster movies from the genre. Veteran Hong Kong choreographer Ku Huen-chiu makes great use of the possibilities of the journeyman storyline. He includes plenty of elaborate and faultlessly choreographed fight sequences that surpass all we’ve seen in contemporary cinema, in both their intensity and stylish grace. The characters are unflagging, and the story gallops along so quickly that three seasons end before you know it.
‘Into the Badlands’ Originates From Some of the Best Chinese Literature
While Into the Badlands looks like a typical American production, it’s easy to see the influence of Asian martial arts films. We can observe this in almost every shot, from the inspired use of the surrounding landscape to the microsecond-perfect framing of the scenes and the immaculate manner in which the fight sequences are cut and edited. The beauty of the natural Dublin and County Wicklow locations (where it was filmed), amplified by the confident use of widescreen camera angles, makes the show look even more dramatic.
It seems like a crime that only three seasons of Into the Badlands were made. Actor Sherman Augustus revealed that there were plans for Season 4, which would have explained the origins of the show’s chaotic post-apocalyptic setting. He also explained that there were plans for a spinoff, only for them to be scrapped. The offshoot would have been set 20 years after the events of the original series and would have followed Sunny’s son as a young adult. If you watch the show and feel like you haven’t had enough, you should read Journey to the West, the classic Chinese novel which Into the Badlands is loosely based on.
Published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to the poet Wu Cheng’en, the novel is beautiful, and no page is wasted. It offers fun stories where the less important characters are less well-developed and frequently forced to disappear into the shadows, so that the reader’s sympathies remain virtually monopolized by those who matter. Containing elements of folk religion, Chinese mythology, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoist and Buddhist folklore, and the pantheon of Taoist immortals, the book is a progenitor to the xianxia literary genre that combines martial arts with high fantasy. Don’t miss it.
Most importantly, don’t miss Into the Badlands.
- Release Date
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2015 – 2019-00-00
- Network
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AMC
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
