Main cast: Parry Shen (Young MC), Ping Wu (Old MC), Lydia Look (Li), Nelson Lee (Sean), Feodor Chin (The Thug), and Rae Lim (Child MC)
Directors: László Ruska and Dave Wilson
Sifu is an interesting and rather difficult video game that came out in 2022. The difficulty attracts a fair share of fans, probably the same crowd that enjoy speedrunning FromSoftware games, but at that time it also drove the identity politics-obsessed games journalists nuts because it is a martial arts movie made by white men, which to them means OMG RACISM.
I’m therefore surprised that we have an episode based on that game, as the people behind this show are known to be similarly obsessed with identity politics. Then again, I’m sure they eventually recognized the money merit of this game to want to bring it to the attention of normies.
Well, that or someone decided that it would be cool to have flashy, violent animated martial arts scene in an episode, so Sifu: It Takes a Life is born.
Seriously, this episode is borderline incoherent and nonsensical to anyone that doesn’t know the game.
In that game, the protagonist has a magical talisman that resurrects him each time he dies, but he comes back to life much aged. This allows him to be more powerful, but he has a shorter health bar to balance things out.
There is also a hidden cost of such resurrection, as eventually the MC, the fancy way of saying the player’s character, would become old enough that the next death is permanent.
People that not aware of this aspect of the game would likely be baffled by what is happening in this episode.
Those that are aware of this aspect, however, may this episode a pretty beautiful, if somewhat predictable, tribute or homage to that game. Seriously, it’s a very gorgeous and flashy episode, which is the only reason why I’m adding in an extra oogie to the final rating. I’m feeling generous because I’m a sucker for pretty things.
Two episodes in, I’m still wondering what the purpose of this show is. Well, aside from being glorified trailers for various video games, that is.
