Interior Chinatown (TV series)

Interior Chinatown (stylized onscreen as INT. CHINATOWN) is an American action comedy-drama television series created by showrunner Charles Yu, based on his 2020 novel of the same name. His novel won the National Book Award the year it was published.

The series stars Jimmy O. Yang as a waiter in Chinatown who discovers that he is merely a background character in a fictional police procedural. Produced by 20th Television, the series premiered on Hulu on November 19, 2024.

Unbeknownst to him, Willis Wu is a background character in the fictional police procedural Black and White. When he chooses to investigate the disappearance of his brother 12 years prior, he starts to uncover family secrets and the machinations behind his fictionalized version of Chinatown.

Development of a television adaptation of Interior Chinatown began in 2020. Hulu ordered ten episodes of the series in October 2022, when Jimmy O. Yang was announced as the lead and Taika Waititi would direct the pilot episode. The series is created by Charles Yu who also serves as the showrunner.

In October 2022, Ronny Chieng and Chloe Bennet joined the cast of the series. In January 2023, Sullivan Jones, Lisa Gilroy, Diana Lin, Archie Kao and Tzi Ma joined the cast, with Ma joining in recurring capacity. In February 2023, Lauren Tom joined the cast in recurring capacity. In April 2023, Chris Pang joined the cast in a recurring capacity.

Principal photography began by February 2023, with location shooting at the Universal Pictures backlot, Chinatown, Los Angeles, New Zealand (Chinese New Zealanders), and Toronto (Chinatowns in Toronto), and wrapped prior to August 2023.

Golden Palace Restaurant setting is inspired by the real-life Doyers Street and the real-life Doyers Street tunnels in Manhattan’s Chinatown.

The series features several Cantopop songs, including Lazy Mutha Fucka's "Hum Ga Ling", Sam Hui's "Lullaby", Ricky Hui's "Take Me Home, Country Roads", and Frances Yip's "The Bund".

Interior Chinatown premiered on Hulu on November 19, 2024. Internationally, the series was released on Disney+.

Interior Chinatown ranked No. 4 on Hulu's "Top 15 Today" list—a daily updated list of the platform's most-watched titles—on November 20. It later moved up to second place on Hulu's "Top 15 Today" list on November 21.

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 87% approval rating with an average rating of 6.6/10, based on 31 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Adapting its satirical source material to imperfect but thrilling effect, Interior Chinatown is freewheeling entertainment with plenty to say about Asian-American stereotypes in media." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 64 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Interior Chinatown was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Limited or Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television at the 2024 American Society of Cinematographers Awards.