REVIEW: ‘American Born Chinese’ Is A Relatable Genre-Bending Take On Coming-Of-Age

Creating a coming-of-age series that lands across audiences of all ages is a difficult task, and the Disney+ Original series American Born Chinese nails it. The series had its world premiere at the 2023 SXSW Film & TV Festival and is based on the graphic novel of the same name by Gene Luen Yang. Showrunner Kelvin Yu and directors Lucy Liu and Destin Daniel Cretton have created a genre-bending action-comedy series that hits every note you want from a YA-fantasy-action-comedy-coming-of-age story.

American Born Chinese tells the story of Jin Wang, an average teenager juggling his high school social life with his home life. High school is hard enough but when your parents are constantly fighting, it gets even harder to handle. When he meets a new student from China on the first day of the new school year, worlds collide as Jin is unwittingly entangled in a battle of Chinese mythological gods.

American Born Chinese is a series that always engages its audience where they are with teens completely in mind. While Academy-Award winners Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan are in the series and great additions, Ben Wang and Jimmy Liu are why the series is amazing. Jin is low in confidence and desperate to fit in. He loves anime, manga, comic books, and the things bullies pick on you for. Jin is looking to fit in, obsessing over the “right” clothes and hiding his interests to focus on soccer. On the other hand, Wei-Chen is confident in his identity and what he brings, not allowing bullies to intimidate him. But what else would you expect from the son of the Monkey King?

The two simultaneously play against each other at opposite ends of confidence but with similar questions about belonging. Jin and Wei-Chen are amazing as a duo and each actor brings a teenage awkwardness to the characters. Even when involved with the mythological, the series never loses sight of the fact that they are teenage boys just trying to be someone they can be happy with, despite what the world around them is telling them, from society but especially their parents.

While I know that every review will put Yeoh and Quan center in how they market their reviews for SEO purposes, American Born Chinese is a success because of the heart that Wang and Liu bring to it and, in every way, they deserve the spotlight here. Their friendship and the way they teach each other are essential to the series because they’re who young adults can see themselves in. While adults will tune in because of the extended cast, Wang and Liu get to show younger audiences that they belong, and sometimes you have to accept yourself first instead of focusing on what others think.

American Born Chinese also manages to cut across cultures to hit your core if you’ve ever been a hyphenate just trying to find a place to belong—or at the very least feel safe in. I’m Mexican-American, with an emphasis on the American part when I’m with Mexicans and an emphasis on the Mexican part when I’m with Americans. I’m in that liminal space that US-born people deal with their foot in each part of their identity. Because of that, the Spanish I speak is minimal at best, and while I can understand the gist of most Spanish conversations, I’m not always translating correctly. Why am I sharing this little tidbit with you? Well, American Born Chinese manages to showcase that weird space. Not in microaggressions but through Jin, sitting on his bed listening to his parents yell in the background.

Above his head, captions appear on the screen, a whole sentence at first, but it changes to ellipses joining two disparate words. And you realize the series isn’t trying to tell the audience what the fight is about. Instead, American Born Chinese is visualizing what Jin is feeling in that moment, the otherness of listening to your own parent argue in a language you only kind of understand. The series is trying to make you feel like Jin feels. Next to Warrior (which featured shifting language usage based on perspectives the episode was told from), American Born Chinese is the best use of language and subtitles that I’ve seen. It’s not just done to impart information, but it’s used to put the viewer in the character’s life and immerse them. And for me, who has lived my life trying my hardest to live in two different languages and struggling, it was like seeing into my own life.

While the series manages to grapple with themes of belonging and identity, it also genre hops from coming-of-age young adult dramedy to an action comedy that thrives in fantasy. Balanced against each other, American Born Chinese is able to be a heartfelt teen story and fantastical comedy at the same time. This allows the series to hit a variety of notes across genres and always build on itself at each turn. In fact, the series has the best effects work and action work of any show on Disney+ and it’s spectacular. Add in the fantastic costume design and make-up for the places where the mythological meets Jin’s world, and everything about American Born Chinese is just fantastic.

American Born Chinese is a breath of fresh air in the young adult space. As a teenage comedy, American Born Chinese is fantastic. As a fantasy story, it’s endearing. And finally, as an action series, it hits. The series is one that will capture a lot of hearts with a salient story about just finding out how to embrace who you are with wuxia action spun in.

American Born Chinese screened at the 2023 SXSW Film & TV Festival and streams exclusively on Disney+ on May 24, 2023.