again begging @Trakt to do something about these before-release reviews.
this has 95% critics rating and 100% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, yet it's 30% here on Trakt?
This show is great it’s got great action scenes and I like that we have two teenage main characters. It’s right up my alley and I didn’t disappoint I watch it
I found this to be a fun lighthearted reinterpretation of chinese stories they do alot of homages to kungfu movies which is great definitely a safe way to get the family into kungfu films or shows
The first episode was great and I'm looking forward to watching the remaining. If you are interested in watching, judge for yourself. You can't always trust the ratings on this site.
Kelvin's Yu's new Disney+ show American Born Chinese is a breath of fresh air from Disney. It borrows from its source material, a well-respected graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang, and like all good "wuxia" fiction cultivates and improves itself for the contemporary audience. The original novel divides its story between the Monkey King, second-generation teen Jin Wang and a buffoonish racist caricature Chin-Kee; with the TV show it follows similar emotional beats but deviates fairly early on. Here we have Sun Wukong's son taking precedence as the Monkey King on Earth (yes, this works as a sequel to Journey to the West!) and a soccer-loving secret-nerd Jin. But the biggest change is the racist stereotype Chin-kee being replaced with Ke Huy Quan's character Jamie Yao who reflects on his role as an Asian stereotype in a 1990s sitcom. This takes the weight of the racist narrative opposed to the novel which was set in 2006, but it's brilliantly done and all three story strands fit well together just like in the original story.
But there are more noticeable differences. One distinct one is that Michelle Yeoh's Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy) replaces the role of the original author's Christian Chinese God (though Chinese Christianity does feature) which I think works far better for the overall frame story. The other is that on top of this being a coming-of-age genre, it's also now a martial arts story. Taking inspiration from both wuxia (martial hero) and xianxia (heavenly hero) subgenres, the show uses a mixture of tropes common to both, for example, we have characters using "weightlessness" (that's your 'flying' and wire-fu) as well as magical weaponry from Heaven, but also grounds itself in hand-to-hand combat too. The action is expertly shot for a Western production and allows the viewer to follow it with ease. This is not necessarily going to work for every Western viewer, but for those willing to give it a go - it's excellent introduction to the wuxia genre and Chinese storytelling. More of this, please, Disney..
That said - it's way too short with only eight episodes. A lot more could have been fleshed out in some characters' motives. Also, comparisons will of course be made to this being Everything Everywhere All At Once-lite. The cast and theme are both similar (Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu and Ke Huy Quan all feature) and therefore might come across as a quick Disney cash-grab in some small part but that's surface level. If I was going to compare this to any other show, I'd say this was Disney+'s take on Netflix's ever-popular Cobra Kai (with a fantastical twist). Hopefully, we'll get a few more seasons of this to match that show!
Why bother placing comments. This piss of shit site removes user comments that go against all the hyper sensitive users who break down crying as soon as they read something that isn't full of rainbows and sunshine. Case in point, my next comment will be removed by the site.
This site was one of the best, even better than IMDB, but over the past 2 years trust is completely lost due to comments being one side.
Well that was fun. It's not the greatest show I've seen this month but it was enjoyable enough to binge watch.
The first few episodes were great, the middle ones were just okay, and then the last two were fantastic. I think they wrapped the season up nicely and gave that extra end bit it's second season opportunity. I'm a fan of Chinese dramas and this opened exactly like one but it was definitely like a marvel movie than a Chinese drama.
I think they did a good job at showing what it's like to be a kid in highschool and just wanting to fit in. how friendships can shift and you can be lost for no reason at all.
loved: the jokes, the characters, the music, acting was good, the overall themes of self acceptance and identity.
didn't like: kind of dragged on, the ending was not that surprising tbh, sometimes it felt so obvious, and stereotypical but that's also sort of the point. hated the romance. (and I love romance like love it but oof). also veryyyy westernized so uhhhh yeah.
rewatch value: 7/10
Really amazing! If you're interested and enjoy watching kugfu and martial art type fight you're surely gonna enjoy it. It brilliantlly uses sub plot in the storyline. Sometimes, it's dumb but mostly it's deep.
This could’ve made a truly amazing limited series. I felt like there was such great circularity and like tying together of things in the last episode. The weaving of beyond repair was powerful imo
Watched 10min, got bored. Nah.
:heart:x6
Not a bad show - a little slow at times. But overall well done. The action scenes are fun to watch.
The reason I had to downgrade the show is because of a personal issue. I absolutely loathe reading movies and TV shows. There is no reason, none, that they couldn't do all the dialogue in English.
A season 2 could be interesting . . . if it ever comes.
How I rate:
1-3 :heart: = seriously! don't waste your time
4-6 :heart: = you may or may not enjoy this
7-8 :heart: = I expect you will like this too
9-10 :heart: = movies and TV shows I really love!
so fun!! I loved every bit of it
First the show is fantastic. Lucy Liu directed some, Michelle Yeoh is amazing and the whole thing is fun. The Monkey King fairy tales and mythology are some of the best ever written. The show is cute, centers around teenagers, always good for kids, and is made with an obvious effort to attack negative stereotypes. It also focuses on ending the idea that kids must be friends with these but not those. Those ideas have always been disgusting whether sport v nerd or racist. The show confronts the issue without being overbearing, in a cute, but real way.
KUDOS TO DISNEY AND MARVEL Given the attacks by some politicians in the USA that have resulted in over a 300% increase in hate crimes in less than 6 years against Chinese Americans and Asian Americans, Disney and Marvel taking a proactive effort in addressing negative stereotypes that you have to be white and a jockto be American. I'm positive as far as the Native Americans are concerned all those white supremacists can go back to Europe "where they came from" if they really don't want to start accepting the USA has always been a better ideal than they want to live up to.
Special call out to the racist in the comments, calling himself "who's your Buddha" because for some reason these racist scumbags always think it makes them sound less offensive by trying to tie themselves to a culture they don't understand while disrespecting it. I'm your Buddha sweetie. Your racism is going to haunt you eventually. What comes around goes around.
The Chinese version of Ms Marvel.
I had high hopes for this adaptation considering the calibre of talent involved in this project. I expected it to showcase Asian talents and strong representation. What I saw was a watered down Asian show made for the Western taste.
There were so many places where the show could have done better. My biggest gripe would be Ke Huy Quan's part in the show. It's exactly the kind of role he did not want to take because it's racist and demeaning. When they show the character, I fully expect them to follow up with calling out the negative stereotypes, but nothing happens until the very end. When they did finally get around to addressing the issue, they talked around it.
There's no way I'm watching season 2.
A Chinese propaganda show. It's fucking America, make the show in English and stop forcing us to read sub titles. Disney has been taken over by Chinese just like everything else. If Disney was fair they would've made Ms. Marvel fully in Indian language or any of the Spanish shows entirely in Spanish.
American Born Chinese are highly raciest against LGBT+ and this show continues the stereotype. Plus the show makes anyone who is not Chinese into a bumbling idiots thus being raciest against everyone else.
a more tame prequel to EEAO
Shout by TGVlxBlockedParent2023-05-24T23:43:58Z
Loving it so far. Some scenes transported me to the 90's Kung Fu stories.
Well I'm a sucker for this type to shows, so I'm biased, but the cast is awesome and the story is captivating, if you have the time give this show a watch.