Through a bit of a scheduling conflict at SxSW this year, I had an opportunity to check out the premiere of the new Disney+ series AMERICAN BORN CHINESE at the Paramount Theatre. We were not planning to cover the TV aspect of the festival as we wanted to concentrate on the movies, but with this and SLIP recently reviewed on the site, we are happy that we bent our rules a little bit and look forward to covering more shows on the site in the future.
ABOUT: Jin Wang starts his sophomore year, hoping to make the soccer team and “level up” his social status, all while impressing his crush. But his plans are derailed when he’s assigned a new student “shadow” from China named Wei-Chen Sun. At home, Jin’s parents Simon and Christine argue over Simon’s job. Meanwhile, Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, searches for his magical Iron Staff, which has been stolen.
JASON’S REACTION: I was quite intrigued by this Disney+ series when it appeared on the schedule, and I was also interested to see it because it has small parts by recent Oscar winners Michelle Yeoh and Ke-Huy Quan. It stars Ben Wang as a teenager battling high school while at the same time other forces are at play wanting to get to the kid to get a stolen artifact back. Part fantasy but mostly high school coming of age, this series is directed and created by SHANG-CHI and SHORT TERM 12 filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton yet none of his visual flair is on display here. Even though this is more intended for the streaming platform over theatrical, I watched it on a very large screen at the Paramount Theatre and it really does have a low budget feel throughout, some stiff acting by some of the teenage roles there are also some good laughs and relatable characteristics of teenage high school life that I connected with, and it should make some light-hearted entertaining viewing for some Disney+ fans. This isn’t much of a glowing recommendation, I’ll admit, but it has its moments.
AMERICAN BORN CHINESE will begin streaming on Disney+ May 24th! Thanks to SxSW for bringing this to Austin so early!
This film and many others like it showed at South By Southwest this year from March 10-19. For more information on this and other titles, point your browser to www.sxsw.com!