Blue Eye Samurai is an act of ‘revenge’ for its female director

Jane Wu knew the story of a female warrior who fought her way up a hierarchy dominated by men. Amber Noizumi, Michael Green and (Logan, Blade Runner 2049The new Netflix show was co-created by ). Blue Eye Samurai, they found the hard-R animated epic’s soul in Wu, a storyboard artist, director, and martial artist whose unsung role in blockbuster action over the last 20 years made her an obvious choice to oversee the series’ direction. Blue Eye Samurai follows Mizu, a young woman of mixed race in 17th-century Japan, who masquerades as a male samurai to find four white men hiding out in the country — and the one who’s likely her father. Wu’s ascent in the action and animation industries wasn’t as bloody as Blue Eye SamuraiBut it was equally rigorous.

“It was so eerily relatable how Mizu felt as a woman going through Edo Japan, when women were really seen as decorative things,” Wu tells Polygon. “I absolutely related to the anger she felt. It was great to be able channel this anger. And it was very cathartic.”

Wu’s frustration with the “bro club” of Hollywood action work comes out in full force in Blue Eye SamuraiThis remake of John Wick’s swordplay is razor sharp and rewired for today. Mizu is on a quest for answers that sees her tearing herself apart as she slices through arms and bounces up mountains. It’s genuinely astonishing,The following are some examples of how to get started: when Wu’s name pops up in the credits as supervising director, it’s obvious why. Wu’s CV is littered with milestone projects, having storyboarded for the better-than-anyone-would’ve-expected animated series Jackie Chan Adventures and Big Guy and Rusty, the Boy RobotThe following are some of the ways to get in touch with us: Game of ThronesThe following are some examples of how to get started: Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse. When I learned that she had choreographed the most memorable moments of The Avengers’ Battle of New York. Marvel was in Jane Wu’s business. They hired her for their eye-catching campaign. Thor: The Dark World, Guardians of the Galaxy” Age of Ultron. Her style — which combines a knowledge of physics and fluidity, a wry comic timing, and her training in the martial art wushu — nearly got her jobs directing Chinese blockbusters, although COVID-19 threw a wrench in those plans. She doesn’t have any regrets, though — she’s exactly where she wants to be.

While Wu’s fingerprints are all over modern action, Blue Eye SamuraiShe finally brings her name to the forefront in a big way. She didn’t waste the opportunity. Wu says she funneled two decades of dealing with workplace microaggressions right into the show’s action, which hits Hard to believe?.

“And the hits have to hit hard,” she says. “That’s part of my martial arts background and having watched so much action in my upbringing, from Hong Kong cinema. I appreciate a good hit. I want you feel it. That’s the whole idea of what we do when we tell stories — I want you to feel it.”

Image: Netflix

Wu had an immediate, clear vision of how she would approach Noizumi and Green’s personal-yet-classic samurai saga. Wu worked on Marvel Movies and Game of ThronesShe saw that live-action films relied so heavily on special effects, it was almost like an animation. With that in mind, Blue Eye Samurai, Wu wanted to work in reverse and create “animation with a live-action attitude.” While live-action references and rotoscoping have been part of the animation methodology since the early days of Walt Disney, Wu aimed to create a pipeline that hewed closer to how she approached work on a giant movie like The Avengers.

The result was a “manifesto” for Blue Eye Samurai: Any shot or sequence in the series would be considered from a live-action point of view, from camera lenses to set construction and “actor” choreography. Roger Deakins’ Pixar style was elevated by his work with WALL-EWu wanted to make the production feel like it was ready to film in real time. That required extensive pre-visualization of the entire series and the creation of digital proxy sets, which allowed Wu and the creative team to “location scout” for the various set-pieces.

“I got this idea through Mizu’s character. She’s biracial. So I wanted this production, and when you’re looking at it, to feel like it’s a great blend of both animation and live action. I wanted to show that there is strength in that diversity,” she says.

Pictures: Netflix

Wu worked with Sunny Sun, an action choreographer to create each scene. Blue Eye Samurai’s battles in practical environments. Sun worked out each fight with a stunt team in China, and taped it for reference, during the COVID’s more challenging days. Wu says that this level of preparation is not uncommon for blockbuster films, but it’s rare in animation. It helped that she could also wield a sword if the animation team at France’s Blue Spirit ever needed a closer-up point of reference.

Wu has a few episodes where he breaks the manifesto and makes the audience fall off their couches. The series’ sixth episode finds Mizu fighting her way through an aggressively defended fortress full of traps that would make Jigsaw salivate. Wu claims it is an homage. Enter the dragon, gaming, and anime — sources of inspiration that revel in boss fights. There are very few fantastical scenes in this series. Even the goriest acts of violence rarely occur. Blue Eye Samurai followed the rules, all while satisfying Wu’s dreams. Mizu faces 10 fighters on a mat in an early episode. It was an ideal place for the filmmaker to let off steam.

“I didn’t want this to be another kind of, like, ‘I hack at you, you hack at me’ thing because that’s just so boring,” she says. “I wanted something that would even wow our stunt community. So we talked a lot about Mizu and her character because she doesn’t talk very much and the other 10 dojo students were mouthing off at her. So I said, ‘Let’s rip out their teeth. Let’s injure their mouths because she wants them to shut up.’ And who doesn’t wince at teeth being knocked out?”

Wu can’t help but laugh at her own flex and all of the show’s elegantly constructed bursts of rage. Even the first season’s overarching plot, depicting the arrival of European guns to Japan and the disruption of honorable fighting, mirrors her own experiences. “I grew up in Asia,” she says, “and Western culture was always bombarding us, telling us that our Asian culture wasn’t as important or wasn’t as fun. So it was kind of the arrival of that bombardment.”

The following are some alternatives to the word “Advantage” Blue Eye Samurai, Wu gets to push back, and in a style she’s been honing for years in service of others. Now it’s her turn.

“It’s all a Long-term: revenge for me,” she says with a smile.

Blue Eye Samurai Netflix is currently streaming season 1.