Hulu’s adaptation of Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown is anything but conventional. The novel’s unique format allows readers to explore the world of police procedurals through the eyes of a background character while also addressing how Asian Americans have been portrayed in mainstream media.
Now, the words of the acclaimed novel leap off the page to become a 10-episode miniseries that is as poignant in its social commentary as it is sharp and witty in its comedy.
One thing is for sure: Yu and Taika Waititi deliver on the promise of respecting the source material while giving us something new and refreshing and a deeper understanding of the social issues at play.
Like the novel, the series is told through Willis Wu’s (Jimmy O. Yang) perspective. As a waiter and delivery boy for a Chinatown restaurant called The Golden Palace, Willis feels like a background character of someone else’s story. He dreams of a life beyond Chinatown and desires to be more than just a background character. The thing is, he needs to learn how to do that. Something or someone is preventing him from breaking that wall. However, his narration has no trouble addressing the audience and the strange scripted nature of his world. With dreams of escape in his hand, he continues to practice his Kung Fu just like his late older brother (Chris Pang) because not only does one not know when a Kung Fu fight will break out, but his late brother used martial arts to get out of Chinatown.
That’s when Willis becomes a witness to a major crime. With his knowledge of police procedurals, Willis believes he has found his purpose and a means to become a main character. The problem is Willis needs to figure out what to do with the information he has. So, he questions himself and why he’s so scared to go to the police. That inner self-doubt speaks to his lack of confidence and explains why he doesn’t see himself as the hero. Moreover, he isn’t there to win or make himself look good when he enters a fight. According to his dad, it’s the other way around.
Waititi’s love for outcasts and misfits has Yang breaking away from the comedy routine with a nuanced performance about a man on a journey of self-discovery. So when Detective Lana Lee (Chloe Bennet) enters the picture, the “generic Asian man” takes control of his destiny. Willis finds his worth as he digs deeper into the cold case involving a local gang and his late brother. Lee also helps him realize his value in subsequent episodes. However, earning that spotlight is easier said than done, as outside forces beyond his control will do anything to keep him out of the frame.
Interior Chinatown puts an intriguing twist on an already intriguing premise. Rather than see Willis as a struggling actor who wants to take his background character to the foreground, Interior Chinatown moves between two worlds. One world are the scripts of episodes of a police procedural called Black and White coming to life. The other follows Willis journey as outside forces of a script, like stage direction and asides, control his every movement. Since Willis knows the police procedural formula and breaks it down to his friend Fatty (Ronnie Cheing), who has no interest in what he is talking about. Despite that, Willis describes how the police procedural works and equates background characters to those like himself. He sees these characters before cold openings as unimportant and relegated to the role of witnesses or victims.
Waititi’s directing style distinguishes between smart and silly, which perfectly leans heavily into Interior Chinatown‘s humor and commentary. The pilot episode, which he directed, filters the source material through his lens while also honoring Yu’s work. Here we get to see the stories of these background characters that would otherwise go unnoticed or be cast aside by a show like Black & White. The episode follows him from his job at the Golden Palace to a drab apartment complex where tenants are like family.
It’s in a tiny yet powerful scene in the pilot episode where we get to see Yu’s work come alive and a commentary on how Asian Americans are depicted on screen and portrayed in a way that isn’t boiled down to stereotypes. This heartfelt moment doesn’t have to use Kung Fu or an exchange of age-old wisdom, but instead see a son connect with a grieving mother because he refuses to let her honor her eldest son and his older brother’s memory alone in the dark. These characters struggle economically, and the generational gap shows that some struggle to assimilate culturally. It’s not a pretty picture, yet Waititi can capture the moments succinctly. And that is just in one episode.
Subsequent episodes dive deeper into the meta world while also weaving in the cultural commentary. Stage direction, framing, and asides are a nod to keeping lead detectives like Turner (Sullivan Jones) and Green (Lisa Gilroy) in the spotlight, but also are a preventative measure for Willis breaking any barriers that would put him in the spotlight. It’s a clever idea that helps build his story arc as he has to find ways to make his way to the foreground. This includes interacting with other background characters like a front deskman, a janitor, and an evidence archivist. Again, all of whom we would not give a second thought about but still have a chance to help Willis get to where he needs to go as a person and as someone looking for answers about his late brother.
Interior Chinatown is smart. Very smart. It’s probably too smart for its own good. The metaness of it is theatrical, but it also speaks to how Asian Americans are represented and misrepresented in media. The show isn’t exactly an Asian American success story. Many of the members of the community are struggling economically, with the Golden Palace being the only save haven for its community. It’s a place where they can celebrate, mourn, and discover themselves. All these coalesce in the Ben Sinclair directed episode two where Willis tries to discover where he fits in and how he can contribute to solving the mystery behind his brother’s disappearance.
Later episodes see Willis embracing his identity and finding the confidence he needs to move closer to the spotlight. Of course, this means the danger is getting closer to him as he uncovers more clues about what his brother was investigating as the resident Chinatown expert. Again, the show plays into these stereotypes and the scathing commentary that comes with it when lead characters are off-screen.
The long-form storytelling gives Interior Chinatown the opportunity for a more nuanced exploration of the themes of identity while also starting conversations about assimilation, cultural identity, generational trauma, and generational expectations against the backdrop of a police procedural. What’s fun to see is how Willis maneuvers through this world where. It is structured very much like a script. Meaning he is the only one aware of the asides, light changes, music cues, and how the camera operates. What’s more, he has to do all of the heavy lifting while other members of the cast stick to the script.
Yu’s novel envisioned Turner and Green as detectives who are out of touch with the cultural complexities and nuances that come with living in a community that is beyond their comprehension. So they have to rely on the likes of Detective Lee, who has bounced from one odd job to the next, only to find police work the one she wants to be great at. That ambition and drive, along with the mystery surrounding her, rubs Green off the wrong way. As such, the more seasoned detective sees the rookie as a threat, whereas the rookie wants to learn from the best but can’t quite reach her mentor because of whatever bias she may have.
The fact that Turner and Green have to rely on Lee as the Chinatown expert just because she happens to be Asian represents the problem with how Asian Americans are portrayed and how their roles are reduced to nothing more than the stereotypes that are forced upon them. When Willis uncovers archive footage of his brother who also was their Chinatown expert, they referred to him as Kung Fu guy. He asks them if that’s what they are really calling him, hinting at it’s racism and inability to call him by his actual name. The superior officers justify it by telling him he needs a code name. Another superior officer asks if that’s going to be a problem. So Willis’s older brother begrudgingly bows and says with an accent, “Kung Fu Guy” at your service.
So Yu puts a spin on that by giving these characters more complexity and depth and allowing them to have dreams, desires, distinct personalities, while also celebrating the cultural specificity of living as an Asian American. Life as a background character is so reductive as are how they are recognized by lead characters and script writers, and Yu wants to spotlight that these characters as people for the audience.
Interior Chinatown also examines the different generations of the Asian American experience and how they navigate it. Part of that means addressing the complexities complexity of family relationships and the unspoken emotional baggage that often comes with generational expectations. Where Lily Wu looks to move on to become a real estate agent after studying hard for exams since the loss of their eldest, where as Joe Wu seemingly as lost touch with reality and has taught his son to embrace losing and making the other guy look good so that he doesn’t lose another son. Then there’s Young Fong, owner of the Golden Palace, who seems to have successfully assimilated and looks to lift Fatty up from a back of the house grunt to front of the house after seeing how his displeasing demeanor actually attracts more customers to the restaurant.
Though we were only able to watch the five episodes that were given to us, Interior Chinatown has plenty of room to operate as a typical police procedural while also examining the nuances and challenges of being an Asian American dreamer who desires to break out of the role of “generic Asian man” being trapped in a world that has reduced them to nothing more than stereotypes. To see those barriers shattered with scathing satire is a sight to see and something that may be worth watching in case you missed anything.
9.5/10
