If “have you ever won an Oscar and you are asian” was a tv show, this would be it! An ensemble of legendary oriental talent. A show based on the graphic novel from 2006 with the same name.
The show follows Jin Wang, your average teenager balancing high school and home life. School involves trying to surpress his inner nerd in order to fit in with the “cool kids” whilst trying to entice his crush and home life involves having to manage the emotions of both his parents. When he meets a new foreign student, Wei Chen on the first day of the school, he’s then pulled into a fantasy war where worlds collide as he is unwittingly entangled in a battle with Chinese mythological gods.
With story taking heavily from the Journey to the West folklore we are treated to some fantastical characters. Sun Wukong aka the Monkey King voiced played by Daniel Wu. He’s the father figure of the show, stern, strict and the pillar of tough love. Our Oscar winners return, Michelle Yeoh as as Guanyin, she’s our motherly figure of the show. So elegant, classy and graceful on screen. Ke Hu Quan plays a sitcom character within a show in this show. He’s the comedy source in the show and takes quite a side character role. Our main star Jin Wang is played by Ben Wang who encompasses this character. He captures the nerdism, shyness and awkwardness brilliantly. Jimmy Liu plays Wei Chen, the new kid at school and our adventurer. He’s good as the quirky new kid who knows little of boundaries and high school rules. Yann Yann Yeo and Chin Han play the parents of Jin and they are excellent as the disgruntled couple.
The production is high quality so credit to Disney for delivering again. The kung fu choreography is reminiscent of the old school films. It makes it more enjoyable seeing a child actor partake. A standout fight was with Pigsy.
The sounds, the moves, the air time floating skills, it’s magnificent. I like most that they went with practical effects close to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon rather than CGI. It made it feel more authentic and it resonated with shows aesthetic. Where special effects were used were cheesy but again it was fitting as it’s expected. I liked the switch in dialogue from English to mandarin was seamless and there were even scenes where it didn’t include subtitles so it just felt authentic.
There are Asian racism quirks all over the show. To be honest its done with grace and doesnt feel too forced so it sits well. The show feels deep as it pushes to teach many lessons around bullying and how social media can be a tool. It goes on to use this mirroring type tool to tell stories that translate from the fantasy world to the real world. For example both Jin and his father have confidence issues. Jin is afraid to speak up in situations at school just as his father is to speak up at work. As disconnected as they are at home we see they are more alike than they know. It’s again mirrored through to the disconnect between Wen Chei and his father. Then you have Jin and Wen Chei friendship being quite rocky mirroring Sun Wukong and Mowangs. I like this kind of dynamic as it makes everything feel quite connected. We have the story around the marital issues and it was nice to see it didn’t involve an affair which is the easy and typical story route. It touched on confidence in their partnership, trust, financial strains, etc. it leads onto parenting and the spiralling effect that neglecting a child can cause. There are some episodes that just dragged and just felt really pointless. There is one trying to tell the back story of the monkey king etc but it’s so redundant and unneeded. Felt like it was used to stretch the episode count. The story towards the end tends to dry up and it’s at that point where you have lost interest and you’re just here to see it through to the end.
Overall it’s story on friendship. It’s a decent one I might add. 2 people from different worlds going through similar issues then sort of trauma bonding and coming together. If made into 6/7 episodes would have been better. I’d recommend it as background noise because that’s where it eventually ends up, however I recommend the fight scenes.
Do you want to see this story renewed for another season? Did you lose the story plot at any points? What did you think of the action? React and comment below…
