Interior Chinatown – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Generic Asian Man

Episode 1 of Interior Chinatown begins with Willis, working as a waiter in Uncle Wong’s restaurant, complaining to his friend Fatty about how monotonous their lives are in Chinatown, where nothing ever really happens. Willis aspires to be someone like Officers Green and Turner, who often appear on the news as the ace detectives of their precinct. Just when it seems the monotony will never end, Willis witnesses the abduction of a woman across the road.

Days pass with Willis working at the restaurant until his brother’s birthday arrives, revealing that his brother has been missing for years. That day, his mother, after spending years waiting for her son, decides to move on with her life and pursue a real estate certification. Later, Willis reflects on how his brother had been the golden child—the “kung fu” who could do anything—a stark contrast to Willis himself.

While working at the restaurant, Fatty and Willis encounter a new Asian-American detective, Lana Lee, introduced as the Chinatown expert assisting the precinct with an investigation into assumed gang wars connected to the abducted woman.

Willis is surprised when Lana visits the restaurant and asks for his help in obtaining the fingerprints of one of the sellers from an organized syndicate operating in Chinatown and using the restaurant as a front. Shortly after she leaves, the “Glam Squad,” Detectives Green and Turner, arrive. The buyer in question is revealed to be a member of the undercover police force, who had planted a tracker in the buyer’s briefcase.

As the main plot unfolds, Willis discreetly takes the cup with the buyer’s fingerprints to give to Lana. After the police leave, a gang war suddenly erupts inside the Golden Palace restaurant. Wanting to show off his kung fu skills, Willis joins the fight, only to be knocked out. Disappointed by his failure, Willis receives further discouragement from his father, Joe, who remarks that he’s not there to win but to make the other guy look good.

The next morning, everyone fixes the restaurant as if nothing major had happened. News reports announce that the abducted woman has been found dead, with the police blaming gang wars and crime in Chinatown. Later, Lana contacts Willis, and they meet. She explains that she’s investigating his brother’s disappearance and its connection to a gang called the Painted Faces. She reveals that his brother had been working for the precinct in a special task force, which was dissolved after he went missing. The scene transitions to an ad for the club where Lana and Willis had been meeting.

Willis later confides in Fatty, deciding that this is the opportunity he’s been waiting for—until he sees the dead woman outside the restaurant. The episode ends with Willis noticing the camera and stepping out of the restaurant.

The Episode Review

Interior Chinatown begins intriguingly, incorporating several metafictional elements adapted for the screen: Willis breaking the fourth wall by looking directly into the camera, his sense of being an extra in someone else’s story, and his father reinforcing this feeling with remarks like, “You’re not there to win,  you’re there to make the other guy look good.” The most fascinating metafictional touch is the ad for the club that Lana and Willis visit! These elements make the first episode an engaging watch.

However, the plot feels somewhat weak and muddy, especially the arc about Willis’ brother’s disappearance. Despite this, the episode is saturated with satire, highlighting the deep racial discrimination faced by the Asian-American community. It critiques how the roles available to them are often limited to being extras or, if in the spotlight, they are sidekicks to the main leads (such as Lana) or the heavily clichéd “kung fu” archetypes of Hollywood films.