Speaker 1: On the Beck dol Cast, the questions asked if movies
Speaker 1: have wenen and um, are all their discussions just boyfriends
Speaker 1: and husbands, or do they have individualism? The patriarchy zef
Speaker 1: invest start changing it with the Beck del cast. Hey, Jamie, Hey, Caitlin,
Speaker 1: everything is absolutely fine with your health right now? Oh okay,
Speaker 1: just just so you know, cool? Okay, Well that's not
Speaker 1: suspicious at all. It's so and it's so interesting you
Speaker 1: say that because I funny story. I used to tell
Speaker 1: people that their health was fine and it it wasn't.
Speaker 1: It literally wasn't really, But when you tell it to me,
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, makes sense. Yeah, I think I think
Speaker 1: you should just believe me because I'm definitely telling the truth. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: do you want to go to lunch? Yeah, let's go
Speaker 1: to lunch. Okay, awesome, perfect Intra ten out of ten, amazing.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Beach. Del asked, I'm Jamie Loftus, I'm
Speaker 1: Caitlin Durante, and this is our show where we examine
Speaker 1: movies through an intersectional feminist lens. We promised that intro
Speaker 1: is relevant to today's discussion, but if it weren't, that
Speaker 1: would be really funny that I just opened every episode
Speaker 1: just being like, Jamie, you're in good health, right, And
Speaker 1: I was like, sorry, everyone, Caitlin is my doctor. She's
Speaker 1: my pediatrician. I still go to my pediatrician and it's Caitlin.
Speaker 1: How long did you go to your pediatrician? Um, my
Speaker 1: pediatrician was also an adult doctor, Mark, So I did
Speaker 1: go to That's just what they told to you. True.
Speaker 1: I did go to the same doctor for the first
Speaker 1: eighteen years of my life. I went to the pediatrician
Speaker 1: until I was twenty two, and he was like, you
Speaker 1: need to get out of here, like they gave you
Speaker 1: a heart out there, like you, ma'am, you could have
Speaker 1: a child at this point and you need to leave.
Speaker 1: I would never do that for you, Jamie. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. I want to be thirty and still at
Speaker 1: my pediatric SIP, but some things just cannot be. Yeah, well, anyway,
Speaker 1: so what is this podcast? What's happening? We use the
Speaker 1: Bechtel test simply as a jumping off point to initiate
Speaker 1: a larger conversation about representation in film. The Bechtel Test
Speaker 1: being a media metric created by queer cartoonist Alison Bechtel,
Speaker 1: sometimes called the Bechtel Wallace test, and there are many
Speaker 1: variations on the test. The one that we are using
Speaker 1: these days requires that two named characters of any marginalized
Speaker 1: gender speak to each other, and the conversation has to
Speaker 1: be about something besides a man, and ideally it is
Speaker 1: a meaningful plot, relevant narrative, really relevant conversation and not
Speaker 1: just like here's your soup, okay, thanks, unless the soup
Speaker 1: is unless it's like, unless the soup is poisoned, in
Speaker 1: which case that is relevant. That is very important. Yeah, right, exactly,
Speaker 1: so you know, there's there's their shades of gray. It's all.
Speaker 1: It's all about the context and the subtext, you know,
Speaker 1: the soup text. Um amazing, we have. We have an
Speaker 1: incredible movie today. Popular request has been since the movie
Speaker 1: was released. And equally, if not even more incredible guest
Speaker 1: that I think, I think let's go. You're in like that,
Speaker 1: we should like send you a jacket. At this point,
Speaker 1: I think that you've entered jacket territory of how often
Speaker 1: you've been on the show. I want to send all
Speaker 1: of our frequent guests jackets. Oh yes, and yeah, as
Speaker 1: goes three time return this is third time returning guest jacket, tier,
Speaker 1: I would love that. Do you have jackets? We don't,
Speaker 1: but we'll make some. I want one of those, yeah,
Speaker 1: like like one of those, like like football jackets. Are
Speaker 1: you cold, babe? And then you're like, but I want
Speaker 1: one of those jackets, I mean like a letter a
Speaker 1: letterman jacket, football jacket. Well, for you all, I am cold, babe.
Speaker 1: Put me on the waiting list for when you do
Speaker 1: make them. Oh my god, we sure will. So this,
Speaker 1: of course, is comedian creator of Ohio and Let's Go,
Speaker 1: Out's Go. You know her from our episodes on Shrek
Speaker 1: and Austin Powers, so lots of Mike Myers. It's Okotska.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for
Speaker 1: making me not do a Mike Myers again. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: we should say. I read at the top that, uh,
Speaker 1: Let's Go is not asking to do Mike Meyers susies
Speaker 1: this all time. Thank you, thank you so much. But
Speaker 1: it's just like been throughout the years, you know, so
Speaker 1: I'm just afraid, like it's too late, Jamie. I just
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, because I feel like I did
Speaker 1: Shrek with you all like years ago, and then I
Speaker 1: come back years later and I'm you know, people are like,
Speaker 1: oh god, Austin Powers, and then you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like for years now, I think it's it's part of
Speaker 1: your brand. Unfortunately you love Mike Myers. Yeah, basically what
Speaker 1: happened is a while back, we wanted to do an
Speaker 1: episode on Shrek, and we reached out to you and
Speaker 1: we just kind of like floated it. Were like, whatever
Speaker 1: movie you want to cover, but also we do want
Speaker 1: to cover Shrek if that's a funny interest to you,
Speaker 1: and you were like, sure, let's do Shrek. We also
Speaker 1: years later wanted to do an Austin Powers episode and
Speaker 1: then we were like, let's go. Wouldn't it be so
Speaker 1: funny if you came back? But now we've tarnished your brand.
Speaker 1: And you know what's weird is you came to me
Speaker 1: this time and you gave me a break. Right. It's
Speaker 1: like I just started getting good at saying no, like
Speaker 1: like this year, and so it sucks. I couldn't like
Speaker 1: practice that even for this I was ready for you
Speaker 1: all to ask me again, you know, whichever it was
Speaker 1: Shrek three year or whatever, you know, and I was
Speaker 1: ready to say no this time. But then you'll switched
Speaker 1: it on me, we did. Uh. So today's movie is
Speaker 1: The Farewell, which is not even remotely a Mike Myers movie,
Speaker 1: not even close. So let's go, what's your relationship with
Speaker 1: The Farewell besides creating it, besides directing it? Um No.
Speaker 1: I actually avoided watching this movie for a long time
Speaker 1: because I'm super close with my grandma, and so I
Speaker 1: was like, so scared, and I didn't I hadn't heard
Speaker 1: the this American life story of the film, right, and
Speaker 1: so I was like, I don't know if my heart
Speaker 1: can take this movie just from even like that trailer,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, Grandma gonna die. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I could deal with that. And I was
Speaker 1: telling people this too, like I'm scared to watch it.
Speaker 1: Folks who have seen it. None of them told me, wait,
Speaker 1: this is going too far. And I know this podcast
Speaker 1: is full of spoilers, but I don't know if I
Speaker 1: want to say it already spoiler alert everyone. Yeah, people
Speaker 1: know that they're going to get spoilers, so yeah, I
Speaker 1: feel free to spoil away. No one told me for years.
Speaker 1: So I watched it like two years after it had
Speaker 1: been released. I was like, fuck it, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: do it. You know. Um, and I was I was like, wait,
Speaker 1: no one told me that she doesn't die, right, And
Speaker 1: I was I was telling people that's my fear. And
Speaker 1: they were like, uh huh huh, yeah, sure we get it,
Speaker 1: uh huh. And I was like, what are you trying
Speaker 1: to do protect me from spoilers? I'm telling you, like,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, you could have helped me.
Speaker 1: That's so it's like they're making a choice between spoilers
Speaker 1: and your emotional well being. That's what I'm saying, Jamie.
Speaker 1: It's messed up. So many people do this with spoilers, right,
Speaker 1: Like there's a special place and help for people who
Speaker 1: spoil movies and TV shows, right. I learned the hard
Speaker 1: way because I tweeted about this. I said, y'all didn't
Speaker 1: tell me Grandma never dies, you know. And some people
Speaker 1: thanked me because they were like, you know what, this
Speaker 1: is why I haven't been watching this movie. Now I
Speaker 1: can go watch it and protect my heart and you know,
Speaker 1: not feel like left out from the cinematic experience, you know.
Speaker 1: But most of the people were like, fuck you, why
Speaker 1: just spoil it. I'm like, it's been two years, okay, right,
Speaker 1: you had time Also, I don't know. I think if
Speaker 1: I guess, I did not know that she lives at
Speaker 1: the end going into the movie, But I don't know
Speaker 1: that would have like changed my experience of the movie
Speaker 1: that much. I think I would have just felt a
Speaker 1: little calmer going in. Yeah, right, and that's okay, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm up type of I really don't mind spoilers because
Speaker 1: like I feel everything too much and I'll like think
Speaker 1: about it for for a long time, sometimes months, and
Speaker 1: so um, yeah, I like going into a thing calmer. Yes,
Speaker 1: give it to me. And it's not even like an
Speaker 1: enormous twist where like, you know, it's like I would
Speaker 1: have never seen that coming. It's like either she did
Speaker 1: die or she didn't, and it's like those are the
Speaker 1: two options. And like a twist would have been if
Speaker 1: Aquafina was dead the whole time, that would have been
Speaker 1: a twist it or like if nine I was just
Speaker 1: a projection of Aquafina's subconscious that's a twist that she
Speaker 1: never even existed or something. I would be so pissed
Speaker 1: at both of those scenarios. Yeah, farewell, who's saying farewell
Speaker 1: me from this movie? Wherever? Okay, but yeah, that's I
Speaker 1: got to the movie way too late, and I had
Speaker 1: no one to talk about it is my relationship with
Speaker 1: a farewell, you know. By then everyone was like over it,
Speaker 1: well not us, not now we're here currently talking under it. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you so much, just just in time
Speaker 1: for may you know. Yeah, Jamie, what about your relationship? Uh? Yeah.
Speaker 1: I did not see this movie when it came out
Speaker 1: because I was away the end. I went to brag,
Speaker 1: I went to Edinburgh Fringe the summer this movie came out,
Speaker 1: and so I just wasn't in the US when it
Speaker 1: was in theaters, so I didn't see it at the time.
Speaker 1: And then my my grandma died shortly after that, and
Speaker 1: then I was like, I don't think I want to
Speaker 1: see a movie where the grandma dies for a little bit.
Speaker 1: So again it's like, yeah, if if you if I
Speaker 1: knew she lived at the beginning, I probably I also
Speaker 1: am not super bothered by spoilers, so I'm like, I
Speaker 1: probably would have watched it like a year ago if
Speaker 1: if I had known that, like you fall in love
Speaker 1: with nine I and then she's okay, and it's great,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I just watched it to prepare for this
Speaker 1: um for this episode, and I really really liked it.
Speaker 1: I thought, I think it's like such a good movie,
Speaker 1: and the performances in this movie are so incredible, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm excited to talk about it. Same. I did see
Speaker 1: it in theaters when it came out summer of twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: because it was it was getting some buzz and everyone's like,
Speaker 1: it's really good. So I used my AMC stubs membership
Speaker 1: incredible plug. Yeah, yeah, I saw it in theaters and
Speaker 1: really enjoyed it, and I was very endeared by the
Speaker 1: story and the character's relationships. So yeah, should we you know,
Speaker 1: I'm starting to see why we went with why you
Speaker 1: all went with Mike Myers, Like when you got when
Speaker 1: you do enjoy something, it's it's just nice, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's like, well, um, let's just do the Bechdel
Speaker 1: test now and we're done with the episode, and everyone's like, well,
Speaker 1: it was really nice, the performances nice, and we enjoyed it. Okay,
Speaker 1: well not nothing problematic, right, Like, Honestly, my notes for
Speaker 1: this are very sparse because I'm just like, I really
Speaker 1: liked it and it's good. At the end. I have
Speaker 1: multiple smiley faces in my notes. I'm like, I, yeah,
Speaker 1: we definitely thrive in the all cap zone of like,
Speaker 1: what the fucker's there? I know. I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what. Yeah, I take it back. Yeah, let's
Speaker 1: pivot right now. We're gonna do Shrek forever after No,
Speaker 1: there's gotta be stuff. There's stuff, Okay, all right, we'll
Speaker 1: find that. Sorry for interrupting, not not at all. Should
Speaker 1: we just get into the recap and go from there? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's good. So this is a true story based on
Speaker 1: quote an actual lie. So it's like autobiographical of writer
Speaker 1: director Lulu Wang's life in relationship with her grandmother. Um
Speaker 1: So we meet Billy played by Aquafina. She lives in
Speaker 1: New York City. Ever heard of it? Yes, you have it.
Speaker 1: I did kind of jump where there's like scenes of
Speaker 1: Aquafina walking through New York, obviously not wearing a mask,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I need to like deprogram myself because
Speaker 1: I was like, but wait, it's actually it's actually fine
Speaker 1: and she's fine. Yeah. It's also where she's like you
Speaker 1: know that, like, um, that demeanor Aquafina is known for.
Speaker 1: I feel like she got to do that just when
Speaker 1: she was in New York A little bit. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is just a performance wise, you know where she's like,
Speaker 1: hey girl, hey, I feel like that she did that
Speaker 1: to a friend she recognized in the streets of New
Speaker 1: York busy New York, right, and then I feel like
Speaker 1: she had to shift performances for you know later on. Um,
Speaker 1: but so that was that was interesting. Yeah, but yes,
Speaker 1: new York City. UM, me too, me too. I've heard
Speaker 1: of it. Well, we've all heard of it. Amazing. Aquafinas
Speaker 1: performances is so great and this movie and it also
Speaker 1: it's always like the performance that's like a comedian that's
Speaker 1: like I'm serious now, Like it's like that performance for her.
Speaker 1: I feel like there comes a day and every like
Speaker 1: big famous comedian life where they're like, but guess what
Speaker 1: I've got range And you're like, all right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: are you talking about Adam Sandler Sandler moment because her
Speaker 1: uncut gems? Oh my gosh, that movie. I was actually
Speaker 1: thinking this is probably even more embarrassing. I was thinking
Speaker 1: about Robin Williams a Goodwill hunting got it. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a trend. It's a trend. Um. So Billy is talking
Speaker 1: on the phone with her Grandma nine I played by
Speaker 1: I'm going to do my best with pronunciations. Umjoo schus
Speaker 1: in uh. Nine I lives in China, And then we
Speaker 1: established that they tell little white lies to each other
Speaker 1: pretty frequently, including when nine I tells Billy that she's
Speaker 1: at her sister's house when she's really at a hospital
Speaker 1: getting a CT scan, and then nine i sister speaks
Speaker 1: to the doctor. Then her sister tells NINEIGHT that she's
Speaker 1: in good health. Then we meet Billy's mom and dad,
Speaker 1: lu Jane and high End. They reveal to Billy that
Speaker 1: her nine I is actually dying of stage four lung cancer.
Speaker 1: She's high End's mother, yes yes, yea um, and that
Speaker 1: she has no more than three months to live. But
Speaker 1: nine I doesn't know that she's dying, and the family
Speaker 1: thinks it's better to not tell her because it's a
Speaker 1: common cultural practice in China to not tell an elderly
Speaker 1: family member that they are dying, although Billy thinks it's
Speaker 1: wrong to not tell her um. So, Billy's family is
Speaker 1: heading to China the following day for Billy's cousins wedding,
Speaker 1: which is just an excuse so that everyone can go
Speaker 1: and see nine I before she dies. They also tell her.
Speaker 1: They tell Billy not to come. They're like, you, you
Speaker 1: have a terrible poker face and you're not invited. But
Speaker 1: then Billy goes anyway, like I think, Like a few
Speaker 1: days after her family has arrived and she gets there
Speaker 1: and her grandma is like, you look really sad. What's wrong?
Speaker 1: And she has to pretend like everything is fine, And
Speaker 1: her family keeps telling Billy like, do not tell grandma,
Speaker 1: and she keeps being like, well, what if nine I
Speaker 1: has things she wants to take care of before she dies.
Speaker 1: Then after a big family dinner, nine I is coughing
Speaker 1: a lot and she ends up going to the hospital,
Speaker 1: so the entire family rushes there. She gets some X
Speaker 1: rays and the doctor confirms the most families in China
Speaker 1: would choose not to tell their grandma that they are dying,
Speaker 1: which Billy challenges and says, again, isn't it wrong to lie?
Speaker 1: Won't she be upset when she eventually does find out
Speaker 1: she's dying, and the family is like, no, because nine
Speaker 1: I did the same thing. She lied to her dying
Speaker 1: husband and didn't help tell him until the very end
Speaker 1: of his life. Um. And then the family goes and
Speaker 1: visits Billy's grandfather's grave, and then her uncle high Band
Speaker 1: tells Billy that they're withholding this information because they are
Speaker 1: bearing the emotional burden for nine I because the East
Speaker 1: just has a greater focus on community and like a
Speaker 1: person being part of a larger hole, while the West,
Speaker 1: which is what Billy is used to as an American,
Speaker 1: is more about individualism and like the self and taking
Speaker 1: care of one's self. Then it's time for the big
Speaker 1: wedding banquet, where different members of the family start like
Speaker 1: breaking down and crying and saying kind of like a
Speaker 1: veiled goodbye to nine. I. I mean veiled is questionable too.
Speaker 1: I mean, when the uncle gives this speech, this is
Speaker 1: like and of course this wedding is dedicated to my
Speaker 1: mom for some reason, You're like yeah, and the groom's crying,
Speaker 1: and I mean the more you the more you summize.
Speaker 1: I'm like the grandma new Okay, Grandma new right, as
Speaker 1: you're not. Now everyone's falling apart around her, right, And
Speaker 1: it's like we get every hand that she's like really
Speaker 1: observant and calls people out of their bullshit constantly. So
Speaker 1: it's like she she knew yeah, and she lied too.
Speaker 1: To her husband, so like, how would she not the
Speaker 1: And she's Chinese and lives in China, so she knows
Speaker 1: this is what people do, right, There's no way she
Speaker 1: didn't know anyway. She's also gone to the hospital several
Speaker 1: times with but are clearly health problems. Yeah, but it's
Speaker 1: just like a tiny cold every time, or allergies, you know,
Speaker 1: but we all say that here, right, like that's nothing.
Speaker 1: That's something like I never hear, like my family say
Speaker 1: are Like when I was in Asia, allergies is definitely
Speaker 1: a thing here that people are like, oh, it's just allergies.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, no, you clearly have I think it's
Speaker 1: emphysyma and they're like no, it's like it sounds really bad.
Speaker 1: And everyone always says it's allergies. Yeah, classic deflection, right
Speaker 1: right right, and I'm pretty sure you have COVID. They're like, no, no,
Speaker 1: it's just safe fever. Yeah. It's that season. It's it's
Speaker 1: like astrology. It's like Gemini season. Happy Gemini season, everybody. Wow. Um.
Speaker 1: So Billy is holding it together as best she can,
Speaker 1: and then nine eyes X ray results come back, so
Speaker 1: Billy has to rush to the hospital to grab them
Speaker 1: and then the family has to like alter them so
Speaker 1: that they say that nine I is indeed in good health.
Speaker 1: And then it's time for Billy to leave China and
Speaker 1: say goodbye to nine I, and then she goes back
Speaker 1: to New York. But also nine I gives her a
Speaker 1: bunch of money before she ves, and that was the
Speaker 1: moment where I'm like, she knows, she knows, She just knows.
Speaker 1: She's just making sure to not say it out loud
Speaker 1: because maybe if you don't. Yeah, right, She's like, it
Speaker 1: might seem like I'm settling my affairs right now. But no,
Speaker 1: it's just because I gave your cousin a wedding present,
Speaker 1: so I figured i'd give you some money too. It's
Speaker 1: only fair. I didn't think about the money part. In fact,
Speaker 1: I forgot about it. See this is why I love
Speaker 1: the summary. You know every time you'll do it. The
Speaker 1: money part. I was like back and forth the whole
Speaker 1: movie and like she has to know, right, she has
Speaker 1: to know. And then when the money part happened, as
Speaker 1: like she knows, she knows. Hard to side um. But
Speaker 1: then the movie ends with a video of writer director
Speaker 1: Lulu Wang's real life nine I, and then there's like
Speaker 1: a text that says, six years after her diagnosis, nine
Speaker 1: I is still with us, so she did not die.
Speaker 1: She lived, And they were like, who truly that last
Speaker 1: slide saying that the real life nine I is okay
Speaker 1: was such a relief. I truly just exhaled. I'm like, Wow,
Speaker 1: now I can sleep tonight. Amazing. No, well, I didn't
Speaker 1: sleep because then I was like, well, okay, so I'm
Speaker 1: watching this two years after those those those titles were written.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Why I don't know she's
Speaker 1: still alive? Also, you know this whole movie came out, Okay,
Speaker 1: lu lu Wang was at the Golden Globes, right, I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: they're still keeping this a secret. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I mean China, Sure, she lives in China, but it's
Speaker 1: like they have the internet, you know. So I was curious.
Speaker 1: I went deep diving. What did you find out? I
Speaker 1: think the Grandma's still alive, but then she kind of
Speaker 1: has an inkling now or something because of Lulu Wang's
Speaker 1: Golden Globe? Did Lulu Wang win? Aquafina wanted something anyway somehow,
Speaker 1: like she read an article or something like there's a
Speaker 1: whole ass movie about her, Yeah, like a really famous movie.
Speaker 1: I read that she found out because of her sister
Speaker 1: told because they shot the movie like a block away
Speaker 1: from real life Lulu wangs like her neighbor, like a
Speaker 1: block away from where she lives, so she found out
Speaker 1: while they were filmed. But actually that's what I read.
Speaker 1: But then I heard lu lu Wang talk in interviews
Speaker 1: about the movie, and she also made it seem like
Speaker 1: she still doesn't know. Maybe she just knew that Lu
Speaker 1: lu Wang made a movie that was about her, but
Speaker 1: not the details or something. Yeah, a block away. I'm like,
Speaker 1: all these people are trying to get caught. Okay, these
Speaker 1: people are trying to They just want to tell each other.
Speaker 1: And that's what happens when you keep a secret, that's,
Speaker 1: you know, a big lie like this. It's like I
Speaker 1: think you want to tell them and you feel guilty.
Speaker 1: So you're like, I'm going to just shoot the film
Speaker 1: a block away from grandma's, you know, and she goes
Speaker 1: on a walk. She goes on a walk when she
Speaker 1: goes WK. Yeah, and as the grandma, I'm going to
Speaker 1: give her the money, you know. Um as if I
Speaker 1: don't know that I am indeed, you know, have what
Speaker 1: what was it stage for lung cancer? Mm hmmm. I
Speaker 1: feel for these people, you know, just the leaps and
Speaker 1: bounds and all kinds of things you go through, just
Speaker 1: like not just tell each other the truth. It's such
Speaker 1: a burden. Uh, let's take a quick break and then
Speaker 1: we'll come back to discuss and we're back. Uh, where
Speaker 1: do you want to start? I know this is like
Speaker 1: this is an episode where we like mostly have really
Speaker 1: nice things to say. Um, I have a question for
Speaker 1: you too. Yes, if you were to make a movie
Speaker 1: that about your family and you did not want them
Speaker 1: to know, how far away would you film from them? I?
Speaker 1: Uh not in the same state? Okay, Okay, okay, yeah
Speaker 1: I would. Um, my family and I are separated by
Speaker 1: around three thousand miles because they all live on the
Speaker 1: East Coast, So um yeah I feel pretty good about
Speaker 1: that distance. Okay, cool. Yeah, well okay, so my family
Speaker 1: really are super offline except for my grandma. So like
Speaker 1: if it was like if it was about my grandma,
Speaker 1: my grandma would know. But if it's other family, I
Speaker 1: would probably feel safe being Okay, like filming even like
Speaker 1: you know, in a different area code, but like even
Speaker 1: southern California or something. That's that's how this connected they are,
Speaker 1: so I would probably feel safe. Sure, yeah, yeah, even
Speaker 1: just like twenty minutes away, that's I feel like that's
Speaker 1: all you need because it's like twenty minutes is just
Speaker 1: far enough there. It's like, what are they like it
Speaker 1: would take a big coincidence for them to stumble upon
Speaker 1: one block? Really, is that's like edging location? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: no exactly, like there's yeah, if it was twenty minutes away,
Speaker 1: you're right. Unless I texted them like, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: be here right at this location, meet me for lunch.
Speaker 1: That's how I send out my call sheet and like
Speaker 1: meet me here at this six am. It's like a
Speaker 1: ransom note. Yes, yes, that's so funny. I guess. Yeah.
Speaker 1: To to start, I mean, there's just there's so much
Speaker 1: to talk about here there. It's like I guess if
Speaker 1: we start with Billy and like who she is as
Speaker 1: a character, I mean, we like see her at the beginning,
Speaker 1: like in this extremely American, like American millennial thing where
Speaker 1: it's like she's in her late twenties and like struggling
Speaker 1: as a writer and is applying for all these fellowships
Speaker 1: and like struggling with any but doesn't want to talk
Speaker 1: about it, and like all these very recognizable things, and
Speaker 1: then and then for most of the movie, we're watching
Speaker 1: her um kind of like straddle across. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: the whole movie, as her straddling across the values of
Speaker 1: two different cultures and like figuring out how she actually feels.
Speaker 1: It's cool. I feel like there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: not a lot of movies, especially mainstream movies, UM like
Speaker 1: this that like even addressed that at all, even though
Speaker 1: it's a very common, uh, a very common thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: is this considered mainstream? You think? I guess I just
Speaker 1: say mainstream because it got so much a word attention.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I don't know. I
Speaker 1: mean it's I was interested in, like because there was
Speaker 1: a whole controversy about this movies, like during awards season
Speaker 1: where it was like put in. I feel like this
Speaker 1: happens all the time, where it was like put in
Speaker 1: the Best Foreign Language Movie and there wasn't Yeah, at
Speaker 1: at the Golden Globes and then in the at the
Speaker 1: Academy Awards that they have different rules, and Lulu Wang
Speaker 1: talked about it pretty extensively about um, you know, just
Speaker 1: challenging those decisions and like challenging like this is an
Speaker 1: American movie, it was made by an American, the you know,
Speaker 1: the main character is an American. It's an American drama.
Speaker 1: But the way the awards shows are built doesn't accommodate
Speaker 1: a story like this, and like why is that? And
Speaker 1: I don't know, there's she gave a lot of really
Speaker 1: interesting interviews that kind of like challenge just I mean,
Speaker 1: and that's been fortunately, I think like a lot of
Speaker 1: the last couple of years is just challenging what a
Speaker 1: shit show and how like extremely rigidly white movie award
Speaker 1: shows are. And I vaguely remember that being a discussion
Speaker 1: when when this movie was in the awards season. But
Speaker 1: reading the interviews and depth was really interesting. Yeah. Right,
Speaker 1: it's like what it has to be English spoken or
Speaker 1: something for I think Golden Globes or something. Um, I
Speaker 1: do remember that just because it happened again this year,
Speaker 1: right um with Minari Right Yeah, where it just seems
Speaker 1: like those categories like need to be revisited and just
Speaker 1: they need to be modernized basically a new test, a
Speaker 1: new test. Well because maybe like y'all's goal is to
Speaker 1: like one day where the Bechdel Test isn't needed anymore,
Speaker 1: right or I don't know. I want your podcast to
Speaker 1: keep going. I mean I feel like as I mean
Speaker 1: even like between the time the show started and now
Speaker 1: it's like to come, I mean, not that representation has
Speaker 1: gotten so wildly better, but it has, like I proved,
Speaker 1: in the last five years. I think she has been
Speaker 1: for five goddamn years. No, yeah, well that's why. Like,
Speaker 1: but there's so many films to like we visit from
Speaker 1: like decades ago and stuff, and so there's so many
Speaker 1: more Shreks. I mean, stop it, there's a fifth one
Speaker 1: on the way. How many? What? No? Stop, wait, there's
Speaker 1: a fifth Shrek. Wait. I missed the fourth, and I
Speaker 1: just found out about the third honestly talking to you
Speaker 1: all today. Um, and and you you you went to
Speaker 1: the fifth, So can you just tell me there there's kids?
Speaker 1: Is it like about the kids now or something? They
Speaker 1: start having kids? I think that's the third movie. There's
Speaker 1: a new generation of Shreks. Yeah, okay, and then what
Speaker 1: a Shrek forever after? I just remember going on a
Speaker 1: date in high school Shrek forever after. Yeah, I've seen
Speaker 1: up to Shrek three. I have not seen Shrek four.
Speaker 1: There's also like spin off off. There's like a Puss
Speaker 1: in Boots movie, which I skipped that one. True, Well,
Speaker 1: that's your mistake. I thought it was a blast uh
Speaker 1: Shrek forever. After they break in Rumpels Stiltskin, it's I
Speaker 1: vaguely remember this, Yeah, expand the universe. That's the the
Speaker 1: guy who says riddles. I think he wants to steal
Speaker 1: babies from people. So he's like, give me your I'll
Speaker 1: spind you some gold, but you have to promise me
Speaker 1: your first born. Or he's also like, what's my name?
Speaker 1: What's my name? Kinky? Okay, here's what's my motherfucking name.
Speaker 1: I'll tell I'll tell you the story of Rumples Stiltskin
Speaker 1: and then we'll get back to the farewell. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't I don't think I know this story, and it
Speaker 1: sounds okay. So Rumpel's Stiltskin. There's like this young maiden
Speaker 1: who so one's like we need someone to spin this
Speaker 1: room full of hay into gold or something like that,
Speaker 1: and she's like, I can do it, and she like
Speaker 1: makes this promise that she can do it, but it
Speaker 1: turns out she can. She's like, oh no, what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna what am I gonna do with this room full
Speaker 1: of hey or whatever? And then rumpel Stiltskin shows up
Speaker 1: and he's like, guess what. I know how to spin
Speaker 1: hay into gold, and I'll do it for you, but
Speaker 1: you have to promise me your firstborn child. And she's like, sure,
Speaker 1: that's fine, Skins that guy who takes your firstborn child's
Speaker 1: and then okay, sorry, I just said he's the guy
Speaker 1: that tells radels. That was Yeah, that's so. There's so
Speaker 1: much more to it. There's more layers that I was missing.
Speaker 1: I didn't know. I thought he was like the Riddler there.
Speaker 1: And then he's like he's like but he's like, if
Speaker 1: you can guess my name, I won't. Okay, so wait,
Speaker 1: but that doesn't happen yet, I don't think so she
Speaker 1: so he gives are like the the hey gold or whatever,
Speaker 1: and then I think a few other things happen, and
Speaker 1: then she has a baby, and then rumble Stiltskin comes
Speaker 1: to collect and he's like, give me your baby and
Speaker 1: she's like, no, I made that promise and I didn't
Speaker 1: mean it. Then he's like, well screw you. Uh, but
Speaker 1: if you can guess my name I won't take your baby.
Speaker 1: And then somehow she overhears him saying his name, and
Speaker 1: then he comes to collect the baby again and she's like, no,
Speaker 1: rumpel Stiltskin, you cannot have my baby. And he's like,
Speaker 1: oh damn it, you knew my name. All right, I'll
Speaker 1: leave now, And that's the story. Hold on, Okay, you
Speaker 1: need to have me back for that. Please have me
Speaker 1: back for this fifth Shrek. Okay, I take it back.
Speaker 1: I really want to come back. Okay, Shrek. When did
Speaker 1: Shrek five come at? Shrek five comes out? Wait? Why
Speaker 1: won't they tell me we don't need to schedule it now?
Speaker 1: But no, that was really you know. I was at
Speaker 1: the edge of my seat. Isn't that a riveting story?
Speaker 1: It comes out next year? I can hardly wait. What's
Speaker 1: going to happen next? Oh? I already know because if
Speaker 1: Shrek is having babies, right, maybe it's one of the
Speaker 1: babies that tries to I don't know. Anyway, that's my guess. Well,
Speaker 1: back to this movie, back to the farewell. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: we were talking about um awards and how they are
Speaker 1: not these like prestigious awards, and how they are not
Speaker 1: accommodating to stories like this, which is an American story
Speaker 1: made by an American director, told from the point of
Speaker 1: view of an American and even though a lot of
Speaker 1: this movie takes place in another country and is in
Speaker 1: a language other than English. But because a lot of awards,
Speaker 1: like you said, cater to like white American, monolingual English
Speaker 1: language centric stories, and they tend to forget that a
Speaker 1: lot of Americans are immigrants or come from immigrant families,
Speaker 1: and or they speak languages besides English at home or
Speaker 1: in their communities. And these are still very much American
Speaker 1: stories featuring American characters. But these awards institutions treat these
Speaker 1: movies like they're not. It's just like operates on a
Speaker 1: really rigid version of like what being American is. That
Speaker 1: like has not made sense for a really really long time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, right, I just think, I mean, for me,
Speaker 1: you know these rules the fifty thing, It just depends
Speaker 1: on who's watching, because you know, people who make the
Speaker 1: I mean hill Billy elogy, I would contend as a
Speaker 1: you know, foreign film for for me, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, like if we had to go there, because
Speaker 1: you know, I just don't know the world, and you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, but it doesn't make it not American.
Speaker 1: Here I am defending it. You know, it doesn't not
Speaker 1: make it American. They're just as American as we are,
Speaker 1: and they deserve to be at the ceremonies. And so
Speaker 1: it's like something I thought was like when I was
Speaker 1: just doing research on the background of this movie, like
Speaker 1: I feel like, nothing like hits that point home clear
Speaker 1: than the fact that like Chinese audiences were not very
Speaker 1: interested in this movie. It made like three dollars in China,
Speaker 1: and it seems like there's a whole Variety article on
Speaker 1: it that will link in the description, but it seems
Speaker 1: to boil down to the fact that this is like
Speaker 1: a very culturally normal thing to do in China, and
Speaker 1: so everyone was kind of like yes, so what, like
Speaker 1: why is there a whole movie about this like very
Speaker 1: normal thing where I feel like two Americans it's it
Speaker 1: for for a lot of Americans, they just didn't know
Speaker 1: that this was a cultural practice and that like you know,
Speaker 1: watching an American character navigate it was like really compelling
Speaker 1: and really interesting. Um so yeah, I mean it's not
Speaker 1: news that award shows are like extremely out of touch
Speaker 1: and racist and not up to date. In any way.
Speaker 1: But there you go, what's the biggest, like your family member,
Speaker 1: a family member has told you and then they were like, oh,
Speaker 1: just kidding, Oh that's a good one, that's a good question.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I feel like my family was like
Speaker 1: too honest with me, too young, and it had like
Speaker 1: a different kind of negative impact. Where like when I
Speaker 1: was seven or eight, my grandma told me and a
Speaker 1: Mother's Day breakfast that my mom had had miscare ages,
Speaker 1: like a ton of miscarriages before me, and that they
Speaker 1: were they were angels following me around, and I got
Speaker 1: really scared. Oh my god. But that was so that's
Speaker 1: an example of like a super truthful statement that was
Speaker 1: kind of scary. It was too real, too soon for
Speaker 1: me anyways, Like because then I got scared that they
Speaker 1: were like these teenage ghosts following me around, and it
Speaker 1: it freaked me out. Oh my god, that is like
Speaker 1: I like that their teenage ghosts and not like fetuses.
Speaker 1: I imagined them at aging ghost in real time. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, they'd be should be like fourteen fifteen.
Speaker 1: So I like got kicked out of school for drawing
Speaker 1: all these like ghosts. I was like, oh, these are
Speaker 1: my dead brothers and sisters. They followed me around and anyways,
Speaker 1: it was it was so too honest. Was my family's problems. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my family didn't really. They didn't tell me outright lies.
Speaker 1: It was more just about like, oh, like, I'll wait
Speaker 1: till year older and then I'll tell you that I
Speaker 1: had two abortions. This is my mom when I was
Speaker 1: also abortions a lot of drama. My mom when I
Speaker 1: was in my mid twenties. She's like, and it was
Speaker 1: actually prompted by the death of my grandma. She was like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: I'm going to die sometimes, so I better tell my
Speaker 1: children things that I want them to know before I die.
Speaker 1: So that my mom called me and she's like, I
Speaker 1: just want you to know. And this might, you know,
Speaker 1: tarnish what you think of me. But I did have
Speaker 1: two abortions before you and your siblings were born, and
Speaker 1: I was like, Mom, that makes you way cooler than
Speaker 1: I thought you were, so thanks for sharing. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it was like more stuff like that. Um, but I
Speaker 1: don't think I was like outright lied to about anything major. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because she still told you. Oscar, did your family ever
Speaker 1: tell you any like bizarro like lies when you were
Speaker 1: when you were younger. Yeah, this was a big one. Um,
Speaker 1: the Farewell. I connect to it not just because of
Speaker 1: like cultural stuff or the grandma stuff, you know, but
Speaker 1: a lot of it. Yeah, where it's like even like
Speaker 1: Aquafina's real life, she was raised by her grandma and
Speaker 1: so was I. And um, I feel like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of Asian Asian stories where it's there's a grandma.
Speaker 1: If there's like a like if it's following a woman, Um,
Speaker 1: I think like in Hustler to uh not not number two,
Speaker 1: I mean t o o um right Constance woose Grandma. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I don't want to spoil that movie because yeah, I
Speaker 1: know people aren't listening to get spoiled on Hustler right now.
Speaker 1: But anyway, is it called was it called hustler hustlers?
Speaker 1: Hustlers hustlers? I forgot about that detail. Yeah, that her her,
Speaker 1: she's like part of the reason she's working at the
Speaker 1: club is to support her grandma. I forgot about that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And um there's a grandma and fresh off the boat,
Speaker 1: there's always a grandma. Um, I don't know they live
Speaker 1: long um. Nor from Queen's Too She, which is loosely
Speaker 1: based on Aquafina's life. But yeah, she yeah, lives with
Speaker 1: her grandma. Yeah, but in my case for the farewell,
Speaker 1: like I feel like I was, I wasn't like I
Speaker 1: was the grandma in the grandma's position. My mom and
Speaker 1: grandma lied about how long we were going to come
Speaker 1: to the States for. They lied to me about They
Speaker 1: said we were coming for a two month vacation, which
Speaker 1: is I feel like a lot of undocumented immigrants, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a thing the families say, we're just here
Speaker 1: and then you just never leave, right Yeah. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: so that, yeah, that was the main life. But I
Speaker 1: didn't know at the you know, I didn't know for
Speaker 1: a long time. Well I knew when I was like,
Speaker 1: well it's been two months, y'all, and you know, our
Speaker 1: tourist visas were only for two months long. And then
Speaker 1: my grandma was like and then she enrolled me in school,
Speaker 1: and suddenly I was in school. And then like a
Speaker 1: year went by and you're like, I don't think this
Speaker 1: is a too long as hell. The rest of our
Speaker 1: stuff got shipped from Japan. But she still tried to
Speaker 1: sit me down to tell me, like when I was
Speaker 1: like seventeen, when I was trying to get my driver's license.
Speaker 1: I was like, I want to drive like the other kids.
Speaker 1: And then she was like, oh, you can't because you
Speaker 1: don't have a social Security number because you're undocumented. And
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I think I had a feeling.
Speaker 1: Yeah I know, bitch, Yeah, I know. We overstated her visas.
Speaker 1: I know. That's it was just wild that she still
Speaker 1: felt the need to tell me the truth. So it
Speaker 1: was like with withholding, but we never talked about it
Speaker 1: because it was like maybe too painful for me. Missed
Speaker 1: all my friends, I didn't really say I didn't say
Speaker 1: by to them. I didn't say by to my dad
Speaker 1: because I thought I was going back after some a
Speaker 1: vacation and then, um, yeah, anyway, I love them. My
Speaker 1: grandma still try to tell me that she lied to me.
Speaker 1: Your grandma is iconic, she truly. I mean, she's a
Speaker 1: social media star. She's she's a liar. That's why she's
Speaker 1: um I mean. But that's why movies like this are
Speaker 1: so important. That's why, you know, we say it all
Speaker 1: the time, but why representation is important because they expose
Speaker 1: audiences to cultures and communities and philosophies that some people
Speaker 1: might not otherwise have much exposure to, so movies like
Speaker 1: this can be like an educational tool. Like the first
Speaker 1: time I watched this movie, similar to Billy, I was
Speaker 1: astonished that the characters would choose not to tell a
Speaker 1: family member that she was dying. But then later when
Speaker 1: different characters explained to Billy about how they're carrying the
Speaker 1: burden for her, because in Eastern philosophy there's a greater
Speaker 1: emphasis on a person's role in a group and how
Speaker 1: they are part of a larger whole, while Western and
Speaker 1: American culture is all about the individual and you know,
Speaker 1: like picking yourself up by your bootstraps and stuff. And
Speaker 1: then I was like, oh, like I totally get that now,
Speaker 1: And yeah, I just thought it was really cool that
Speaker 1: one of the major themes of this movie was the
Speaker 1: exploration of these cultural and ideological differences, and I thought
Speaker 1: Lulu Wang handled that all very thoughtfully. I think the
Speaker 1: only thing that the only way they could have made
Speaker 1: Billy more American and this was if she then went
Speaker 1: on to tell it on This American Life where like podcast,
Speaker 1: because that, you know, it's just that's a very American
Speaker 1: thing to do, you know, to be like, well, my
Speaker 1: story needs to be heard, Well, my grandma's story needs
Speaker 1: to be heard NPR or you know whatever, or like
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start, I'm gonna do stand up comedy and
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell this story on stage. That kind
Speaker 1: of is like the full circle where it's like us
Speaker 1: giving you all this information and educating you and all
Speaker 1: this stuff, and then it's like, but ultimately my story
Speaker 1: must be told. Yes, I think that would be actually
Speaker 1: like that's my only note. Uh yeah, the scenes where
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot of scenes in this movie
Speaker 1: where that cultural differences between the US and China are
Speaker 1: hit on, and they kind of like when I was
Speaker 1: watching it back, I was like, oh, they kind of
Speaker 1: cover like a lot of ground tier where um, I mean,
Speaker 1: there's like the most obvious plat point is the fact
Speaker 1: that Billy is really off put and kind of like
Speaker 1: freaked out at first by the idea of withholding information
Speaker 1: from her grandma about her own health. And they literally
Speaker 1: they're they're like in America, this is illegal, and like
Speaker 1: that's why she's struggling with it. Um, And then I
Speaker 1: like that scene with her with her uncle where he
Speaker 1: like he lays it out pretty clearly says we're not
Speaker 1: telling nine night because it's our duty to carry this
Speaker 1: emotional burden for her and watch how how that like
Speaker 1: affects Billy and how that like changes her to an
Speaker 1: extent but not but like not entire I don't know.
Speaker 1: It felt realistic where it was like, well, she's not
Speaker 1: going to unlearn her entire American her entire this American
Speaker 1: life in one trip, but like she does, she does
Speaker 1: understand it better, and it's like, I don't know, taking
Speaker 1: that journey with her was really interesting. But then there's
Speaker 1: like conversations at the dinner table about college and about
Speaker 1: like career decisions and like choosing a career of passion
Speaker 1: for less money versus like something that will guarantee you
Speaker 1: becoming rich, and like they're just having these debates over
Speaker 1: dinner a lot that I was like, Oh, this is
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's it's so seamless in the way
Speaker 1: that the movie runs that I didn't even like, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I was watching it the second time, I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, they're like lu lu wang is covering
Speaker 1: a lot of ground here, and like stuff that isn't
Speaker 1: even necessarily plot relevant, but it's still kind of fits
Speaker 1: into the conversation yeah, because I mean this major theme
Speaker 1: the whole movie kind of hinges on is this idea
Speaker 1: of like the duality of Billy's like culture and identity
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, she has Chinese heritage, but she's
Speaker 1: ultimately raised as an America in with American ideology and
Speaker 1: just like grappling with that. And that's such a relatable
Speaker 1: experience for especially like first generation Americans, and there's just
Speaker 1: not a whole lot of movies that explore that. So
Speaker 1: it's just really cool to see. Yeah, I guess the
Speaker 1: like it's fully americanized version would be I guess they
Speaker 1: all just tell the grandma at Thanksgiving or something, yea
Speaker 1: dinner and they all like tell her, or like one
Speaker 1: person tells her, right yeah, and then um, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know that version, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I actually don't know what that version would be because
Speaker 1: that's not how my family operates either. My family is
Speaker 1: like more like secrets. Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to picture.
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's just like a close elder family
Speaker 1: member of mind. They would just they would be the
Speaker 1: ones to find out that they were dying, like from
Speaker 1: the doctor directly. Oh oh, that's true. My grandfather has
Speaker 1: been sick for a really long time, but like there
Speaker 1: was never like he just is always no, they're just like, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: you're ninety two. Oh you know what. Yes, that makes
Speaker 1: me think, you know, maybe like the more American thing
Speaker 1: is which makes me really sad actually is like people
Speaker 1: like suffer quietly, like they're the ones that are dealing
Speaker 1: with it. And maybe so the secret would be that
Speaker 1: like the person with the ailment or illness doesn't want
Speaker 1: to tell their family. Maybe they don't want to Yeah,
Speaker 1: actually that is I feel like I've seen a lot
Speaker 1: of American movies like that where someone knows that they're sick,
Speaker 1: they are withholding that information from their family because they
Speaker 1: don't want to burden their family with it. And it's yeah,
Speaker 1: so I wonder how much that has to do with
Speaker 1: like americanized healthcare too, where like there's you know, all
Speaker 1: these stories about people who are sick but like can't
Speaker 1: afford for all these horrible but I can't afford to
Speaker 1: treat their own illness, and so they just don't talk
Speaker 1: about it because they're like, well what else am I
Speaker 1: going to do? Or like that the burden being not
Speaker 1: even emotional but like financial Like there, I've I've had
Speaker 1: family members that I didn't want their family to like
Speaker 1: go broke, you know, treating it illness, and so they
Speaker 1: just didn't mention the illness. Wow, we're fucked. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: then instead they go and do like a bucket list.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's another movie. I think it's called that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right,
Speaker 1: They're like, well, I'm gonna go um like jet skiing.
Speaker 1: You know, it's something I haven't done. Something I don't know.
Speaker 1: Am I making up movies? That movie? Market Freeman and
Speaker 1: Jack Nicholson not gonna watch it? I don't know. I
Speaker 1: bet it starts with a cancer diagnosis something like yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, let's go. Do you want to come back?
Speaker 1: When we talk about that movie, does we even work?
Speaker 1: Are there even even any isn't it just men in
Speaker 1: the movie? Isn't it just the two of them? I
Speaker 1: think it's just the boys on the road trip. But
Speaker 1: those are those are some fun movies because we can
Speaker 1: just talk about toxic masculinity the whole time, just based
Speaker 1: on Okay, First of all, the poster for this movie
Speaker 1: is so bizarre. It's uh, Morgan Freeman, which he's got
Speaker 1: his arm around Jack Nicholson. Jack Nicholson's holding a glass
Speaker 1: of champagne. There's there's three pictures. One of them is
Speaker 1: them at the Egyptian Pyramids. There's a picture. There's a picture.
Speaker 1: There's a picture of them about to jump out of
Speaker 1: a plane together. And there's a picture of them on
Speaker 1: a motorcycle together. But you can tell on the poster
Speaker 1: that all of the pictures are photoshopped. So I have
Speaker 1: no idea what's going on in this movie at all,
Speaker 1: but like, they're not at the Pyramids here, and they're
Speaker 1: not on a motorcycle together. It has on rotten tomatoes,
Speaker 1: so we obviously it's an urgent. There's an urgent need
Speaker 1: to cover this movie. I want to know what happens
Speaker 1: at the Pyramids, so yeah, I'll probably check it out. Well,
Speaker 1: I just want to know if they actually if they
Speaker 1: go and just take a picture outside of it, like
Speaker 1: because that's yeah, or did they think you know? Anyway?
Speaker 1: Hard to say, only one way to find out. Let's
Speaker 1: take a quick break and then we'll come back for
Speaker 1: a more discussion. And we're back. Uh, let's talk about
Speaker 1: a little bit more about nine Night and and her
Speaker 1: relationship with I feel like usually what we have older
Speaker 1: characters in movies at all. There's so many tropes attached
Speaker 1: to Grandma characters that are avoided by this movie, just
Speaker 1: like because the movie is never punching down at her
Speaker 1: and we just get to know more about her, Like
Speaker 1: she has like complicated history and backstory, and I liked that, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, you're introduced to her as like, oh, she's
Speaker 1: like this really you know, charismatic matriarch and we love
Speaker 1: her and she's great, but then you also see scenes
Speaker 1: where she's kind of being an asshole to people. You
Speaker 1: see scenes where you know, you find out that she
Speaker 1: has also like engaged with this lie before. Like you
Speaker 1: just get this whole backstory for her, and you see
Speaker 1: all these sides of her that I feel like you
Speaker 1: don't usually get for for older characters in family movies
Speaker 1: at all. Definitely, Yeah, we talked recently on an episode
Speaker 1: that might not have come out yet, but just the
Speaker 1: grandma character in a lot of movies is basically there
Speaker 1: as a joke or that they're there to like generate
Speaker 1: comedy because everyone's like, oh, Grandma doing a grandma thing again,
Speaker 1: or oh Grandma, Grandma forgot something, or Grandma couldn't hear
Speaker 1: you or something like that, just like that string of
Speaker 1: fetty white rolls from like the late two thousand's. Is
Speaker 1: there a Grandma test? Is there? We shouldn't know, but
Speaker 1: we should be a Grandma test. If there's a Grandma
Speaker 1: in the movie, does she just is she just there
Speaker 1: for comic relief or does she have like a role
Speaker 1: in this story? Oh, we were talking about it in
Speaker 1: our Knives Out episode. Yes, yes, yes, So that's coming
Speaker 1: out right around now on the Matreon. Yeah, because that's
Speaker 1: a movie that does adhere to that trope of like
Speaker 1: Grandma isn't aware of her surroundings and Grandma doesn't know anything,
Speaker 1: so Grandma dies, That should be part of the test.
Speaker 1: She died so bleak. And this one, this one would
Speaker 1: almost you would think it would fail the test, but
Speaker 1: then at the end it doesn't fail the test because
Speaker 1: she lives. Well, that's mostly to protect potential viewers hearts emotions.
Speaker 1: I really do feel like I wish I could have
Speaker 1: gone in to this movie knowing that she was okay,
Speaker 1: because you just have I mean maybe I'm sure that's
Speaker 1: a part of it, but we're like being filled with
Speaker 1: that dread the whole movie and just like, no, I
Speaker 1: love her, don't. And then at the end of like
Speaker 1: and She's fine, You're like, oh, okay, great, Yeah, I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: show me thirty more minutes of actual footage of her,
Speaker 1: because they showed some. They showed some, but I was like,
Speaker 1: show me more, show me more. Where's the sequel? Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's still alive. Yeah, but what I can tell she's
Speaker 1: still alive or she she was alive at the time
Speaker 1: this movie came out, So I hope, I hope she
Speaker 1: used to be. Well. I feel like if she died,
Speaker 1: Lulu Waiting would tell us. I don't know. Maybe I'm
Speaker 1: like maybe that, maybe I'm being a para social relationship,
Speaker 1: like maybe I'm just like she'd tell me. But I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't know her. She could lie to us. I
Speaker 1: don't know. That's I mean, you know so far, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, she did participate in that one line, so
Speaker 1: that's true. Wow, I don't know she could you know?
Speaker 1: Part two? Who knows? But she's gonna tease us. She's
Speaker 1: gonna like shoot it a block like in l a
Speaker 1: where we can all see it. She's gonna shoot it
Speaker 1: right in Los Angeles wherever you know most of the
Speaker 1: farewell fans are or something and be like, I guess
Speaker 1: what we're filming. You'll never know, But Aquafina is in
Speaker 1: it and the same actress who played her grandma, she
Speaker 1: would do that to it. Who's who is amazing too?
Speaker 1: I I looked up her history. She was Jen and
Speaker 1: she she was, like I guess, a famous theater actress
Speaker 1: in China and hadn't ever done a film role and
Speaker 1: this is like her first film role. But she was
Speaker 1: like a theater icons like, Oh that's so cool. Yeah, nine,
Speaker 1: I is so interesting because I feel like she I
Speaker 1: don't I don't know how to like there should be
Speaker 1: like a word to describe this, and maybe it exists
Speaker 1: and I don't know what it is, but like she
Speaker 1: has these qualities that are like characteristic of her generation,
Speaker 1: but it isn't like over the top, and she does
Speaker 1: like compromise with Billy about it, where she like says, oh,
Speaker 1: what are you going to get married? You need someone
Speaker 1: to take care of you, and Billy pushes back and
Speaker 1: she's like I can take care of myself and fine,
Speaker 1: and then she brings up like nine I has this
Speaker 1: like boyfriend's question mark, who's just like, who is kind
Speaker 1: of trash? And nine I was like whatever, Mr Lee,
Speaker 1: he's just here um and Billy's like, well, what about
Speaker 1: your trash boyfriend? And nine I was like I see
Speaker 1: your point. I see your point. I just the moments
Speaker 1: like that with them is so are so fun. And
Speaker 1: then nine I comes around because later at the wedding,
Speaker 1: they're are a group of a few older men who
Speaker 1: asked Billy like, oh, are you married, and she's like
Speaker 1: not yet, and then nine I jumps in and she's
Speaker 1: like no career first, like she I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: she's she's becoming a feminist icon. I didn't even realize
Speaker 1: those things. I think I overlooked that. That's cool because
Speaker 1: all I heard was like doctor, are you married yet?
Speaker 1: And I think I just like, for some reason turned
Speaker 1: it off in my head. But yeah, that's cool that
Speaker 1: it was more, it was more layered. Actually, yeah, they
Speaker 1: learned from each other. Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm just
Speaker 1: like maybe I have my own test where I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's my people, so I get like maybe protective,
Speaker 1: where I'm like no, I every Grama asked about you know,
Speaker 1: marriage or doctors, you know, like, well, I want to
Speaker 1: do that um, but you know that's not lu lose fault.
Speaker 1: I mean that's also a thing that a lot of
Speaker 1: white grandma's do where they're always asking you about if
Speaker 1: you're married yet, but then they also talk about so
Speaker 1: many other things. You know, it's just that's not what's shown.
Speaker 1: That's true. Yeah. I like how that those two characters,
Speaker 1: like they both kind of compromise where I feel like
Speaker 1: it would have been like a really easy thing to
Speaker 1: be like Billie is like no, Grandma, you need to
Speaker 1: like think like an American and do like and it
Speaker 1: just and then it becomes kind of like propaganda eat
Speaker 1: like Western propaganda stuff. But they like listen to each
Speaker 1: other and they kind of like meet in the middle
Speaker 1: in a way that feels like, oh this this feels
Speaker 1: like a healthy family relationship. It was cool. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I like that that and that it might be in
Speaker 1: that same wedding scene where those other guys are at
Speaker 1: the table with him, but you find out a little
Speaker 1: more about nine night where there's this like a guy
Speaker 1: that's been like holding up how do you holding a
Speaker 1: flame for her for like fifty years where he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I really wanted to marry you and like
Speaker 1: all this like you know that like where he's just
Speaker 1: talking about how he's like I love you. It's like
Speaker 1: she's like, sorry, I'm with Mr Lee now and I
Speaker 1: hate him. Sorry I have everyone's none of us like him.
Speaker 1: We don't know why he's here. He's a mystery. So
Speaker 1: he really I wonder if that's pulled from from real
Speaker 1: life because he was he was he was a wild card.
Speaker 1: I feel like so much of it is Lulu Wing's
Speaker 1: real life were just inspired by details from her and
Speaker 1: her family's life. Because, for example, the person who plays
Speaker 1: nine e sister in the movie is nine eyes reels
Speaker 1: like Lulu Wings her great aunt. Yeah that's so. That
Speaker 1: wasn't like a trained actor or anything. That was just
Speaker 1: she put her great on in the movie in the
Speaker 1: same role. High level secrets are being kept. That's the
Speaker 1: way to keep it secret, way to make it harder. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so many somebody, well Cardela did the issue in the
Speaker 1: grandma's house too, at some point you actual house while
Speaker 1: she was sleeping. Maybe they have like the relationship between
Speaker 1: Billy and her mom to like, I don't know, there's
Speaker 1: so many like different, very specific family relationships that like
Speaker 1: you don't always get a lot of time with them,
Speaker 1: but they feel like the dynamics are really well written
Speaker 1: and clear, where like Billy is definitely served with nine Night.
Speaker 1: Then she is with her mom, and her mom is
Speaker 1: like a little I don't even know how to like.
Speaker 1: She's just like less emotionally expressive and is very like practical,
Speaker 1: like I do what I have to do and I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna like she she kind of like pokes at
Speaker 1: Billy for like crying, and she's like, well, I'm not
Speaker 1: just going to cry about stuff like you do. I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, Mom, but you also like I don't know,
Speaker 1: I mean, there's the I feel like that the mom.
Speaker 1: When this movie came out, like Aquafina's performance and Jao
Speaker 1: Sujin's performance were so I mean, like rightfully so um spotlighted.
Speaker 1: But I thought the actress who played the mom was
Speaker 1: so good and like deserved more of a shout out.
Speaker 1: Her name is Diana Lynne, and I really like like
Speaker 1: she is like dealing with having an alcoholic husband in
Speaker 1: a way that doesn't really take over the story but
Speaker 1: is like clearly a reality that she just else like
Speaker 1: I just have to deal with this. There's no point
Speaker 1: in expressing emotion about it. This is just what it is,
Speaker 1: um and and has like these differences with her daughter
Speaker 1: that keep coming up of differences on how they're grieving,
Speaker 1: differences on how they view America, where like the mom
Speaker 1: there's like that story about the church key thing where
Speaker 1: they just view the US very differently. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: I just I liked I liked all of her story beats.
Speaker 1: It felt like she was a very fleshed out character
Speaker 1: that kind of I don't know, I just really liked her. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And then Akwafine is like, Mom, that church is not
Speaker 1: representative of all of America, right, But yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: like the relationships and the characters in this movie, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're like, we just really well developed and they feel
Speaker 1: very authentic. And it's obviously because they're based on real people.
Speaker 1: Because I feel like in a lot of movies where
Speaker 1: there's like, for example, a really tropy grandma character or
Speaker 1: like a really trophy mother daughter relationship, they are written
Speaker 1: by people who are basing those characters off of tropes
Speaker 1: they saw in other movies, where like rather than like
Speaker 1: basing them off of character like off of real people,
Speaker 1: It's like this whole like tropes beget more tropes kind
Speaker 1: of thing where some writers are like, well, I'm writing
Speaker 1: a movie with a grandma character in it, and this
Speaker 1: is how I've seen other grandma's depicted in movies, so
Speaker 1: I'll just write that it is. I mean, it's like,
Speaker 1: I I totally agree with you, and you really can
Speaker 1: tell when there's like an authentic experience behind it and
Speaker 1: when it's uh, particularly male writers writing out mother daughter relationships,
Speaker 1: I feel like sometimes come off as super just dis
Speaker 1: an end of like is this how you think your
Speaker 1: family talks when you're not around? Sir? Right? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I mean lu Luang is just like such a
Speaker 1: good distinct writer and it just feels very very natural
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah. Like you said, like when the writers
Speaker 1: basing things off of their real lived experiences and the
Speaker 1: real people in their lives, like, it's no wonder that
Speaker 1: you get these rich, authentic characters and situations like you
Speaker 1: see in The Farewell. It's true. Um. And then another
Speaker 1: scene I wanted to talk about was where they're looking
Speaker 1: for Billy's cousin's future his wife's hearing and Billy has
Speaker 1: a breakdown because she's again she's been grappling with this
Speaker 1: dilemma of like, I really think that we should tell
Speaker 1: nine I that she's ill, and everyone else keeps being like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: under no circumstances will we do that, and it's weighing
Speaker 1: on her emotionally. And then she tells this kind of
Speaker 1: childhood story of how she before her family immigrated to
Speaker 1: the US, she would spend summers with her grandma and
Speaker 1: grandpa and he was sick and no one, no one
Speaker 1: told him that he was sick, and no one told
Speaker 1: little Billy that he was sick. So that like after
Speaker 1: they went to the US and he died, and then
Speaker 1: when they would go back to visit, he wasn't there anymore.
Speaker 1: And how like confusing and tragic that was because she
Speaker 1: never had the opportunity to say goodbye. And when she was,
Speaker 1: you know, like her early life in the US, she
Speaker 1: was scared and confused. And she saw that same kind
Speaker 1: of frightened look on her mother's face, and you know,
Speaker 1: they're just like kind of explaining all of those emotions
Speaker 1: and her mom is like, yeah, it was difficult for
Speaker 1: us too, and just that kind of whole experience, and
Speaker 1: like the performance that Aquafina is giving in that scene
Speaker 1: is just like, oh, that part it really got me
Speaker 1: because it was like, well, but different kind of story.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was like like I still think about
Speaker 1: Japan even though it's not my home anymore, but it's
Speaker 1: such a harsh realization where it's like and I think
Speaker 1: I was always scared. I always had like separation anxiety.
Speaker 1: My grandma would be like, well, you've got to be
Speaker 1: independent soon now, you know. And but it's because, like
Speaker 1: grandmother tell me, we were going to stay here. So
Speaker 1: I didn't say bye to my friends when I went
Speaker 1: back to Japan. When I finally could, they were no
Speaker 1: longer my friends. They had moved on. You know. When
Speaker 1: I finally got my green quarter, I could leave the
Speaker 1: country legally. Yeah, that part I was like, oh my god. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean not to make it about me, but you
Speaker 1: know what an American thing to do. Well, I am
Speaker 1: on a pod casts, so like, you know, I do
Speaker 1: want to I do want to talk about Aqua fee
Speaker 1: as great performance, but also my my life. So what
Speaker 1: about my performance just on this podcast? I mean, you're
Speaker 1: doing great. Yeah, we should have done we should have
Speaker 1: done Shrek. No, No, I'm just kidding. Have we talked
Speaker 1: to about her dad at all. I don't know how.
Speaker 1: I don't think so, just that he seems to maybe
Speaker 1: be struggling with alcoholism. Oh that was the moment with
Speaker 1: nine eight where I was like, nine eight, what are
Speaker 1: you doing? Where she like super contradicts herself in a
Speaker 1: way that I was like really feeling for Billy's mom
Speaker 1: in that moment where like when they first arrived, nine
Speaker 1: is like, hey, is he drew sinking again? Like we
Speaker 1: really need to be careful and that he's not drinking
Speaker 1: too much, and then like a half hour later he's
Speaker 1: drinking too much and Billy's mom was like, hey stop
Speaker 1: and nine I was like, let him drink and let
Speaker 1: him Oh my god, why do you Literally my grandma
Speaker 1: used to do that with my dad and not good.
Speaker 1: Not good. Yeah, I forget. What's she going through something?
Speaker 1: Is that why she changed her mind or she just
Speaker 1: did that? I couldn't tell. I thought that that was
Speaker 1: like an interesting character moment for her, where like I
Speaker 1: feel like she has kind of like a shiny halo
Speaker 1: for a lot of the movie, and in that moment,
Speaker 1: I'm like, you're being a like you're being meat to
Speaker 1: Billy's mom, Like why why? I think it was just
Speaker 1: like the wedding coming up, and it was like cause
Speaker 1: for celebration, and she keeps being like, well, this is
Speaker 1: the first time, like we've all been together as a
Speaker 1: family in like twenty five years or something, so like
Speaker 1: let's enjoy ourselves. And I was like, but what about yesterday, Nina,
Speaker 1: you said this literally yesterday anyways? Um, but yeah, the
Speaker 1: the actor who plays Billy's dad is see Ma, who
Speaker 1: I've seen in a bunch of stuff, Like he's an
Speaker 1: iconic character actor. He did an amazing job everyone just
Speaker 1: the I mean, I remembered him. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: the guy from Arrival. He's recovered that pretty recently right away. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just the performances in this movie all
Speaker 1: around are incredible, including from people who are not actors, uh,
Speaker 1: such as like Lulu Wang's great aunt. I would not
Speaker 1: have guessed that, Yeah, I wouldn't have guessed that she
Speaker 1: wasn't a professionally trained actor, right. I wonder who else
Speaker 1: the bride did she have lines? I forget. I feel
Speaker 1: like she didn't get to say much, right, she barely
Speaker 1: said anything. I think I'm going I'm looking on IMDb
Speaker 1: and the cast of the movie of the Ones that
Speaker 1: have photos of themselves next to their name, those are
Speaker 1: like more established actors, and the people who do not
Speaker 1: have photos next to their name, I'm guessing they are
Speaker 1: not really established or trained actors. And I would say
Speaker 1: like half of the cast are not necessarily trained famous
Speaker 1: of actors at all. So um, but it's that's just
Speaker 1: a testament to like Lulu Wang's directing skills and how
Speaker 1: she's able to get such good performances out of people
Speaker 1: who are not necessarily trained actors. So this is awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what else? Any other thoughts about the movie for me? Really? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I liked the Um, let me see if I had
Speaker 1: anything else in the I liked this scene where they
Speaker 1: mourned the grandfather. That was just like learning moment for me.
Speaker 1: I didn't No, Um, hey, everybody post episode, Jamie and Caitlin,
Speaker 1: why wasn't fully aware of this? Uh when we were
Speaker 1: recording the episode, but I wanted to make sure it
Speaker 1: was acknowledged. Um. Aquafina has been criticized repeatedly over the
Speaker 1: years for appropriating black aesthetics, starting with her early rap career. Uh.
Speaker 1: It is, to my knowledge, not something she's ever addressed publicly,
Speaker 1: but I uh and it, and it doesn't really apply
Speaker 1: in the movie The Farewell, But that has been kind
Speaker 1: of some of the nature of the criticism, where she
Speaker 1: appropriates black aesthetics in certain roles and then in other
Speaker 1: roles doesn't, And so it becomes pretty clear what's being done.
Speaker 1: She is not the only person to have done this.
Speaker 1: There are I mean, there's a huge history in music
Speaker 1: and movies and TV of doing this. But I just
Speaker 1: wanted to uh share for context this, uh this quote
Speaker 1: and what will link this in the description of the
Speaker 1: episode as well. This is an opinion piece from the
Speaker 1: Duke Chronicle from last year. Uh. The piece called on
Speaker 1: Aquafina appropriation and Asian American identity by a writer named
Speaker 1: Hannah Mao. I hope I'm saying that correctly, and uh
Speaker 1: here is the kind of summary of of of what
Speaker 1: the pieces about she says. Quote. Many have rightly criticized
Speaker 1: Aquafina for rising to start them through an appropriation of
Speaker 1: black aesthetics. From her viral rap song My Vade to
Speaker 1: her breakout role as peklin Go in Crazy Rich Asians,
Speaker 1: Aquafina has made a career out of performing a caricatured
Speaker 1: version of blackness, co opting African American vernacular English, a
Speaker 1: ve speaking in a quote unquote black scent and playing
Speaker 1: characters that could be interpreted as minstrel esque. Aquafina has
Speaker 1: a worn blackness like a costume, putting it on when
Speaker 1: it commercially rewards her in Crazy Rich Asians and Oceans Eight,
Speaker 1: and taking it off when it does not, like in
Speaker 1: The Farewell and her newest project Nora from Queens. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's a really good piece. We'll link it that discusses
Speaker 1: other entertainers who have have done similar things, but I
Speaker 1: just wanted to acknowledge it in in this episode as well.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Jeney. Yeah, I think that's that's kind of
Speaker 1: all I had. I just like that, like you see
Speaker 1: a like a ton of different like relationships between women
Speaker 1: from different generations. I feel like it's already like a
Speaker 1: super rare thing to see like written thoughtfully in movies,
Speaker 1: especially between like Billy, her mom and nine and I
Speaker 1: like three women with different perspectives on a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff and watching them like navigate life but still really
Speaker 1: care about each other even when like especially with Billy
Speaker 1: and her mom, like could not be more different, but
Speaker 1: like are both coming from like very understandable genuine places.
Speaker 1: I just I don't know. I love I love a
Speaker 1: movie with multiple generations of women, um, disagreeing on things.
Speaker 1: So I think that's just a genre that I like.
Speaker 1: Hashtag relatable Yeah, same yeah, hashtag a living it. Um.
Speaker 1: One of my favorites was Great Gardens. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: when you said when you said, yeah, different generations of
Speaker 1: women disagreeing with each other, you know, having to like
Speaker 1: figure it out together. Yeah, and they're kind of they're
Speaker 1: kind of codependent. We gotta I'm like, I know it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's a documentary, but we should maybe just
Speaker 1: cover I was living Steel Magnolias. It's like all about
Speaker 1: women get a good fight, like in in understandable, like
Speaker 1: not baseless conflict, just like because because then because then
Speaker 1: I feel like you just get like real acting performances,
Speaker 1: and it's it's very exciting. Um. Anyways, I don't have
Speaker 1: any more notes. I'm excited to see what Lulu Wang
Speaker 1: does next to I know that she's got science fiction
Speaker 1: e project in the works right now that I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't know much about, but it sounds pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: And I just hope that you know that because this
Speaker 1: was like the movie that like really launched her career,
Speaker 1: that she'll you know, get to make a bunch of
Speaker 1: cool ship and like, uh, get the kind of blank
Speaker 1: check treatment that we see with a lot of white
Speaker 1: guy directors, because like she's super talented, she's got like
Speaker 1: and I'm excited to see her work in a different
Speaker 1: genre too. I was like, Oh, what is a Lulu
Speaker 1: wait sci fi movie gonna look like? Yeah, totally. Oh,
Speaker 1: I hope it shoots a block away from my house.
Speaker 1: Whatever it is, whatever it is, I want to get
Speaker 1: a peek. I just want to peek. What if you
Speaker 1: get cast to be the star or I'll just like
Speaker 1: being in the background. I don't care. I'll just like
Speaker 1: point out, point out whatever, like the scary thing is.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm just assuming there's a scary thing. I
Speaker 1: mean probably that's that's where the side comes in. Yes, yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Um well, the movie does definitely pass the Bechdel test
Speaker 1: a lot. Billy. I think there are probably more conversations
Speaker 1: between Billy and nine I than any other combination. I
Speaker 1: didn't like track this scientifically, but um yeah billion billion,
Speaker 1: her mom billion and we didn't talk about her her aunt,
Speaker 1: but Billy and her aunt talk quite a bit as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like, men are definitely present in this story, but
Speaker 1: like not not overwhelmingly. So they're they're there and they're
Speaker 1: and they're emoting to their yeah yeah men. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just like a really beautiful family dynamic that we're seeing,
Speaker 1: where like different family members disagree for different reasons. Some
Speaker 1: of them are cultural reasons, some of them are just
Speaker 1: because they have different personalities. Like, it's just very emblematic
Speaker 1: of how families work, and yeah, this is just like
Speaker 1: a very relatable story about complicated family dynamics, which is
Speaker 1: something that everyone can relate to, because, like I think
Speaker 1: there's a tendency for American Hollywood like movie studios to assume, like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: this has an all Asian cast and they're not speaking
Speaker 1: English most of the time, so there's no way this
Speaker 1: would appeal to American audiences because there's just so much
Speaker 1: bias when it comes to what studios and like your
Speaker 1: big onlywood gatekeeper people think audiences will and won't relate to.
Speaker 1: But this movie and many movies like it are just
Speaker 1: very human stories that do have a wide appeal because
Speaker 1: because we're all people. Unless yeah, unless you're Mr Lee,
Speaker 1: unless do literally, and then for some reason, you're you're
Speaker 1: just come of the earth. Yeah, didn't even I just checked.
Speaker 1: Mr Lee didn't even make the poster. It's the only
Speaker 1: character that didn't make the poster. Yeah, so we'll figure
Speaker 1: that out. Justice for Mr Lee, figure it out. Where's
Speaker 1: his spin off? Maybe he'll pop up in Shrek five.
Speaker 1: We don't know, he's gonna be the lead of the
Speaker 1: sci fi movie that. Yeah, it's a whole sci fi
Speaker 1: story where he's like a cyborg. Yeah. Uh. And then
Speaker 1: as far as our nipple scale, which is our scale
Speaker 1: of zero to five nipples based on examining the movie
Speaker 1: through an intersectional feminist lens, hmm. I didn't have like
Speaker 1: a bad thing to say about this movie, so it's
Speaker 1: obviously going to get a high nipple rating. I'm picking. Look,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm going to withhold this information for the rest
Speaker 1: of the episode. No, I don't know. I'm just like,
Speaker 1: I feel like we just recorded an episode earlier today
Speaker 1: where we gave the movie five nipples, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, am I about to give two movies
Speaker 1: in a row five nipples? Yeah? Makes you feel unsure,
Speaker 1: It makes me feel unsure. But I mean just based
Speaker 1: everything we've talked about in terms of the way the
Speaker 1: women are characterized, the way just the family dynamics are characterized,
Speaker 1: the relationships, the exploration of Billy's characters experience, and the
Speaker 1: dilemma that she's feeling based on this like duality of
Speaker 1: her cultures. I don't know. I think it's like again,
Speaker 1: I don't have any criticism. I'm getting so impatient. Jamie's like, you,
Speaker 1: you can give two fives one day. I know, but
Speaker 1: I'm just like, it's so rare to give five nipples
Speaker 1: that I'm like, this, is this a mistake. We've been
Speaker 1: covering too many good movies, is our problem. We keep
Speaker 1: choosing these movies that are really good, which is why
Speaker 1: we need to cover Shrek four guarantee. It's what if
Speaker 1: it is five? Though? What if we were like rumpled
Speaker 1: Stilts can move me to tears? Yeah yeah? Or or
Speaker 1: wait for um Mr Lee strikes back ulus Yeah response
Speaker 1: to the Farewell the sci fi movie, Um yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get five nipples and I will distribute them
Speaker 1: to Lu lu Wang Shao shu Jin, who plays nine,
Speaker 1: I to Diana Lynn, who plays Blais, mom to the
Speaker 1: great aunt whose name is lu hang just everyone. Also,
Speaker 1: I go who plays the the bride, who's just for
Speaker 1: the bread. She's just trying to figure out what's happening
Speaker 1: the whole. She doesn't speak Mandarin, so she does not
Speaker 1: know what anyone is saying. I mean, honestly, I would
Speaker 1: be like, so pissed that the boy my boyfriend or
Speaker 1: my fiance. Right, why isn't he translating for her? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I would be like, why do you Like, I can't
Speaker 1: believe you're making me do this. I don't you know,
Speaker 1: I don't have to like I'm a whole person. Yeah,
Speaker 1: where's her spinoff movie? That's another moment where nine I
Speaker 1: is an asshole where she's like I hate this girl.
Speaker 1: She doesn't know what's going on, and and Billy is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: she has no idea what anyone is saying, and Nine
Speaker 1: I was like anyway, like I know, And she's like,
Speaker 1: I don't even want to get married to him. Maybe
Speaker 1: maybe not even anymore? You know what I'm saying. Right,
Speaker 1: the whole the wedding is is like a sham just
Speaker 1: to get everyone together. So I would break up with
Speaker 1: him after all this whole thing. I would I would
Speaker 1: be like, you made me you made me like forced,
Speaker 1: get forced into a marriage and like go through all
Speaker 1: that family drama. You don't even say much. I don't.
Speaker 1: You don't even have a personality. Goodbye. You know that's
Speaker 1: what I would fair fair. So, yeah, those are my
Speaker 1: five nipples I'm gonna I'm gonna give I'm almost going
Speaker 1: to give the movie five nipples because I really like it.
Speaker 1: I really like a story about multiple generations of women.
Speaker 1: I feel like I've said everything that I want to
Speaker 1: say about it. I want to give a five nipples,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to give all of my nipples to
Speaker 1: Lulu Wang's real grandma, who who was a block away
Speaker 1: the whole time. I feel like that adds a whole
Speaker 1: another level to the experience. She was steps away, and
Speaker 1: I was so happy to hear that she was still
Speaker 1: with us at the end. It was in a movie
Speaker 1: full of great parts, it is the finding out that
Speaker 1: the real nine eight is alive is the best part.
Speaker 1: I like gasped in the theater. I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: it's a feel good ending. Um yeah, I love it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'm excited to see uh more flu waiting stuff
Speaker 1: in the future. Yeah, that's go. What about you? I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to give it um four nipples for ico
Speaker 1: Um and her situation. You know, the movie really crushed
Speaker 1: the other parts. I just really I still think about
Speaker 1: her and and her situation. So yeah, there was room
Speaker 1: for a subplot with her. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but that's
Speaker 1: that's the only reason. And I would give the four
Speaker 1: stars for nipples. For nipples to Um. I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess Lulu Wayne, good job girl. Am I allowed to
Speaker 1: do that? Yeah? Whatever you want. Yeah. And her friend no, actually,
Speaker 1: her friend like talked right, and that's why the grandma
Speaker 1: found out. Oh the sister, your grandma's sister, who who
Speaker 1: is your movie? Yeah, she got sucked up into the
Speaker 1: into a Hollywood glitz of it all, like maybe real nine.
Speaker 1: I was like, so, what have you been up to?
Speaker 1: And she's like, oh, I've been in this movie abouts right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll never know. Well, OT's go. It's always a pleasure
Speaker 1: to have you. Thank you so much for being here,
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me back, um, and we'll see
Speaker 1: you soon for Shrek four or whatever, Struck five, Shrek three,
Speaker 1: Shrek two, any anything, Hey, count count me in. I
Speaker 1: want to know how many nipples are gonna give it? Um?
Speaker 1: Where can people follow you online and is there anything
Speaker 1: you'd like to plug. I'm just at Otsco Comedy and
Speaker 1: you can just see what I'm up to there on
Speaker 1: the socials. Amazing. Uh, We're in all the regular places.
Speaker 1: We're on Instagram, Twitter, at Bechtel Cast, you can follow
Speaker 1: us on our Patreon, ak Matrian at patreon dot com
Speaker 1: slash Bechtel Cast, where we're talking about knives out this week,
Speaker 1: and you can get merchanty Public dot com slash the
Speaker 1: Bechtel Cast if that is your desire in life. All true,
Speaker 1: these are these are not lies. These are not lies
Speaker 1: that we're telling you. We're not withholding any information at
Speaker 1: this time. We are telling you the truth. So thanks
Speaker 1: for tuning in and we'll see you next week. Bye bye,
Speaker 1: thank you, bye,