In AMC’s new martial arts series, “Into the Badlands,” Daniel Wu plays Sunny, a motorcycle-riding, katana-wielding assassin whose loyalty to his flinty-eyed master is matched only by his prodigious kill count (400 and climbing).

在美国AMC频道最新的武打剧集《荒原》(Into the Badlands)中，吴彦祖饰演桑尼(Sunny)，一个骑摩托车、挥武士刀的杀手。他对眼神冷酷的主人忠心不二，与这种忠心相配的是他惊人的杀人数目（400个，还在不断上升中）。

Al Gough and Miles Millar, of “Smallville” fame, are the show’s proud creators, but on a recent afternoon at the Soho House club here, they were holding forth on another martial arts television series, “Kung Fu,” the 1970s drama with David Carradine as a Shaolin monk.

该剧编剧是以《超人前传》(Smallville)成名的艾尔·高夫(Al Gough)与迈尔斯·米拉(Miles Millar)。但在前不久的一个下午，在当地的Soho House俱乐部，他们滔滔不绝地谈起了另一部武术电视剧《功夫》(Kung Fu)，这是20世纪70年代的一部剧集，大卫·卡拉丁(David Carradine)在其中饰演一个少林僧人。

“I actually thought it was kind of boring,” Mr. Gough, 48, said of the series, which he first saw in reruns as a boy. “There wasn’t enough fighting in it. And then I realized, Oh my God, it’s a white dude.”

“我觉得它有点没劲，”48岁的高夫说起那部剧集时说，他小时候在电视上看过它重播。“里面的打戏不够多。然后我才明白过来，上帝呀，那是一个白人家伙。”

When “Into the Badlands” begins on Sunday, it will be the only martial arts drama on television, and one of the few to tackle the genre since “Kung Fu” aired four decades ago. Biographers of the martial arts legend Bruce Lee claim that he lost out on the lead role in that earlier series because network execs didn’t think American audiences would watch a TV show starring a Chinese-American martial artist, even a show ostensibly about a Chinese-American martial artist. The role went to Mr. Carradine, whose kung fu skills were lackluster and who was not, of course, Chinese.

于周日上映的《荒原》是目前电视台上映的唯一一部武术剧，也是四十年前的《功夫》以来，这个类型中寥寥无几的后继者。传奇武术家李小龙的传记作者们称，李小龙失去了在这部早期电视剧中出演主角的机会，因为电视台高管们觉得，美国观众不会喜欢看一个美籍华裔武术家主演的电视剧，即便这部剧表面上就是关于一个美籍华裔武术家的。最后这个角色给了卡拉丁，他武艺平平，当然，也不是中国人。

“Looking back, it was a travesty,” Mr. Millar said.

“回头再看，它只是一部拙劣的仿作，”米拉说。

In many ways, “Badlands” is an effort to right that wrong while simultaneously bringing authentic Hong Kong-style kung fu to American audiences. The producers assembled a team of specialists and stuntmen led by the fight director and actor Stephen Fung (“House of Fury,” “Tai Chi Hero”) and the martial arts choreographer Ku Huen Chiu (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), and took them to Louisiana, where the series is filmed.

《荒原》在很多方面都是力图纠正这个错误，试图把真正的香港式功夫带给美国观众。制片人召集了由专家与特技演员组成的团队，由武打导演兼演员冯德伦（代表作《精武家庭》、《太极2：英雄崛起》）及武术动作设计谷轩昭（代表作《卧虎藏龙》）领衔，一行人来到路易斯安那拍摄这部剧集。

“Badlands” is set in a post-apocalyptic future in what was once the American Midwest, where all-powerful “barons” rule the land with the help of armies of warriors (think shoguns and samurai, except with oil fields). The show’s creators selected Mr. Wu, a Hong Kong star with more than 60 films to his credit, for the role of Sunny.

《荒原》发生在世界毁灭性灾难之后，这里曾经是美国的中西部，如今由独揽大权的“领主”统治，并有武士充当帮手（有点像日本幕府时代将军和武士的关系，只不过这里还有油田）。剧集的主创们选择了香港影星吴彦祖饰演主角桑尼，他已经出演过60多部影片。

Born in Berkeley, Calif., and raised in nearby Orinda, Mr. Wu was initially brought on board as an executive producer involved in the martial arts side of the series. He balked at accepting the lead role because of the physical effort it entailed. “I was 40 when I started the show, and I wasn’t sure if my body could take it,” Mr. Wu said in a phone interview from Hong Kong.

吴彦祖出生在加利福尼亚州伯克利，在奥林达附近长大，一开始是作为武术方面的执行制片人参与到这部剧集中来。他对饰演主角感到犹豫，因为这个角色有一定的身体要求。“片子开拍时我40岁，我不知道我的身体能不能受得了，”吴彦祖在香港接受电话采访时说。

His were valid concerns. As with action films in Hong Kong, the production of “Badlands” was divided between two units running concurrently: a main unit, with its full roster of actors and directors and makeup artists, and an equally large unit dedicated to fight scenes. The lead actor would have to work in both groups on a six-day-a-week schedule, combining full days with the main unit with the infamous training regimens required of Hong Kong-style martial arts filmmaking.

他的担心是有道理的。和香港的动作片一样，《荒原》的拍摄也分为两组同时进行：主剧组有自己全部的演员、导演和化妆师，此外还有一个同样大的剧组，专拍动作戏。主角每周工作六天，和两个剧组都要合作，除了整天和主剧组呆在一起，还要接受香港式武打片著名的刻苦训练。

The search for the lead actor lasted four months, with the producers seeing scores of hopefuls from the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia. Most could do martial arts and a few could act, but very few could do both. “We saw people who, if there actually was a Badlands in real life, they could probably be Sunny,” Mr. Gough said, laughing. “But they couldn’t act.”

主角的选角过程持续了四个月，制片人面见了许多来自美国、欧洲、亚洲和澳大利亚的候选者。其中大多数人会武术，一少部分人会表演，但几乎没有人既会武术又会表演。“我们见了许多人，如果现实生活中真的有‘恶土’，他们没准能当上桑尼，”高夫笑着说，“但是他们不会表演。”

After prodding from the creators and producers, Mr. Wu finally agreed to take the role. “I think maybe that was our secret intention all along,” said an executive producer, Stacey Sher (“Django Unchained,” “Erin Brockovich”). “As a friend said to me, how can you do a martial arts television series with Daniel Wu that doesn’t star Daniel Wu?”

在主创和制片人的说服之下，吴彦祖最终同意接受这个角色。“我觉得这一直都是我们的秘密目标，”执行制片人史黛西·谢尔（Stacey Sher，曾参与《被解放的姜戈》[Django Unchained]和《永不妥协》[Erin Brockovich]）说，“就像我一个朋友说的，你们和吴彦祖一起拍一部武打电视剧，怎么能不让吴彦祖当主演呢？”

The show began production last summer in southeast Louisiana, where the cast and crew endured temperatures that spiked into the high 90s; New Orleans’s oppressive humidity; and swarms of large, hungry mosquitoes. Add to that the show’s accelerated shooting schedule (six days per fight scene, as opposed to two weeks in your typical Hong Kong film), and one can see why martial-arts series are so rare. “When we got into it, we were like, now we know why no one else is doing this,” Mr. Wu said. “Because it’s so hard.”

剧集是夏天开始在路易斯安那东南地区开拍的，剧组成员忍受着约32摄氏度的高温、新奥尔良的潮湿憋闷，以及大群饥渴的巨大蚊子。这部剧的拍摄速度又特别快（六天一场打斗戏，典型的香港电影是两周一场打斗戏），这下人们可以看出来武打电视剧为什么这么少了。“当工作深入下去的时候，我们想，现在我们才明白为什么没有人拍这种片子了，”吴彦祖说，“因为太难了。”

The series features two major fights per episode. Keen-eyed fans will spot homages to several well-known martial arts scenes, from the rain-soaked swordfight in Wong Kar-wai’s “The Grandmaster” to Bruce Lee’s battle royale in the Japanese dojo in “Fist of Fury” (a.k.a. “The Chinese Connection”). The level of violence equals those of Hong Kong action films, with eviscerations, snapped necks and impalements galore. In one scene, a master swordswoman named the Widow (Emily Beecham) juliennes a victim so neatly that all that’s left of him is a crimson cloud.

这部剧中每集都有两场打斗戏。目光敏锐的剧迷肯定能看出对经典武打场面致敬的若干场面，比如王家卫《一代宗师》中的雨中对剑，还有《精武门》中李小龙在日本柔道馆里的混战。剧集的暴力程度和香港动作片大体相当，有挖出内脏、折断脖子和刺穿身体。在其中一幕，一个名叫“寡妇”（艾米丽·比查姆[Emily Beecham]饰演）的女剑客大师把受害者切得粉碎，只剩下一团血红色的云雾。

“We spent a lot of time talking to standards and practices,” Mr. Millar said.

“我们花了很多时间讨论标准和惯例问题，”米拉说。

In Hollywood action movies, directors mask their actors’ subpar fighting skills with shaky camera moves and extreme close-ups. In “Badlands,” the camera pulls way back, so that viewers can see 10 combatants (or 20, or 30) in a single shot. “The difference between American action and Hong Kong action is that in Hong Kong, you go wide,” Mr. Millar said.

在好莱坞动作片里，导演会使用晃动的镜头和极为贴近的特写，掩饰演员拙劣的打斗技巧，。在《荒原》里，镜头拉得很远，观众可以在同一个镜头里看到10个打斗者（也许是二三十个）。“美国动作片和香港动作片的区别就在于，在香港，镜头更宽，”米拉说。

“Badlands” isn’t the first martial arts outing for Mr. Gough and Mr. Millar. The first two films they wrote together were “Lethal Weapon 4,” with Jet Li, and the Jackie Chan film “Shanghai Noon.” In 1998, midway between “Kung Fu” and “Badlands,” the two were writers on the CBS series “Martial Law,” which featured the Hong Kong action film star Sammo Hung as a Chinese policeman fighting crime in Los Angeles. The series was notable not for its story line or acting, but for its lead’s top-notch kung fu credentials.

《荒原》并不是高夫和米拉第一次尝试武打片，之前，他俩还曾经一起创作过两部武打电影，一部是李连杰主演的《致命武器4》(Lethal Weapon 4)，一部是成龙主演的《上海正午》(Shanghai Noon)。1998年，正好是在《功夫》与《荒原》之间，两人为CBS创作了剧集《过江龙》(Martial Law)，由香港动作明星洪金宝主演，饰演一个在洛杉矶打击犯罪的中国警察。这部剧集引人瞩目的不是故事情节，也不是演技，而是主角一流的功夫本领。

The show, Mr. Gough said, was sold to CBS on the strength of a single fight scene in a garage. “In some ways, it was the worst way to do a show,” he said.

高夫说，这部剧只凭一幕车库中的打戏就卖给了CBS。“在某些方面，这是拍一部电视剧最糟糕的方式，”他说。

For “Badlands,” the creators were determined to make sure that the story and acting were at least as good as the fight sequences, and that the cast was as diverse and gender-balanced as possible. Sunny’s fiercest rival, the Widow, is played by a British woman; his love interest is black (Madeleine Mantock); the actor who plays his boss (Marton Csokas) hails from New Zealand; and his young protégé is portrayed by a performer of German/East Indian/Pakistani descent (Aramis Knight).

在《荒原》中，主创们决心让故事和表演至少做到和武打一样好，同时尽可能实现演员的性别平衡与多样化。桑尼最凶狠的对手“寡妇”由英国演员饰演；他的爱人是黑人（玛德琳·曼托克[Madeleine Mantock]）；他的老板由新西兰演员马尔顿·索克斯(Marton Csokas)饰演；他年轻的被保护人由德国/东印度/巴基斯坦混血儿阿拉米斯·奈特(Aramis Knight)饰演。

When the writers created the show, Ms. Sher said, “all of the main barons were men.” But, she added, “my personal crusade is to turn everybody into a feminist.”

编剧们最初创作剧本的时候，谢尔说，“所有的领主都是男人。”但是，她补充说，“我个人的努力就是要让所有人都成为女权主义者。”

And then there’s Mr. Wu, that rarest of actors on American TV: an Asian-American romantic lead in a drama series (members of that tiny fraternity have been largely confined to comedies, including the short-lived “Selfie” and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”). But it’s a milestone that Mr. Wu nearly overlooked, having starred in Hong Kong films for 18 years.

还有吴彦祖，他是美国电视界最缺少的那种男演员：一个剧情类连续剧中浪漫的亚裔美国主角（这类演员主要限制在喜剧类别里，比如短命的《再造淑女》[Selfie]和《疯狂前女友》[Crazy Ex-Girlfriend]）。“但这个里程碑差点被混迹香港影坛18年的吴彦祖忽视过去。”

“I really didn’t think about it until people started asking me about it,” he said. “And then someone sent me a picture of the billboard on Melrose Avenue, and I was like, O.K., this is crazy — I can’t remember seeing a billboard of an Asian dude on an American show, like, ever.’”

“我真的没有想太多，直到人们开始问我，”吴彦祖说，“后来有人送了我一张梅尔罗斯大街上公告牌的照片，我想，啊，真是疯狂——我好像从来没有见过公告牌上出现什么亚洲演员主演美国电视剧的宣传照。”