Grace Lee

Watching The Brothers Sun has propelled me to write my first review on the Googz. Acting and storyline were terrible (of course minus the legendary Michelle Yeoh, as well as Blood Boots Brit and Big Sun). Cringed the entire time Alexis/Bruce/Grace were on screen. Writers clearly didn't have a culture consultant - food at the Ghost Meeting was dim sum and peking duck??? Forcing AAs to speak Mandarin also made my ears bleed. The storytelling and plot were sacrificed to explain a confused hodgepodge of Asian culture to the audience, under the guise of Charles educating Bruce. As an AA, I feel like we need to stop reinforcing the tiger mom (as well as kung-fu) stereotype, as these shows give fuel to generic micro-aggressions many of us still encounter. How can one legitimately explain continuing to force Bruce to go to class in a lush, open, public school amidst a triad war?! AA-led media is still 99% about "finding" your culture, executing pristine kung-fu, with a guaranteed scene about taking off your shoes in the home. Imagine if all White-American casted shows were about a life goal to learn how to make the perfect cup of tea, a plot revolving around randomly breaking out into Riverdance, or an entire sequence focusing on buckling up lederhosen while throwing back a stein? I truly hope we can diversify our stories in the near future, as not every AA is a first-gen child of immigrants. Beef was a great example of a nuanced story with an AA cast. For killer triad movies, highly recommend old school HK cinema (A Better Tomorrow onward)!!! 2 stars for some fun fight scenes with Xing, the NASDBOY license plate, and the aesthetics of John Cho's home.