Interior Chinatown Review: A Very Meta Take on Asian Representation [Video]

It was inevitable that Charles Yu’s searing novel Interior Chinatown would be adapted for the screen. The book, released to rave reviews and a series of awards in early 2020, takes the form of a screenplay, using often-repeated tropes to skewer how Asian stories are told in Hollywood. Yu himself created the 10-episode Hulu series and acted as its showrunner, with Taika Waititi helming the pilot. The onscreen version maintains the shrewd storytelling of the novel while augmenting its delivery with a literal cinematic quality.

Jimmy O. Yang plays Willis Wu, a Chinatown waiter and so-called “Generic Asian Man.” He’s stuck in his prescribed role, always a background player in a fictional police procedural called Black & White: Impossible Crimes Unit and never the star. As he complains to his best friend and hapless co-worker Fatty Choi (Ronny Chieng), guys like him never get to the hero …