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What’s it like being the second banana? A bit role? What about Karefare? Interior Chinatown trailer gives us a glimpse into the lives of background actors. In it, Jimmy O Yang plays Willis Wu, who feels there’s more to his mission than meets the eye. When detective Lana Lee, played by Chloe Bennet, asks for his help on her case, Willis sees it as an opportunity to break out of his role as a “typical Asian man.”
Based on Charles Yu’s award-winning novel of the same name, the 10-episode series trailer looks like a combination of kung fu, noir, police procedural, romance, and all sorts of weirdness. “Interior Chinatown” also stars Ronnie Cheng, Zi Ma, Archie Kao, and Lisa Gilroy.
Interior Chinatown features a mostly Asian cast that defies the stereotypes that Hollywood likes to play with, but it’s also a story about finding one’s identity in a sea of tropes. The book was written in screenplay format and felt like a normal transition for adaptation to the big screen…but the novel was perfect in its own right. Will this series do it justice?
Author Charles Yu is the showrunner for Interior Chinatown (Yu was also a story editor on HBO’s Westworld), and Taika Waititi is directing the pilot. It seems very likely that the show will be a big hit.
We’ll find out someday when all episodes of Interior Chinatown are released on Disney+ on November 19th.
