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My resolutions:
- less screentime
- use my screentime for journaling and talking to people I actually like
- make a genuine effort to socialize and make plans with people
- cut out more dairy and eggs
- reduce single-use plastics
- read more books and poetry
- keep working on my patience and thoughtfulness
So far in 2019, I've tripped on my dog and hit my knee, so...that's a win.
I also watched two of the big Asian-lead movies from this year in the past couple days, Crazy Rich Asians and To All the Boys I've Loved Before. Thoughts under the cut.
Crazy Rich Asians was really fun and avoided some of the annoying drama pitfalls there could be. I thought Rachel and Nick's relationship was really sweet, and I enjoyed Rachel as a protagonist a lot. Michelle as Eleanor was SO awesome, even if she was a jerk. Peik Lin and Oliver were so good. It was amazing to see an American live action movie with a fully Asian cast! Every place in the movie was so beautiful. And everyone was so good-looking, oh my god. The mahjong scene was (can I still say this?) epic.
My one thing is I guess just...wow, the goddamn materialism of this movie lol. I was sort of expecting some kind of "money doesn't mean everything" resolution at the end, but I guess not. The glorification of wealth was. A Lot. Recently, I've realized that more of my friends than I thought really care about like, owning expensive jewelry and designer brands and amassing wealth and I'm just like, who are you. It's just things. We're all gonna be gently toasted by 2030 anyway.
But off that high horse--it was a fun and glitzy movie, had more than a few real laughs, a great cast, a pleasant love story, and it also spoke to immigrant experience and disconnect in a way I really felt. All-POC casts are also just so fucking good.
And it is genuinely different than watching a movie from your country of origin that just naturally has a nonwhite cast in a way that it's hard to articulate not just to non-immigrants, but sometimes to first generation immigrants, I think! I was having this conversation with another South Asian second gen immigrant, and we were talking about how things like people butchering our names hurts us worse than it does our first gen parents--they heard their name said the correct way at least half their lives while for us, someone non-family pronouncing our names right on the first try is the exception rather than the rule. Our connection to the land and culture are so much more tenuous, and we hold onto things tighter.
I also saw To All The Boys I've Loved Before! Some points:
- I did appreciate the double fakeout with Josh
- Peter was still kind of an asshole, but his behavior does seem to be an improvement from other romcoms, I guess? Look, I'm not a het romance movie person. Watching two in a year is wild for me
- Lucas being gay? Cool. The gay love advice thing? Played out (also kinda...played out in Crazy Rich Asians tbh yikes. But I enjoyed the "rainbow sheep" of the family sooo). Her younger sister could have had a cute crush on a girl or something if they wanted to include some LGBT rep without leaning hard on stereotypes.
- Lara Jean having to expend emotional labor on a guy repressing his feelings: -1. What the guy was having feelings about striking home in an oddly painful way for me personally: -10.
- but with that said, I did appreciate her cutting through his macho bullshit
- the message about the pool video!! Yes! "I would never do that, especially not to another woman." Yes.
- I did think Gen was kind of 2D catty. Apart from that one line during the bathroom argument, we didn't really get a sense of why she was being Like That. That scrunchie thing was some Machiavellian shit.
- and on the same note of that scrunchie thing: we were all dumbasses in high school. Simple as hell.
- high school is NOT Like That
With all of that said, I actually really enjoyed the movie, thought Lara Jean was a lot of fun, had a great time during it, even if some of that was being skeptical about everything. That good, good fake dating, huh.
Happy 2019, everyone! Tell me about your resolutions, the year you had and the year you hope to have.
- less screentime
- use my screentime for journaling and talking to people I actually like
- make a genuine effort to socialize and make plans with people
- cut out more dairy and eggs
- reduce single-use plastics
- read more books and poetry
- keep working on my patience and thoughtfulness
So far in 2019, I've tripped on my dog and hit my knee, so...that's a win.
I also watched two of the big Asian-lead movies from this year in the past couple days, Crazy Rich Asians and To All the Boys I've Loved Before. Thoughts under the cut.
Crazy Rich Asians was really fun and avoided some of the annoying drama pitfalls there could be. I thought Rachel and Nick's relationship was really sweet, and I enjoyed Rachel as a protagonist a lot. Michelle as Eleanor was SO awesome, even if she was a jerk. Peik Lin and Oliver were so good. It was amazing to see an American live action movie with a fully Asian cast! Every place in the movie was so beautiful. And everyone was so good-looking, oh my god. The mahjong scene was (can I still say this?) epic.
My one thing is I guess just...wow, the goddamn materialism of this movie lol. I was sort of expecting some kind of "money doesn't mean everything" resolution at the end, but I guess not. The glorification of wealth was. A Lot. Recently, I've realized that more of my friends than I thought really care about like, owning expensive jewelry and designer brands and amassing wealth and I'm just like, who are you. It's just things. We're all gonna be gently toasted by 2030 anyway.
But off that high horse--it was a fun and glitzy movie, had more than a few real laughs, a great cast, a pleasant love story, and it also spoke to immigrant experience and disconnect in a way I really felt. All-POC casts are also just so fucking good.
And it is genuinely different than watching a movie from your country of origin that just naturally has a nonwhite cast in a way that it's hard to articulate not just to non-immigrants, but sometimes to first generation immigrants, I think! I was having this conversation with another South Asian second gen immigrant, and we were talking about how things like people butchering our names hurts us worse than it does our first gen parents--they heard their name said the correct way at least half their lives while for us, someone non-family pronouncing our names right on the first try is the exception rather than the rule. Our connection to the land and culture are so much more tenuous, and we hold onto things tighter.
I also saw To All The Boys I've Loved Before! Some points:
- I did appreciate the double fakeout with Josh
- Peter was still kind of an asshole, but his behavior does seem to be an improvement from other romcoms, I guess? Look, I'm not a het romance movie person. Watching two in a year is wild for me
- Lucas being gay? Cool. The gay love advice thing? Played out (also kinda...played out in Crazy Rich Asians tbh yikes. But I enjoyed the "rainbow sheep" of the family sooo). Her younger sister could have had a cute crush on a girl or something if they wanted to include some LGBT rep without leaning hard on stereotypes.
- Lara Jean having to expend emotional labor on a guy repressing his feelings: -1. What the guy was having feelings about striking home in an oddly painful way for me personally: -10.
- but with that said, I did appreciate her cutting through his macho bullshit
- the message about the pool video!! Yes! "I would never do that, especially not to another woman." Yes.
- I did think Gen was kind of 2D catty. Apart from that one line during the bathroom argument, we didn't really get a sense of why she was being Like That. That scrunchie thing was some Machiavellian shit.
- and on the same note of that scrunchie thing: we were all dumbasses in high school. Simple as hell.
- high school is NOT Like That
With all of that said, I actually really enjoyed the movie, thought Lara Jean was a lot of fun, had a great time during it, even if some of that was being skeptical about everything. That good, good fake dating, huh.
Happy 2019, everyone! Tell me about your resolutions, the year you had and the year you hope to have.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-06 02:43 pm (UTC)My high school was so not like that, haha, but I hear Stories (TM) and I'm like ???
no subject
Date: 2019-01-06 03:22 pm (UTC)I thought it was overall a fun movie, but I do think my enjoyment was increased by being with my friends from high school while I was watching it and poking fun at it together. Our high school did have popular kids, but they were mostly popular just because they were nice? There were some pockets of bullying, but no high school movie has really reflected my experience lol.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-06 04:41 pm (UTC)Hard same on that. Like, you'd think "straight A model student who also, literally, is a model" would be a setup for a bully or at least a Coldly Untouchable HBIC type character in those movies, but I knew a girl like that and she was just low-key and lovely to everyone.