Disney’s original series American Born Chinese season one, episode three entitled “Rockstar Status,” kicks off with Michelle Yeoh’s Guanyin as she talks to Daniel Wu’s The Monkey King. This is due to her wanting him to understand why his son Jimmy Liu’s Wei-Chen took his staff. In her mind, she sees Wei is following his own path to become who he was meant to be as a leader. Which is why she supports him in whatever he needs to accomplish his quest. Deep down she understands why his father believes that he should return home and grow up. This is as a result of him seeing that his son is in danger of getting hurt. In his mind, all he wants is to keep his son safe from those who wish to hurt him as he now carries his staff. Deep down he understands his son wanting to go on his quest as he once had that same desire when he was young.
Additionally, the viewer sees Ben Wang’s Jin Wang as he is pulled between his destiny with Wei and his normal life. This is a result of him wanting to attend a soccer meeting with his team, and Wei wanting to show Jin that he is from another world as well as he is destined to be Wei’s guide. Meanwhile, Guanyin has an unexpected visitor who wants to take the staff from Wei to start a rebellion in their world. This is a result of the leader of their world failing to listen to the issues of the people. Deep down Guanyin knows the unexpected visitor does not care about a rebellion. He only has so much hate inside that he is just directing at the wrong individuals. She knows that he really hates himself for what he looks like, and he will find no peace unless he learns to accept himself.
Towards the end of the episode, Jin’s mom Yeo Yann Yann’s Christine Wang comes into an amazing opportunity. This is a result of her selling some herbs to her friends which apparently is getting harder to do as other businesses are taking over. The series does an amazing job at showing how the common market is now taking over small businesses as they are using the same inventory only with a corporate look. However, the interesting part about this is how small businesses are adapting to sell more by using a representative to reach out to people. This is how Jin’s mom has gained a new possible job or business partnership.
At the end of the episode, Wei loses the staff as he wanted to help Jin with his task for a soccer team tradition. Unfortunately, Wei sees that he may have been wrong about Jin being his guide. This is due to him preferring to live his normal life instead of taking an initiative in Wei troubles. This is demonstrated by how Wei chose to go to a team meeting rather than go meet Guanyin to start the quest. In Wei’s mind, he sees that he may have been just looking for a friend in Jin as he is putting too much faith in him to help him in his quest. Deep down he feels defeated. Because of his misplaced trust, the staff was taken and now must return home a failure.
Rating: 9.5/10