Monsters, myths, and music collide in Echo Wu’s all-new animated series that balances finding self-identity with embracing supernatural chaos – and a millennia-old jiangshi - while coming-of-age in a small Texas town; debuts today, December 5 on Netflix.
Every child has their role models. Some look up to superheroes in comics and TV. Others aspire to follow in the footsteps of those who served their country, wrote novels, raced cars, hit homeruns, performed on stage or excelled in any of a myriad of professions that earned them accolades and wide-reaching respect.
But then there are underdog heroes; individuals who, despite being deserving of adoration, rarely get it (we see you teachers). Their efforts aren’t acknowledged and, sometimes, they’re even mocked. For Echo Wu, her role model was a relative who claimed to be psychic.
“Growing up, she was someone I always admired because she was a very eccentric person who did not care if people believed her,” shares Wu. “I really admired her for being so out-of-pocket and she came into my life at a point where, as a teenager, all I wanted to do was fit in and assimilate. She taught me standing out is ok.”
Wu is the creator and first-time showrunner of Netflix’s newly released animated series, Jentry Chau vs The Underworld, which follows the journey of a Chinese American teen (Ali Wong) living in a small Texas town who discovers that a demon king is hunting her for the supernatural powers she’s spent her entire life trying to repress. With the help of her weapons expert great-aunt (Lori Tan Chinn) and a millennia-old “jiangshi,” or “hopping vampire” (Bowen Yang), Jentry must combat an array of underworld monsters while balancing the everyday challenges of high school. The show is produced by Netflix Animation, Gotham Group, Nine Eyes Stone, Sony Pictures Television and Titmouse.
Check out the trailer:
“My psychic relative was a really big influence and having goats and demons in the mix as Jentry is grappling with teenagerhood and self-identity just felt very natural,” says Wu. “She’s literally running away from who she is, and you have to face yourself head-on. We had a quote in the writer’s room that said, ‘Sometimes, finding your self-identity is coming face-to-face with your demons.’ Plus, it was like an easy way to get people to watch a show that was about both of those things.”
Pairing the supernatural with everyday teen struggles, Wu was also dedicated to her series’ cultural authenticity, further supported by an inclusive writing staff.
“Having a crew that was majority Chinese American, or was really familiar with that culture, they all had an inkling of what this show would be,” notes Wu. “I think the Sun Wukong, or the Monkey King, is a popular character, not just in Chinese American mythology, but across the globe. My team and I had an affinity for these characters, but it's not like I knew them by heart. Honestly, I didn't know a lot of them going into this. It involved a lot of research. We had a culture consultant on the show that pitched different characters in Chinese mythology.”
But creating a show about a young girl coming to terms with her identity while Wu, a Chinese American herself, learned more about her own culture and mythologies, made for a very sincere production experience. For Wu, Jentry Chau isn’t meant to be an educational show about Chinese folklore, though it certainly is a big part of the series with a Chinese American lead. Overall, it’s a universal story, with very personal roots, about learning to love yourself.
“We didn’t set out to make a show about breaking Chinese American stereotypes or just educate people about the different Chinese mythologies,” says Wu. “I wanted to share a genuine point of view about coming-of-age in this small town in Texas. And who do small town Texans hate more than anything? Foreign things. It’s not necessarily on the nose about that theme, but it is very much inspired to be like that. But it really is a message that’s relatable to everyone who's ever felt like a fish out of water.”
Because of this, much of the show’s visual experience spurs from Jentry’s cone of reference and personal tastes.
“When she’s falling in love, it’s filmed like a Korean drama, because that’s what she watches,” shares Wu. “And, for example, even in the fight sequences, those are inspired by music videos Jentry has seen. She’s a 16-year-old girl, so a lot of her world is boys and K-pop.”
The show’s composer, Brian H. Kim, adds that a big a big plot element of the show is that Jentry used to live in Korea, which also feeds into her effort of hiding from her roots.
“You can hear inspirations from groups like NewJeans, Enhyphen, Stray Kids, NCT127 and Blackpink in the show’s music,” notes Kim. “I’m such a fan of so many K-pop groups. It was huge amounts of fun to make a score that spoke to that world.”
Kim also played a lot with traditional Chinese instruments, like the Guzheng, part of the plucked string instrument family.
“That one is featured heavily throughout the show, both in songs and score,” says Kim. “A lot of it was played by Bei Bei, who you can also hear in projects like Mulan and Battlestar Galactica. The erhu [or spike fiddle] in the score is played by Hannah Zhang, who is also a fantastic composer and orchestrator. She made some absolutely insane noises for Episode 11, which takes place in a super twisted interpretation of Diyu, a mythological Chinese version of Hell. There are some Korean gayageum plucking samples that I chopped up into loops, and some wonderful dizi [or Chinese flute] playing by Gina Luciani. We also took inspiration from old forms of the Beijing opera and their use of unique percussion sounds to accent stage action.”
With so many different references influencing Jentry’s perception and audience POV in the show, Wu says something that helped her find a through-line for the animation was creating a playlist, which encompassed the first page of the show’s Bible.
“I wanted the team to listen to the playlist to get a sense for what this show should always feel like,” explains Wu. “It’s also something teenagers do when they’re trying to express themselves.”
The playlist included music that spanned horror and drama and romance. Artists like Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and, as Kim pointed out, NewJeans helped clear up the vision Wu had for Jentry Chau.
You would go from a song that was quite creepy to a song that was very hip and hoppy and then you’d go to something dreamy,” says Wu. “There was also some trap influence.”
“There’s something really sharp and intentional about trap beats; even when they are slow or mid-tempo, there’s an intensity to the sounds and rhythm that I thought would add tension and fear to both songs and score,” shares Kim, who describes the show’s score as "Korean horror trap,” which combines Chinese and Korean instruments with trap and hip-hop beats. “Then you add drill-style bass and some tweaked plucked synths, and you can create something that is both vibey and scary. And there are some really percussive orchestral sounds you can hear in horror scores ranging from Bernard Hermann to Trent Reznor — big pizzicato slaps, biting string effects, crazy pitch bending — that felt really good when mixed into a pop format.”
Once the playlist felt solid, Wu looked to the character designers to help further establish the show’s visual tone.
“I just had the character designers have fun with the style,” says Wu. “Finding something that was going to be fitting to Asian horror, and unique to Asian horror, was a challenge. Japanese horror manga artist Junji Ito was a big reference.”
Wu describes the show’s art style as “Gravity Falls and Over the Garden Wall graphic shapes meets anime.” But the biggest hurdle was figuring out how to incorporate all the vibrant colors of teen tastes and K-pop with the grounded horror elements.
For that, Wu looked to A24 films.
“With the high neon rims and dark contrasted backgrounds, it just seemed to fit,” says Wu. “Especially when it comes to moody teenager vibes. We also referenced Riverdale. When you tell someone, ‘This is Neon Genesis Evangelion meets Euphoria,’ it’s going to be fun to see what artists’ take on that is.”
Kim agrees that the animation also provided a fun and inspiring playground to work with for composing.
“I love the color palette and sense of motion in the show’s animation,” says Kim. “I’ve said to production many times that Jentry’s high school has the most beautiful school hallways I've ever seen. I always tried to match the intensity or brightness of the animation’s style, especially in the most heightened moments. There’s a huge, beautiful action sequence later in the season where I really got to play with the show’s theme song, and I kind of took the song apart and put it back together with new orchestral score sections so it felt like a big anime set piece, but also a banging pop song, but also uniquely Jentry. Moments like that made me feel like we were really doing something special.”
Though the ambition was never solely to “change stereotypes,” Wu does hope her show offers a unique portrayal of the parent-teen relationship, even with all the angst.
“Sometimes Chinese American storytelling is all about defying parents and about being like, ‘I can be more than who my parents are,’” explains Wu. “That was a topic that we wanted to be different from and stay away from. For the most part, I want to tell this story about a girl in a love triangle, coming from when me and my friends would talk about our hopes, dreams and anime. It’s something I wish that I could have seen when I was the audience's age. It comes from a place of importance to me, and I want that to bleed all the way through, from beginning to end.”
Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
