Talk:Interior Chinatown (TV series)
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critic reviews
edithttps://variety.com/2024/tv/tv-reviews/interior-chinatown-review-novel-hulu-1236206863/
- Ronny Chieng as Fatty Choi (Edsel Ford Fong)
Ronny Chieng, as Willis’ friend and fellow waiter Fatty, slyly steals large portions of the series; Fatty doesn’t like to “interface with strangers” but slowly becomes locally famous for telling off the white customers who come in ordering things like “ginger chicken, but without the ginger.” The worse he treats them, he muses in wonder and annoyance, “the more they show up.”
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/nov/19/interior-chinatown-show-review
- ...6/10
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/arts/television/interior-chinatown.html https://archive.is/VBOdn
Yu is particularly partial to “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” (In the series-within-the-series, Turner and Green lead the Impossible Crimes Unit). “It’s comforting, the idea that you can package a story and solve a crime in 42 minutes,” Yu said.
- ...Grade: B
Only five episodes were screened for critics...Released all at once, “Interior Chinatown” is an ideal binge, with episodes between 30 and 45 minutes
Like WandaVision or Kevin Can F Himself, it uses the visual language of television to tell the medium about itself.
the rocky but essentially caring relationship between Willis' aging parents, Lily and Joe, are undermined by a script that’s far more interested in chasing down tropes to shatter than it is in exploring the unique topography of its characters' souls
- "One of 2024's finest new shows"
When the "Black & White" leads are in Willis' vicinity, the lighting instantly shifts from a natural hue to a blue tint, the picture format shifts from full screen to widescreen, and the dialogue plays up the familiar network police procedural drama corniness.
- ...Prestige rating: 9/10
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/11/20/interior-chinatown-television-charles-yu-interview/ https://archive.is/M4enD
The question of how to depict Willis’s neighborhood as a physical place and a place in the cultural imagination — and also a personal, subjective space where he feels trapped by his own psychology — “broke our brains a bit,” he said. The book maintains the ambiguity of Golden Palace’s status — is it “real?” A theatrical backdrop? — for as long as possible.
Jalen Giovanni Jones: Were there any changes between the novel and the TV show iterations of Interior Chinatown that you found particularly exciting?
Charles Yu: A big one that comes to mind is Ronnie Chieng’s character. His name is Fatty Choi, and in the book he’s really a very minor character, just mentioned in passing a couple of times. But the idea of Willis having a best friend was very appealing. We were able to show not only that friendship between two guys who had grown up together in Chinatown, but also how their paths diverged throughout the season.
https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3287457/disney-drama-review-interior-chinatown-jimmy-o-yang-excels-bold-detective-comedy https://archive.is/TBdwH
- ...8/10
Set in the fictional city of Port Harbour, the show also knowingly sends up the conventions of the police procedural format to winning comedic effect, even as it deconstructs its inherently generic, repetitive and reductive nature.
The show quickly loses itself within its own mise-en-abyme framework. Is it a laborious mystery or just a dull satire? Are these stock characters deliberately flimsy archetypes, or just poorly written? Interior Chinatown offers few answers in its absence of thrills, laughs and any meaningful commentary that its novel premise gestures towards. It's ultimately a navel-gazing exercise that makes poor use of an appealing ensemble
As a kid growing up in Los Angeles in the 1970s and ‘80s, Charlie Yu watched a lot of TV. A child of Taiwanese immigrants, Charlie especially loved shows and movies starring famed martial artist Bruce Lee. His favorite was the 1972 film, Fist of Fury.
Every time Willis is unable to make his way forward, pass through a door, or enter the next set, the plot screeches to a halt, everyone wondering what could possibly be holding them back. Interior Chinatown boldly posits that it’s the entertainment industry in its entirety that is imprisoned by the very patterns it reinforces, whether through malice or neglect, and the only people who notice it—who can see the Matrix, if you will—are the ones who can’t escape.
https://web.archive.org/web/20241116082143/https://screenrant.com/interior-chinatown-tv-review/
Willis' search for his brother and how it ties into Lana's investigation into a variety of deaths around Chinatown evolves at somewhat of a snail's pace. The answers never feel like they come quickly enough, and the focus is kept a little too heavily on its mind-bending formula.
... 69.181.17.113 (talk) 07:21, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- It’s like the world’s strangest cop show that at its heart is a [show about family],” says series creator Charles Yu (Westworld), who penned the 2020 National Book Award winner the series is based on. Yu calls the series “Law & Order meets The Twilight Zone meets The Truman Show.” - Emily Aslanian, TV Insider, 16 Nov 2024
- ... 69.181.17.113 (talk) 07:42, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- https://www.tvinsider.com/1161451/interior-chinatown-charles-yu-book-tv-show-changes-taika-waititi/
- ... 69.181.17.113 (talk) 07:44, 21 November 2024 (UTC)
- "But “Interior Chinatown” perhaps doesn’t dig past the tropes enough to reveal something more nuanced on the other side. At least, not in the first half of the season. Whether the show sticks the landing is a key question. After five episodes, I’m not sure where it’s headed thematically. You could argue that’s a good thing — keep the audience guessing — but even by the midway point, the narrative occasionally stalls and lacks intention. The show has a binge release, meaning all 10 episodes are available at once; only providing the first half to critics suggests Hulu isn’t fully confident with how things get resolved in the back end.
- https://web.archive.org/web/20241121010121/https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/11/20/interior-chinatown-review-a-background-character-trapped-in-a-police-procedural-breaks-out/ 69.181.17.113 (talk) 16:24, 24 November 2024 (UTC)
phone prop
edit
looks like most of the phone props used,
https://www.mobilecollectors.net/phone/4059/Motorola-StarTAC+6000c
https://www.mobilephonehistory.co.uk/motorola/motorola_startac.php