Brief Story Line
Jin Wang (Ben Wang - Chang Can Dunk etc) was the son of Chinese immigrants Simon (Chin Han - Mortal Kombat, Ghost in the Shell etc) and Christine (Yeo Yann Yann - Wet Season etc) who desperately tried to fit in in his high school. He had a crush on fellow student Amelia (Sydney Taylor - Just Add Magic: Mystery City TV series etc) and wanted to join soccer club. However he always felt insecure because of his Chinese descent, and the situation was worsened when an old sitcom involving a Chinese character Freddie Wong portrayed by actor Jamie Yao (Ke Huy Quan - Finding O'hana, Second Time Around etc) suddenly became popular and the object of fun making.
It did not help when Jin was assigned to accompany new exchange student name Wei Chen (Jimmy Liu - Light the Night TV series etc) who has outspoken personality. Wei Chen himself was actually the son of mythical god Sun Wukong (Daniel Wu - Reminiscence, Warcraft etc) and came to Jin's school trying to fulfill his personal quest which he believed involved Jin. He was also being supported by Goddess of compassion Guanyin (Michelle Yeoh - Minions: The Rise of Gru, Gunpower Milkshake etc) who posed as his aunt.
So what would happen to Jin who just want to be regular guy and Wei Chen's quest? You can find them in the season 1 of this series.
End of Brief Story Line
Just as expected, this series was quite light with a nice blend of story about regular teenager trying to fit in despite his cultural differences and his new friend who was anything but. Combined with the quest that involve characters from the classic tale of Journey to the West like Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and other legendary Chinese Gods and Demons, made this a fun series to enjoy. And with each episode having only like half an hour or few minutes over, it really did not feel tiring at all.
However, despite its light nature, there were actually plenty of moral messages in here but it did not feel condescending. The main characters were fun to watch, from the insecure Jin and his parents who had troubles of their own, to the confident Wei Chen and his father Sun Wukong and especially the Goddess Guanyin. The main cast generally did wonderful job here as they made us really invested in them. Funnily enough this was said to be like reunion of the cast from Everything Everywhere All At Once because few of them also appeared there like Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu (as Shiji) and James Hong (as Jade Emperor) though I did not recognize him here.
Aside from the people I mentioned above, there were also few well known guest stars such as Ronny Chieng (M3GAN etc) as the Mad Monk Ji Gong, Rosalie Chiang (Turning Red etc) as student/activist Suzy and Jimmy O. Yang (Love Hard etc) as the Dragon King Ao Guang. I admire the fact that they managed to cast them into this series. Btw, I saw in the closing credits that it was based on graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang who also served as the executive producer along with other names including the series creator Kelvin Yu (exec producer of Bob's Burgers TV series).
It would not be fun if this series did not have any martial arts in it, especially when you involved such characters. And Jimmy Liu to my surprise was quite agile (after browsing I found out that he was good in Taekwondo). The rest were pretty good too, although the fight scenes might not have been totally spectacular, but it was entertaining enough. And that final fight in the finale was awesome and I really liked it. In fact the 8th episode was my favorite one, while the 4th despite its unique style was my least. Everything else were between OK to good to my opinion. Oh and that ending was a bit unexpected as I first thought this was a limited series, but it was a pleasant surprise.
Overall this was an entertaining series for me with its attributes I mentioned earlier. The story was good with some moments provided warm feeling, the characters were interesting to watch, the action was cool enough and the cast were great. The critics understandably were impressed with the high appreciation as seen in the ratings in various platforms. It's certainly wonderful that Disney+ would create this kind of series and generous enough to release all episodes in 1 day instead of once every week. Let's just hope that it is not cancelled before we got the chance to see a proper ending. So if you are into this kind of series that was said to cross cultural boundaries, then you would like this one.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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