S2 E12: Asian American movies that are giving us ALL THE FEELS- The Farewell & Always Be My Maybe

In this episode, the three hosts (Ina, Juan, Diaodiao) talk about two films starring Asian Americans as lead actors: The Farewell and Always Be My Maybe.

The Farewell is director Lulu Wang (Wang Ziyi)'s second feature film. It is based on her family's story and stars our favorite Asian American rapper Awkwafina. The three of us went to watch "Farewell" together and walked out with equally prominent puffy eyes. We were impressed to see how accurately this film portrayed the tension, unspoken rules and emotions in a Chinese family gathering setting.

There are very uniquely Chinese elements: 80% of the lines in the movie are spoken in fluent Mandarin; the hilarious tomb visiting scene and the cousin's grand wedding scene. But the film also touches on universal themes, like what it means to be a stranger in your own hometown; the emotional baggage that comes with immigrant life and the cultural differences between Western culture and Chinese culture.

We dove into what made us laugh and cry, the absence of "explanatory commas" in movies depicting immigrant culture, brilliant and reserved acting, and more.

In the second half of this episode, we talked about the romantic comedy "Always Be My Maybe", what we love and not love about the film and why there nonetheless need to be more movies like it. Be aware of 5-10 minutes of collective fan-girling over Keanu Reeves' cameo.

Please let us know what you think of these two films. You can email us at [email protected] or follow us on Weibo.

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