Opinion by Jeff Yang: For us weird Asians, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is a second chance
, the hero of my awkward childhood, who’d become the most famous Asian American kid ever as Short Round in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and as Data in “The Goonies,” and then disappeared.I braced myself for whatever was going to happen, hoping it would be good, or at least not suck. And then, two hours and 19 minutes later, after wiping away tears, I was on my feet applauding.
Each of those films felt like an explosive release of talent and passion, after a century in which people who looked like me often didn’t even get to play people who looked like me — even now, more White actresses have won Oscars for playing Asians than East Asian actresses have been nominated for the Academy Award for best actress — and when they did, usually played second banana, second fiddle or second waiter from the left.
Still, as deep an impact as the movie had on me, I didn’t foresee its blockbuster success. It was too strange, I thought; too different, obscure and absurd. Yes, it made perfect sense to— but I’m a freak. And while I knew many strange, different, obscure and absurd stories were out there in the burgeoning canon of Asian American indie film, they’ve traditionally been treated to festival showcases and critical golf-claps, then ushered out into the rubber room of history.
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