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| Daniel Wu plays a rarely seen Asian American action hero in 'Into the Bandlands.' |
HOLLYWOOD TALKS a good game about diversity on television, but when it comes to acting on widening the white worldview of the industry -- well, let's just say -- it's a long, slow process.
So when a show actually delivers on diversity, gives women prominent nonstereotypical roles, and week after week entertains us with the most thrilling action scenes on TV, we should be celebrating that show.
Daniel Wu, star of Into the Badlands -- Yes! He's a genuine Asian American action star -- let off a lot of steam over the weekend at what he perceives is an industry snub of his show.
Here is the #Emmy list of nominees for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Drama Series, Limited Series or Movie 2018. I started to write a long detailed post about this but decided to see what your responses are first. I understand we are a genre show but we should OWN this category!!!Why do you think this happened? Why do you think we get no love within the industry? Action Coordination is the obvious one but what about Costume Design? Set Design? Cinematography? #snubbed
He followed up with more tweets:
He's definitely got a point there. Into the Badlands employs one of the best fight choreographers in the world, Huan-Chiu Ku, who trained with the legendary Yuen Woo-ping (“The Matrix”) and has worked on the “Kill Bill” films, “Once Upon a Time in China II,” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
Before shooting starts for the new season, the actors are required to go through a boot camp of sorts so they can do the complicated fight scenes convincingly and without doubles.
The actors do most their own fight stunts without any camera coverups of fast-cuts, hard to see scenes in the dark or cutaways. It's like watching a long dance sequence where every maneurver, every step, kick, punch, block or sword swipe is meticulously timed and choreographed. If the timing is off or the action is sloppy, it could result in injury to the actors and stunt people.
The show's fight scenes are as good as, or better, than any fight scenes in the movies, when they have more time to rehearse. If you want to watch some breathtaking action, watch Season 1 fights below:
Wu wants a little respect for the show that he brought over from Hong Kong where the California-born actor gained fame in martial arts and romance movies.
Besides the action scenes, he believes Into the Badlands should have received nomiinations in costume and set design as well.
The show's premise takes place in a dystopian America where guns don't work. That allows the characters to become masters in swordplay and martial arts to settle disputes in this fantasy world.
Interestingly enough, Badlands gets very little promotion by its network, AMC, the same network that has the Walking Dead series and its spinoff Fear The Walking Dead.
There is no merchandise associated with Badlands and the actors hardly ever go on tour or appear on other shows to promote the Badlands.
What's worst than an Emmy snub? Badlands is the sixth most watched show on the AMC network. Four of the five shows ahead of it have already been renewed. The other exception is Fear the Walking Dead. As of today (July 14), there's been no word about Into the Badlands' season four.
Stream past episodes of Into the Badlands at the AMC website.
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