Superhero origin stories invariably begin with tragedy and calamity. The extraordinary life is never a smooth road or even a chosen one. Netflix’s newest animated heroine is Jentry Chau (Ali Wong), and her 16th birthday is anything but a sweet one.
In the Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld series premiere, we learn a lot in a half-hour but the basic facts are Jentry’s turning 16. Her parents are dead. She’s been raised by her Gugu (Chinese for “aunt), Flora Chau (Lori Tan Chinn), in Texas but has been going to school in Korea for the last eight years. Ready? Here we go.
Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld, “Worst Birthday Ever”
Celebrating her 16th birthday with friends at a Korean karaoke club, Jentry Chau (Ali Wong) sings “Pretty Savage” while a sinister shadow lurks in the air vent. After karaoke, she and her friends head out, planning the rest of her birthday week celebrations – night market street food and an anime marathon. Tokki (Michaela Dietz) is very enthusiastic. Jentry promises when Tokki turns 16, it’ll be a birthday month celebration.
Jentry’s Aunt Gugu (Lori Tan Chinn) FaceTimes her and all her friends to say hi as well. When Gugu begins to overshare, Jentry sends her friends on ahead to their dorm so she can talk with Gugu. Gugu’s arriving soon and very into mystical Chinese culture. As Jentry talks with her, the shadow from the air vent stalks her through the alleys.
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A clatter catches Jentry’s attention, and she turns to see a small child dressed in traditional Chinese clothing. When she approaches him, he transforms into a monstrous creature with a shifting face. She turns her phone to the creature so Gugu can see it, and Gugu screams for her to run.
Jentry runs, losing her phone in her panic, and hits a dead-end wall. The creature’s disappeared. The lights around the alley flicker and die. The creature reappears, shifting its face to a smiling one. Jentry warns it to stay back and shoots fire from her hands, surprising herself. The creature is no longer smiling. When she tries to hit it again, the fire doesn’t work. The creature charges, and she grabs a trash can lid and swats the creature into the wall. On impact, the creature changes back into the small child. When Jentry proceeds to wail on it with the lid, it makes squeaky noises and tells her to stop it.
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They get into an argument over the fairness of the fight. The creature/child introduces himself as Ed (Bowen Yang). He tells her he’s keeping an eye on her for Mr. Cheng (Greg Chun). Apparently, Mr. Cheng is also known as the Mogui, who plans to kill her and take her soul.
Ed begins to shapeshift again, and Jentry cowers behind the lid. There’s a flash of light and when Jentry looks again, Gugu’s standing in the alley. Gugu greets her cheerfully, very happy that Jentry’s fire powers are back. Jentry asks her what’s going on and how Gugu could be there. A petrified Ed topples over behind Gugu.
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Back at the dorm, Gugu packs Jentry’s things and explains she needs to come back with her to Texas for a few days so they can kill the Mogui. Gugu admits she’s known the Mogui would be coming for Jentry for most of Jentry’s life. Ed’s been packed in a suitcase too. He’s no longer petrified and kind of feisty.
There’s No Place Like Texas
On the flight to Texas, Gugu explains she’d been trying to kill the Mogui before he could claim Jentry’s soul. She’d struck a deal with him to leave Jentry alone until her 16th birthday. He wants Jentry’s fire powers and must take her soul to acquire them.
As the plane descends into Riverfork, Texas, Jentry gets anxious. Gugu comforts her, realizing it’s hard for her after the incident, which is why she went to Korea for school. She tells Jentry returning home is the only way to protect her since airport security won’t let Gugu travel with ancient Chinese weaponry. Jentry shrugs it off, commenting that it’s been eight years. She’s sure everyone’s forgotten the fire she caused.
A mural in the Riverfork airport memorializes the fire she caused, with Jentry depicted as a faceless fire demon. Gugu reassures her that no one remembers it was Jentry. At home, Gugu announces their arrival to the house ghosts who collect the luggage, including Ed. Gugu promises that once they’ve dealt with Cheng, they’ll work on opening Jentry’s third eye so she can see the ghosts too.
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Upstairs, Gugu allows Jentry to enter her magically guarded study but reminds her she’s still not to touch anything. In the study, she shows Jentry the many weapons she’s collected while Jentry’s been away. The ones she believes can kill Cheng are NeZha’s Wind and Fire Wheels. However, they are drained of power. If Jentry can recharge them with her fire ability, Gugu thinks she can use them to defeat Cheng.
Normal
Jentry takes a time out in her old bedroom to scream into a pillow. Gugu brings some apple pear slices in. Jentry asks her how she’s so calm about fighting demons when all Jentry wants is to be a normal teenager. Gugu promises her that once they’ve dealt with Cheng, Jentry can go back to Seoul and return to her normal life. She gives Jentry an early birthday gift, a musical locket with a picture of Gugu inside. It says, “I love you, Jentry Chau,” when opened.
In the morning, Jentry’s phone buzzes with birthday messages from her friends in Korea. She gets up and goes to Gugu’s study after giving Gugu’s password to the talking lion statues who challenge her. Inside, Gugu’s trying out various weapons on Ed. Ed reminds her that jiangshis like him are already dead and can’t be killed.
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Gugu will not be deterred. She hands the wheels to Jentry and tells her to think of something stressful. Jentry is stuck initially. Gugu reminds her she’s got this, and Jentry taps into her internal soundtrack (KATSEYE’s “Flame”) and charges up the wheels. Ecstatic at her success, Gugu takes the wheels and tries to take out Ed. However, the wheels lose their charge before she can hit him. Jentry’s able to easily recharge them, and Gugu tells her she’ll need to hit Cheng before he can hit her.
Mimi’s
Jentry looks sad. Gugu decides they should go to Mimi’s for a birthday dinner. They’ve prepared all they can for the battle – nothing else to do until midnight. Their server, Michael (AJ Beckles), brings more biscuits, and he recognizes Jentry. She chokes on a bite of food and greets him back awkwardly.
In Gugu’s study, Ed manages to get rid of the magical script that was holding him captive. Grabbing the wheels off the wall, he escapes.
At Mimi’s, Gugu teases Jentry about her crush on Michael. When Jentry fades into a sultry daydream about Michael, Gugu announces that it’s Jentry’s birthday, knowing it’ll trigger Mimi’s celebration involving Jentry wearing a chicken hat and beak while the staff encourages her to do the quack-quack-quack chicken dance.
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Glancing out the window, Gugu spots Ed running with the wheels. She makes an excuse and takes off after him, leaving Jentry alone. Michael gets the birthday staffers to leave her alone and invites her to take a walk with him since he’s just finished work. She accepts.
Gugu lassoes Ed with a chain, demanding he return the wheels. Shapeshifting quickly, Ed escapes, but Gugu pursues him into a warehouse.
Demon Girl
On the walk, Jentry and Michael discover they both love the same anime show, Imposters Inside the Half Moon. Their conversation is interrupted by a tour guide (Kenton Chen) with a loudspeaker announcing the final stop on his tour, the site where she started the big fire eight years ago, the Riverfork General Store.
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Looking in the store windows, she realizes there’s a lot of Demon Girl merchandise. Michael explains that Riverfork started leaning in on the urban legend of the Demon Girl a few years ago. It’s bait for the town’s tourist trap. Michael points out the playground never burned down and heads that way. Jentry remembers the day she caused the fire, and her palms twinge and spark a bit. She calms herself and follows.
In the warehouse, Ed tries to destroy the wheels but the machine’s unplugged. As he runs for the power cord, Gugu nails him with another script post-it note and knocks him out.
In the playground, Jentry and Michael reminisce about their childhood times together. Jentry asks him about the Demon Girl phenomena. She points out that nobody died. He reminds her that his house burned down and his family lost heirlooms brought over from Nigeria. Because so many people suffered from the fire the Demon Girl caused, using the event to bring in tourists sort of evens the scales.
Mogui
Later, with Ed tied up, Jentry helps Gugu tie a red string with bells around a grove of trees. Jentry wants to talk to Gugu about something, but Gugu’s distracted by the upcoming battle with the Mogui. It’s two minutes to midnight. Gugu hands the wheels to Jentry and tells her to charge them up. Jentry hears Michael recounting the things lost in the last fire she set. It causes her to hesitate, and the wheels don’t charge.
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Gugu tries to get her to charge the wheels, but Jentry says she’s too scared to use her powers. A wind blows in, ringing the bells and breaking the strings. A dark swirl gathers up the string and bells and carries them away into a pool of liquid.
As a face emerges from the pool, Gugu tries to give the wheels back to Jentry. Jentry refuses to take them. Gugu faces the Mogui with uncharged wheels. Cheng greets Gentry and then rips the wheels from Gugu’s hands, effortlessly. He asks Gugu if she’d planned to renege on the agreement she’d begged him for by killing him with the wheels. The wheels shatter in his grip.
As he descends on Jentry, Gugu pulls a script from her fanny pack and sticks it to his forehead. He grunts for a moment, then swipes it away. Gugu throws up a protective shield around Jentry, then jumps out to fight Cheng. As she fights, Jentry tries to call up her powers. She manages to burn a branch that falls on Cheng. Cheng laughs and vomits dark smoke that swirls around Gugu. It disorients her, and Cheng taunts her with the idea of being responsible for the death of another Chau.
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Chau Champions
Jentry sticks her head out of the shield to warn Gugu, but Cheng grips Gugu around the neck and drags her up into the air. She continues to fight,t and he flings her to the ground. Jentry runs out to see if she’s okay, and Cheng grabs her. He transforms his arm into a blade and strikes at Jentry. The blade hits her locket, and a burst of light frees her from his grasp.
Gugu runs to embrace her, then sees something over her shoulder and flings Jentry to the ground behind her just as Cheng’s blade descends and impales Gugu, killing her. Jentry weeps in grief, her hands beginning to burn. Cheng picks her up and attempts to draw her soul out. Jentry screams. She draws her soul back and flings the fire at Cheng, breaking his grip on her. The fire engulfs her, and she rises into the air on her own, her eyes aglow. Her third eye opens. A portal in the night air opens behind Cheng. Telling him to leave them alone, she blasts him with her fire a few more times, pushing him through the portal.
The fire fades from around her, and she descends to the ground, where she continues to weep over Gugu’s body. Gugu’s spirit leans in and whispers, “Psst!” startling Jentry. Jentry apologizes for not saving Gugu. Gugu tells her she did good and that she’s proud of her. Ed rolls by, clearing his throat. He points out that the portal is still open. As they watch, a face emerges from it.
Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld is streaming now on Netflix.
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