The easier path in life is always the one that requires the least amount of thought. Virtually everyone craves the path of least resistance. However, Interior Chinatown demonstrates, through the life of protagonist Willis Wu, that straying from a plan and taking control of one’s life can be more fruitful than sticking to the script. Willis Wu has had his ideal life as an actor planned from the moment his career began. He knows he eventually wants to be Kung Fu Guy, and is aware of every role he must portray to get him there. In the mind of Willis Wu, Kung Fu Guy is important and “only a very special Asian can be worthy of the title” (Yu 12). Though this is Willis Wu’s dream and what he believes will make him happiest, the moments when he breaks character and deviates from his plan bring him most satisfaction. Namely, going off script is what allows him to show off his Kung Fu skills and meet his wife Karen.
It is important to recognize that Willis Wu’s position in society as an Asian man limits his ability to experiment with his life. Because his options for possible roles are very limited, going off script is a big risk. Every stray from what has been written for his life has to be very calculated. In the entertainment industry and society in general, minorities tend to have fewer do-overs than white people. While it can seem that Willis’ scripted life is monotonous, he isn’t afforded the option to leave the SRO to become a character outside of Chinatown. Once he’s an adult working as an actor, he is no longer free to live as he pleases. This prompts his statement that “there are a few years when you make almost all of your important memories. And then you spend the next few decades reliving them” (Yu 158). Much like screenplays are a blueprint for what a film will look like, Willis Wu’s life is constructed around the stereotypes and metaphorical boxes he is put in as an Asian American. While going off script brings him great happiness, it is difficult to stray from the path that everyone before him has also followed.
Like it says in the original post, in Interior Chinatown, the times when characters are not on-script are the times that they seem to be their happiest, truest selves. The original post focused specifically on the concept of going off-script, but another concept to add to this point of following personal dreams and focusing on self-happiness is when a character dies and the actor gets time off of work. These times were described both for Willis Wu and Willis’ mother, Dorothy, who both experienced major milestones in their lives outside of their careers during the times when they were forced to not work. Dorothy got to focus on being a mother for the forty five days she was off work, which for Willis became “some of the happiest times of your life” (Yu 130). For Willis, when he experienced being dead, he got to start his relationship with Karen. After a while into their relationship, Willis gets worried that things are not going to work out between him and Karen, but “it doesn’t stop going well” and their relationship becomes stronger because Willis is not consumed by fulfilling the career goals he has set for himself. A character being dead is similar to when the actors go off-script because it allows the actor time to show themselves and others who they truly are, instead of the role they are playing on television.
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