Jentry Chau vs The Underworld
Entry updated 30 December 2024. Tagged: TV.
US animated online tv series (2024). Buji Productions, Lightbulb Farm Productions, Netflix Animation, Titmouse Inc and Trespassers Will Inc. Created by Echo Wu. Directors include Jackie Cole, Alexandria Kwan, Natalie Wetzig and Mari Yang. Writers include Jade Chang, Peter Chen, Brittany Jo Flores and Echo Wu. Voice cast include A J Beckles, Kenton Chen, Lori Tan Chinn, Greg Chun, Woosung Kim, Eleanor Lin, Lucy Liu, Cristina Milizia, Ali Wong, Bowen Yang and Jimmy O Yang. Thirteen episodes of circa 25 minutes. Colour.
After a sudden outburst of pyrokinesis (see Psi Powers) which burnt down part of her hometown of Riverfork in Texas, eight-year old Chinese/American orphan Jentry Chau (Wong) is sent to finish her education in Seoul. Here, eight years later, she is threatened by a large Monster, triggering her fire powers: surprised, it reverts to its normal, diminutive form – a Jiangshi or Chinese hopping Vampire (see Mythology), whereupon Jentry beats it into submission with a trash can lid. After his petulant complaint that "If I had a trash can lid it would have been a fair fight," we learn his name is Ed (B Yang) and he works for Mr Cheng (Chun), a mogui (an evil Chinese demon – see Gods and Demons): "the one who is going to kill you and take your soul". He was a priest whose daughter (Lin) died: grief stricken, he forged a pact with an opportunistic mogui (Chen), hoping to bring her back from the dead.
Jentry's great aunt GuGu (Chinn), a Taoist priestess (see Religion), arrives and takes Jentry back to Riverfork where she can protect her, as "they won't let me take ancient Chinese Weapons through airport security" (she has collected "mythical weapons from all over the world" since "killing a mogui is nearly impossible"). Mr Cheng is temporarily defeated at the end of episode one, but GuGu dies; furthermore, a portal to an Underworld (see Dimensions; Eschatology) remains open, enabling demons to threaten Riverfork. Though preferring to be in Seoul and reluctant to use her Superpowers, Jentry stays in the town to defeat them. She is helped by GuGu's ghost (see Supernatural Creatures), along with Ed, who wants to remain in our world, partially to avoid Mr Cheng's anger.
Jentry's parents were black market magic dealers who, seeking a major job to set them up for life, accepted Mr Cheng's commission to steal the Yellow Emperor's robe (the Yellow Emperor was a mythical Chinese ruler credited with founding much of China's culture), which was held by GuGu. Catching them as they were about to hand it over, she transferred the robe's powers into their baby, as she knew – after his own loss – Mr Cheng couldn't kill a child. But he does murder the father (J O Yang), take the mother (Lui) as collateral and is prepared to wait until Jentry is sixteen before he kills her. It takes a while for Jentry to learn this, as GuGu – to avoid revealing her culpability in the parents' fate and her gamble in transferring the robe's powers – attempts to mislead, even hiring two Shapeshifters to impersonate the mother and father's ghosts. There is a temporary falling out between the two and, having obtained pearls that store her mother's Memories, Jentry accesses those which show GuGu's actions, enabling her to return her powers to the robe; it is now acquired by Mr Cheng and used to transfer his daughter's soul from the Underworld into her preserved body.
But she is overwhelmed by the wrongness of this act and – using the robe's powers – desperately rips open portals to various Underworlds, to find the one she was torn from: monsters duly pour out. Jentry eventually manages to calm her by using their common ground: people who say they are doing what is best for them, when only really doing what is best for themselves, and takes back the yellow robe's powers. She tears Mr Cheng's human body from the mogui and he dies, at peace; in exchange for its life, the mogui tells Jentry where to find her Amnesiac mother, whose memory is restored using the aforementioned pearls. There is then one more fight with the mogui when it possesses Jentry's mother (see Identity Transfer): it is killed, but GuGu's ghost also perishes, and we have been told those spirits who choose to become ghosts are not reincarnated (though Jentry is able to store her memories on the pearls).
Intertwined with the above is Jentry settling into her new school, making a friend, Stella (Milizia) – whose boyfriend Michael (Beckles) was a childhood pal and is now very handsome (he also has flashes of Precognition), and Kit (Kim) – another love interest, who turns out to be a Painted Skin Demon hired by Mr Cheng to kill Jentry in return for a soul, but who falls for her: it is he who hands Mr Cheng the yellow robe, and subsequently sacrifices himself for her. Jentry Chau vs The Underworld is impressive: an eventful series based around Chinese mythology (though when Cheng's daughter creates portals they open into other mythologies' underworlds – Japanese, Greek, Indian and suchlike) with very good animation, being particularly strong when other dimensions are visited or battles fought. There is also Humour, often centred on Ed, and occasional Satire, such as on the dubious Politics of some Alamo-fixated Texans. [SP]
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