John Woo launches 7 Brothers web series

Somebody set off some slow-motion doves. John Woo has found his inner geek, and together they’re hopping on the online video bandwagon. The director of Bullet in the Head, Hard Boiled, and the US action films Face/Off and Mission: Impossible II adapted a graphic novel he produced in 2006 for YouTube fans.

Woo’s 7 Brothers, a modern retelling of Chinese mythology, is set for a 13-episode run, and for fans who can’t get enough of Woo or the idea of a Hollywood director embracing the awesomeness of comics, the first four episodes are already available.

The series covers the titular brothers who possess unique powers and are brought together to defeat a centuries-old evil force wrought by a sorcerer named The Son of Hell.

Woo brings his talents for fantastically tinged action sequences to bear, even in the exposition that makes up much of the first four episodes. In the first episode, we’re introduced to the historical elements that form the mythology, as well as the hapless L.A. pimp who will be crucial to the narrative:

The story continues when we meet the rest of the so-called brothers, who are unsure what they have in common besides a thirst for the $100,000 they were promised:

In the third episode, the mysterious woman evidently responsible for tracking down the seven gives us an explanation of their powers. We are also briefly introduced to the Son of Hell.

And in the last episode available for another two weeks, we get a little more background on the villainous Son of Hell and his playboy of an apprentice.

There’s surely more excellence to come as the series gets rolling. And with the promise of Liquid Comic’s future series, comic lovers can rejoice that film titans are finally giving them high-quality, instantly accessible material that they can watch without getting out of their PJs.

Written by Bree Kornblum Katz (@breekatz)

Bree writes when she is not skiing off cliffs, facing down funnel clouds, or plumbing the depths of the internet. She's published short stories with Dead Dog Press, Six Sentences, and BlazeVOX and currently blogs about her hair-raising experiences in the Rocky Mountains at extremetothemax.com. She's still waiting on her… More »