To be honest, I’m not a fan of Physical 100 because, as a viewer, I’m not a fan of the drama that comes with these kinds of competitive shows. I feel secondhand embarrassment when the contestants say things like “This looks easy,” or “That person doesn’t look strong.” I understand that this is what a platform like Netflix is looking for, but I personally don’t enjoy it at all. When it’s a competition between countries, this sentiment ramps up, so already I was very skeptical going into this show. While I was on point with my skepticism, I will admit I had some fun watching a few of the actual competitive games, despite it being multiple rounds of the same thing, mainly because of how some of the athletes really pushed themselves to do their best. This global spin-off of the Korean show focuses on group competitions rather than individual ones, unlike the last two seasons. With that said, though, let’s jump straight into the first 4 episodes of Physical: Asia.
Who Wins Territorial Conquest?
In the usual turn of events, the first episode focuses on introductions, and unless you already have an eye on these specific sports, you’re likely not going to know anybody, which means you won’t remember these players unless they really do something unique or striking. Full disclosure, I’m like a 2-year-old trying to work out quantum physics at this point, but there was still one name I knew on here, and that’s the Philippines’ Manny Pacquiao. Of course, I’ve seen the previous seasons too (for work, of course), and I do remember Amotti and Kim Dong-Hyun. The 8 countries participating are South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Mongolia, Turkiye, Indonesia, oh and also Australia. I think each team has 2 female players and 4 male ones, varying in weight and from different athletic backgrounds. Anyway, each team is introduced individually, but it’s lovely to see how excited the athletes are just to meet a legend like Manny “Pacman” himself. It definitely looked genuine, and it’s nice to see how honored everyone feels to meet the man himself. Oh and the prize money this time around is 1 billion won.
The first challenge of the show is “Territorial Conquest,” and it’s got fairly simple rules. There are four disks in the middle of a sand dune, and 8 teams competing. The 4 teams with the most players on the disks win. But here’s the problem, it’s not like if one team got on the disk, other teams can’t do it, they have to fight for their spots, so multiple teams ended up on the same disks, leaving multiple rounds to rematches, not only leaving the players exhausted, but us as viewers too, because it’s hard to keep track of what’s actually going on. Only two teams manage not to have multiple rematches, and those are Australia and Japan. Now the other teams have to rematch until one team wins, and we see Korea team up with Turkiye.
But then, when it comes to round 2, Korea has to rematch with Japan at least 6 times before new rules are set up. This time, only 4 members from each team get to stay on the disk, and the largest and smallest members are left out so that it’s an equal challenge. In this round, the last two people standing are the two girls, but the winner in round 2 is Japan. Finally, the teams that make it to round 3 are Japan and Turkiye, and the ultimate winners are Turkiye. By this time, you’ve seen them push each other in the sand so much, you’ve got to be tired, right? Maybe it’s just me. Türkiye also gets an advantage for winning, and that’s to decide the matchups for the next challenge.
Which Teams Win “Shipwreck”?
The second challenge of Physical: Asia is “Shipwreck,” in which there’s a massive ship that looks straight out of the sets of Pirates Of The Caribbean. This was reminiscent of one of the rounds from the previous seasons, where you have to show off your physical strength by carrying a ton of weight from one side of the obstacles to another. In this case, it’s designed to look like a ship, and there are levels, so someone has to climb down ladders, while crates need to be moved through zip lines. I had much more fun watching this challenge than the first one, because it wasn’t as chaotic, I think.
The first round is Japan vs Australia, and it really looks like Australia has an advantage over the Japanese team, and the latter even look like they’re giving up a little because they feel disappointed. But despite Australia stealing Japan’s crates, Japan tries to put up a strong front, and they end at 1800kgs, which was pretty high in comparison to the other teams later too. I don’t know if it was fair for Australia to steal their crates. Can y’all tell me if you agreed with that? Because it felt like cheating to me.
Round 2 is Mongolia vs. the Philippines, and the winner is Mongolia, because the Philippines gets too caught up in trying to be strategic and don’t transport enough sandbags. When it comes to Thailand vs Korea, James from Thailand tries really hard to get his team the win, lifting entire crates on his back and yelling in excitement; however, Korea ends up winning with a whopping 2120kg while Thailand only manages 1380kg. It was another case of too many crates, and this is especially sad because James tried so hard to get the crates across.
With Türkiye vs Indonesia, there’s a new member in the Indonesian team because one of their guys was injured. The Turkish team tries to rile up the Indonesians, but they’re pretty calm. In this round, Türkiye doesn’t seem to know how to tackle the challenge. They’re chaotic and a bit lost, but still, they’re the ones who end up winning.
The 4th episode of Physical: Asia sees the 4 losing teams competing in a new challenge. By this time, the teams also seem exhausted from the very sight of all the sand again. But the losing country in this game of the “death match” will be eliminated. This is a one-on-one game. The team has to aim for the goal on the other team’s side. If neither team manages to win, then there’s a one-minute rematch where the team that gets closest to their goal wins. Japan chooses to play Indonesia because they have an advantage in having the highest score among the losing teams. The 4th episode ends with the Philippines playing against Thailand, and at first, it looks like Thailand is going to win, because Mark of the Philippines isn’t as fast or as strong as Sun from Thailand, but in the rematch, he manages to hold the guy down closer to their goal. But for round 2, it appears Manny is playing Superbon, the Muay Thai fighter. But this round features two players from each team, and the other two are James from Thailand and Justin Coveney (a massive guy) from the Philippines. I guess, despite everything, I’m also looking forward to seeing who’ll take home the prize. What did you think of Physical: Asia? I’m going to go out and say it but the group challenges are just way more exciting than individual ones and this country vs country spirit makes everyone work extra hard, so I guess I do like it a little better.
