Like many nerdy couples of a certain age, my husband and I recently decided to rewatch The X-Files—a series I hadn’t seen since I was a kid. I remembered the aliens and conspiracies, the monsters and the moody lighting. But I didn’t remember this episode.

Season 3, Episode 19 — “Hell Money” — took me by surprise.

Set in San Francisco’s Chinatown, this episode follows Mulder and Scully as they investigate a string of gruesome deaths: victims burned alive in crematory ovens, their organs missing, Chinese hell money scattered near the scene. It’s a classic X-Files premise twisted with supernatural implications, but what stood out most wasn’t the plot — it was the cast. I gasped when a young BD Wong appeared on screen. Moments later, Lucy Liu, barely in her twenties, appeared as well.

Seeing these now-iconic actors in early roles was thrilling. BD Wong brings a quiet intensity to Detective Chao, while Lucy Liu appears in one of her very first screen roles as Kim Hsin. And then there’s James Hong—a legendary character actor whose face you’ve seen in everything from Big Trouble in Little China to Seinfeld and voice you’ve heard in everything from Mulan to Kung Fu Panda—delivering a chilling performance as the mysterious “Hard-Faced Man.” It’s a powerhouse trio of Asian-American talent that feels especially significant looking back nearly three decades later.

What the Episode Gets Right

At its heart, “Hell Money” is about sacrifice, fear, and silence. The emotional core of the episode—the story of a father risking his life to afford leukemia treatment for his daughter—is genuinely affecting. Michael Yama delivers a tender, understated performance as Mr. Hsin, a man drawn in

to an underground lottery where the losers pay in organs, not cash.

Visually, the episode is rich and atmospheric. Director Tucker Gates and cinematographer John Bartley bathe Chinatown in deep shadows, green neon, and curling incense smoke. The masked men, the ceremonial bowls, and the ominous jade tiles create a moody, claustrophobic sense of danger that’s unique even within the surreal world of The X-Files.

And there are moments of startling resonance, like when Detective Chao (played with quiet depth by BD Wong) explains how he’s never fully accepted by either side of his identity:

“You might see the face of a Chinese man here but let me tell you something—they don’t see the same face. They see the face of a cop… American-born Chinese, ABC. To them, I’m just as white as you are.”

That moment, for me, was one of the most honest things The X-Files ever said about race and belonging.

Where It Misses the Mark

Despite its ambitions, “Hell Money” falls into some familiar traps.

The episode’s use of Chinese traditions—burning hell money for the dead, the Hungry Ghost Festival, and ancestral offerings—is largely surface-level. These practices become exotic backdrops for organ-harvesting horror, rather than meaningful cultural context. The supernatural elements are teased but never fully explored, which leaves the ritualistic framing feeling hollow.

Language is another significant issue. The production faced considerable challenges with authenticity that highlight the episode’s cultural limitations. According to the X-Files Wiki, “during postproduction, the lines of dialogue spoken by both the Japanese actor Michael Yama, who played Hsin, and Lucy Alexis Liu, who portrayed Hsin’s daughter and spoke Chinese with a Mandarin accent, were re-recorded, with assistance from a vocal coach, after it was realized that the two performers were meant to be speaking in a Cantonese dialect.”¹ Wikipedia confirms that “after filming wrapped up, actors Michael Yama and Lucy Liu were asked to re-record their dialogue, this time affecting Cantonese dialects,” with these rerecorded lines then dubbed over the original footage.²

Even with these post-production efforts, native Cantonese speakers found the dialogue unconvincing. One Chinese viewer noted in an IMDb review: “I found all those Chinese ppl spoke rather slow, seems Cantonese is a foreign language to them…I am not sure if this’s the real case for immigrants.”³ The same reviewer pointed out a significant error where “the gangster called Lucy’s Liu’s father’s name wrong! His surname written on the plate for ‘lucky draw’ was ‘Suen’, but the gangster called him ‘Sum’, this was a HUGE mistake!! The two names in Chinese is very different!”³ Another viewer suspected that “some of the Chinese character were played by japoneses or korean actors, because the accent sounded really off to me.”³

Most glaring, however, is the way the Chinese characters function in the narrative. While the cast includes an unusual number of Asian actors for 1996, many of their characters remain underdeveloped or stereotypical. Mr. Hsin is a noble victim. The “Hard-Faced Man” is a shadowy villain. And even Detective Chao—arguably the most complex character—ultimately dies, burned in the same ritualistic fire he tried to stop.

For an episode ostensibly centered on a Chinese-American community, Mulder and Scully are mostly bystanders. This could have been a strength—a rare moment when white protagonists step aside—but the writing doesn’t commit. Instead, the agents drift along the plot without meaningful insight or emotional engagement.

A Moment in TV History

Despite its flaws, “Hell Money” stands as a significant moment in Asian-American television history.

In 1996, it was extraordinarily rare to see this many Chinese or Chinese-American actors in a single primetime episode. The casting was particularly notable given the career trajectories of its stars. BD Wong had already achieved critical acclaim, having won the Tony Award for his performance as Song Liling in M. Butterfly in 1988. As his Wikipedia entry notes, Wong is “the only actor in Broadway history to receive the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theatre World Award for the same role.”⁴ By 1996, he had already appeared in major films including Father of the Bride (1991) and Jurassic Park (1993).⁴

Lucy Liu’s appearance in “Hell Money” came at a pivotal moment in her career. According to her Biography.com profile, “her earliest acting job found Liu in a small role in the teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210 during the 1991-1992 season,” followed by appearances “on popular television shows such as Coach, The X-Files and ER.”⁵ The Maya and Miguel Wiki confirms that Liu “was cast in both Hercules: The Legendary Journeys in ‘The March to Freedom’ and The X-Files in ‘Hell Money'” before landing “her first role in the main cast of a television series, that of Amy Li in Pearl alongside Rhea Perlman and Malcolm McDowell” in 1996.⁶ Just two years later, she would break through with her role as Ling Woo on Ally McBeal—”a character [that] was later created specifically for her” after she originally auditioned for a different part.⁶

And then there’s James Hong, whose presence lends the episode genuine gravitas. By 1996, Hong was already a Hollywood legend. According to Britannica, Hong “is one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history,” with a career spanning “seven decades” and appearances “in more than 600 films and TV shows.”⁷ Born in 1929, Hong had co-founded East West Players, “the first Asian American theatre organization,” to increase representation in the industry.⁸ He had already delivered iconic performances as Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China (1986) and Hannibal Chew in Blade Runner (1982).⁸ As a 2018 Deadline profile noted, Hong has “around 500 credits (not counting voiceovers)” and “has, through impossible odds, racked up the most credits of any actor — living or dead — on film, TV and stage.”⁹

This episode gave these actors a platform in an era when Asian representation on television was minimal. It also attempted—however clumsily—to center the immigrant experience and the liminal space inhabited by those born between cultures.

Critical Reception and Cultural Impact

The episode’s reception was notably mixed, reflecting both its ambitions and limitations. According to Wikipedia, “Hell Money” “earned a Nielsen household rating of 9.9, being watched by 14.86 million people in its initial broadcast” and “received mostly mixed to positive reviews from television critics.”² Entertainment Weekly awarded it an A−, calling it “gorgeously shot” and citing the “lush, smoky gaming sequences” in particular.² Television Without Pity later “ranked ‘Hell Money’ the eleventh most nightmare-inducing episode of the show.”²

However, critical assessments revealed the episode’s cultural complexities. Robert Shearman, in his book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated it four stars out of five and called it a “hard episode to love [but] sincere and purposeful.” He praised how presenting the story from the Chinese immigrants’ perspective made “Mulder and Scully seem clumsy and arrogant. And by implication, the audience are made to feel just as arrogant.”²

Other reviews were more critical. John Keegan from Critical Myth gave it only 5/10, noting that the episode “attempted to make a mundane murder case interesting by forcing the agents to interact with an ‘alien’ culture.”²

Contemporary viewers particularly noted the production’s linguistic shortcomings. One IMDb reviewer described the dialogue as “daringly, although brokenly, presented in Cantonese,” acknowledging that while this “was a far more courageous move in 1996” than it would be today, the execution remained flawed.¹⁰

How It Holds Up Today

Watching “Hell Money” in 2025 is complicated. It’s eerie, emotional, and visually arresting. But it also feels dated in its cultural framing, particularly in a media landscape that increasingly values authenticity and depth over exoticism.

The episode’s premise—writer Jeffrey Vlaming’s combination of creator Chris Carter’s “pyramid scheme for body parts” concept with ideas about “a lottery in a small town” and “a corporate entity controlling the poor in Chinatown”—remains compelling.² But its execution reveals the limitations of 1990s television’s approach to cultural representation.

Still, it remains a fascinating artifact. It reminds us how far we’ve come—and how far we still have to go. The episode’s attempt to present much of its dialogue in Cantonese (albeit imperfectly) was genuinely courageous for network television in 1996, predating shows like Lost that would make multilingual storytelling more commonplace.

Would I recommend it? Yes—but with caveats. It’s worth watching for the performances alone, and for what it reveals about how 1990s television portrayed non-white communities. But it’s also a lesson in the importance of authentic representation: the difference between engaging with a culture and appropriating its surface elements for dramatic effect.

Final Thoughts

The X-Files was never perfect, but it often aimed high. “Hell Money” reached for cultural insight and emotional weight, even if it stumbled. And rewatching it today—with older eyes and more context—offers an opportunity not just for nostalgia, but for reflection.

And let’s be honest: seeing Lucy Liu and BD Wong share a screen before either became a household name, alongside the incomparable James Hong in one of his hundreds of memorable roles? That’s a nerdy thrill I’ll always keep in my back pocket to share at dinner parties.

SourcesX-Files Wiki. “Hell Money.” https://x-files.fandom.com/wiki/Hell_Money“Hell Money.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_MoneyIMDb user reviews for “Hell Money” (1996). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751133/reviews/“BD Wong.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BD_Wong“Lucy Liu: Biography, Actor, Emmy Nominee.” Biography.com. https://www.biography.com/actors/lucy-liu“Lucy Liu.” Maya and Miguel Wiki. https://mayaandmiguel.fandom.com/wiki/Lucy_Liu“James Hong.” Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Hong“James Hong.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hong“James Hong, 89 Year-Old Chinese American Actor: ‘Never Thought It Would Take This Long.'” Deadline, August 21, 2018.IMDb user review for “Hell Money” (1996). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751133/

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