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Interior Chinatown is a brand new series that has made its debut on Hulu, fresh from Charles Yu's 2020 novel of the same name. The comedy crime series centers on Willis Wu (Silicon Valley's Jimmy O. Yang), a waiter and aspiring actor whose biggest break thus far involves playing into Asian American stereotypes on a cop show called Black and White. He longs for a more interesting life, and the universe answers by letting him witness an abduction and getting him involved in a real-life investigation.
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Chloe Bennet (Agents of SHIELD costars as Detective Lana Lee, who is straight out of a noir film until her fellow detectives ignore her takes on the case. She informally recruits Willis as a material witness, and his hapless efforts lead to plenty of comedic hijinks and metatheatrical observations. Ronny Chieng (M3GAN) plays Willis' coworker Fatty Choi, who goes to the other extreme -- rather than ambition and adventure, he craves contentment and the quotidian.
Related Interior Chinatown Review: Hulu's Surreal Series Is A Bitingly Meta Take On Asian-American Representation
Charles Yu's Interior Chinatown is a wonderfully mind-bending exploration of Asian-American representation in Hollywood brought down by one thing.
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ScreenRant interviewed Bennet and Chieng about Interior Chinatown's themes and how they personally viewed their characters. Chieng shared how Fatty chuffs against the idea of having to ingratiate himself into the larger society as an Asian American, while Bennet revealed her thoughts on Lana Lee representing the code-switching that many mixed-race people find themselves doing on a daily basis.
Ronny Chieng's Interior Chinatown Character Is Happy With His Lack Of Ambition "In his inability to be anything less than authentic, he attracts admirers among the society that he shunned."
Screen Rant: Chloe, you said this is one of the best projects you've ever been a part of, and now I know why. It is absolutely fantastic. But first, Ronny, how does Fatty Choi's contentment with his life and role contrast with Willis' ambition and struggle?
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Ronny Chieng: Yeah, I think Fatty represents one of the philosophies of succeeding in America, which is that instead of pandering to an outside society that doesn't welcome you, stay in your lane and find happiness there. For better or for worse, as I'm not even saying that's the right way to be. In fact, Fatty is very unambitious in his lane. He's happy to be poor; he's happy to be a bum.
But the curse of Fatty is that, in his inability to be anything less than authentic, he attracts admirers among the society that he shunned because they admire him for right or wrong reasons. He finds success there, and he represents not pandering to white America, because in his opinion, he's not pandering to them. He's taking them for a ride. They're his marks, and they're paying him to just be himself versus Willis, who is actively trying to enter white society, or mainstream American society.
That sets up the clash between them because, from Fatty's point of view, Willis is selling out. But from Willis's point of view, Fatty is useless, so that kind of sets up the duality of the [show].
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Screen Rant: What do you think Fatty's journey says about his self-acceptance and stepping outside of his comfort zone?
Ronny Chieng: I don't know if he ever,... Eventually, I guess he's happy with the success he finds, but I don't think he actually intentionally steps off his comfort zone. I don't know if he grows in that way versus Willis, who actively does step out of his comfort zone.
Okay, I guess that's not true. I guess Fatty does step out of his comfort zone by taking up the mantle of the Waiter that Willis [leaves] behind. I guess what it says about the character is that you have to step out of your comfort zone to find happiness, even if you don't think you're about that life.
Chloe Bennet Sees Her Interior Chinatown Character As A Metaphor For Code-Switching "When you're mixed race, I think it's an extremely relatable thing that you'd subconsciously take on." ✕ Remove Ads
Screen Rant: Chloe, I love Lana Lee in this. She's fantastic, and I feel like she's really our entryway into the Black and White procedural. Can you discuss the duality of Lana's character, and how she slips between different worlds while dealing with her own complex reality?
Chloe Bennet: Great question. Yeah, that's her entire existence on the show. I think we see her in the beginning very much through the lens of Willis, and we are introduced to her as this noir detective who seems to have it all together. Very quickly, the facade fades. We realize that there's a very thin veil she's keeping up, and it's not necessarily working. With each episode, it kind of just starts to disintegrate, and that was really fun to play.
I think it's a big metaphor for me on code-switching, and how everyone does it in one way or another. But certainly, when you're mixed race, I think it's an extremely relatable thing that you'd subconsciously take on. The energy that it takes to do that weighs on you, and it changes the way you think about yourself. It changes the way you carry yourself in the world. I think Lana is very much a fixture for that within the show, which was really fun to play.
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Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book of the same name, the show follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural called Black & White. Relegated to the background, Willis goes through the motions of his on-screen job, waiting tables, dreaming about a world beyond Chinatown and aspiring to be the lead of his own story. When Willis inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, he begins to unravel a criminal web in Chinatown, while discovering his own family's buried history and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.
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Check out our other Interior Chinatown interviews here:
Jimmy O. Yang Archie Kao & Tzi Ma Charles Yu & Taika Waititi Lisa Gilroy & Sullivan Jones
All 10 episodes of Interior Chinatown are now available to stream on Hulu.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
Your Rating10 stars9 stars8 stars7 stars6 star5 stars4 stars3 stars2 stars1 star Rate Now 0/10 Leave a Review 8/10 Interior Chinatown Drama
Interior Chinatown, adapted from Charles Yu's novel, follows Willis Wu, a background character in a TV police procedural. After witnessing a crime, he uncovers a criminal conspiracy in Chinatown and his family's hidden past while exploring what it means to take the lead in his own story.
Cast Jimmy O. Yang , Ronny Chieng , Chloe Bennet , Lisa Gilroy , Sullivan Jones , Archie Kao , Diana Lin Character(s) Willis Wu , Fatty Choi , Lana Lee , Sarah Green , Miles Turner , Wong , Lily Wu Release Date November 19, 2024 Seasons 1 Streaming Service(s) Hulu Main Genre Drama Creator(s) Charles Yu Expand ✕ Remove Ads
