Hulu’s Interior Chinatown, based on Charles Yu's 2020 novel of the same name, is a genre-blending satirical takedown of Hollywood's lack of representation of Asian-American characters. Set within a procedural cop drama, Interior Chinatown follows perpetual background character Willis Wu as he attempts to break out of the role he has been assigned. After witnessing a crime, he uncovers secrets about his family and the world he lives in. The tone shifts throughout the series, indicated by lighting changes– warm, more natural lighting during the main storyline, and colder blue lighting during the cop drama scenes.
Production designer Kate Bunch crafted an environment full of lived-in details. On Air Design printed a variety of set decor pieces, including custom wallpaper, art prints, carpet, store awnings, and more. We’re happy to share how our work helped realize her vision!
Among the multiple genres, tones, and the show-within-a-show elements in Interior Chinatown are transition scenes shot as ad breaks. Here, a deoderant ad features a cast of singing characters on a school theater production-esque set. The large building on the left was created by printing a forced-perspective graphic of the building on paper using On Air’s large format printers, then applying it to the set to create the illusion.
Interior Chinatown tells a story with seemingly endless meta layers, and does it all with a slightly sardonic sense of humor. On Air is proud to have had a hand in bringing this truly one-of-a-kind series to life!
