Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) - Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Ke Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis

[Omni Dragon]

8 hours ago, SamSeed said:

As happy as I am that Michelle Yeoh won for this, I'm going to pretend she won for the motorbike stunt in Supercop because that's what really deserved an award.

I'm fairly sure a lot of that stunt was Bruce Law. I get your point though, I'm also going to pretend it was for things like Police Story III, Yes, Madam!, Royal Warriors, Magnificent Warriors etc.

[Gaijin84]

On 12/27/2022 at 6:01 PM, Gaijin84 said:

I’m crossing every finger and toe that Michelle gets the best actress Oscar. That would be an amazing accomplishment and a major step forward for Asian actresses and actors.

Mission accomplished! It was crazy following her Instagram account as she was initially filming this... wasn't a lot of hype around it, more of a fun, quirky movie that the cast had a great time making.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Gaijin84

[Beardys Feather]

5 hours ago, DrNgor said:

I'd like to give a nice colossal F*** YOU (Cantonese: Hum Ka Chaan - 咸(冚) 家鏟) to the (presumably) White Liberal dipshits who referred to Michelle Yeoh as the "first actress who identifies as Asian to win the Best Actress Award". You ignorant dumbasses can go to hell.

Why the anger? I don't get it? I took it to mean that Vivien Leigh and Natalie Portman don't identify as Asian although they technically are. Am I wrong? 

[KUNG FU BOB]

A very original movie that includes exciting and hilarious martial arts and the message "Lets all be kind to each other" was recognized for it's merits. Can we focus on that extremely positive thing instead of somehow being angry or finding some negative aspect of this to fixate on?

[Super Ninja]

18 hours ago, DrNgor said:

Actually, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon won best Foreign Film (plus Best Score, Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography) and some other awards, but Gladiator won Best Picture that year.

 

Thanks for correcting me Doc.

@OpiumKungFuCracker apologies brother, I was too quick to correct you. 

As for this "identifies as Asian" thing, it's gone too far, but I agree with @KUNG FU BOB, the focus should be on the positive here.

[paimeifist]

I dont get the point of this “let’s just focus on the positive” here.

This thread is mostly positive, if a person feels something related to the movie is negative and they want to comment on it - should they not be able to voice that? I think we can still maintain an overall positive feel in spite of that…. Are we only supposed to say the movie is awesome, and share articles that we agree with and make us feel good in relation to it?

Its not like anyone said “let’s all be negative now”, or even started an argument within the forum…. 

I’m honestly not trying to be argumentative here, I just feel that comment from a mod is a bit much, and could make people with differing opinions or who may want to share something here (where they feel they have more in common with our community than in other circles) feel like they aren’t able to. 
 

(For the record, I personally don’t feel that way, and I also didn’t take that comment as being aimed at me)

I know your intention is good @KUNG FU BOB, just giving some food for thought - for what it’s worth….which may be nothing. 🙂

 

Edited March 14, 2023 by paimeifist

[KUNG FU BOB]

2 hours ago, paimeifist said:

I dont get the point of this “let’s just focus on the positive” here.

This thread is mostly positive, if a person feels something related to the movie is negative and they want to comment on it - should they not be able to voice that? I think we can still maintain an overall positive feel in spite of that…. Are we only supposed to say the movie is awesome, and share articles that we agree with and make us feel good in relation to it?

Its not like anyone said “let’s all be negative now”, or even started an argument within the forum…. 

I’m honestly not trying to be argumentative here, I just feel that comment from a mod is a bit much, and could make people with differing opinions or who may want to share something here (where they feel they have more in common with our community than in other circles) feel like they aren’t able to. 
 

(For the record, I personally don’t feel that way, and I also didn’t take that comment as being aimed at me)

I know your intention is good @KUNG FU BOB, just giving some food for thought - for what it’s worth….which may be nothing. 🙂

 

The "point" was to express my opinion/feelings on the matter. Nothing more, nothing less. Not as a mod, just as a human (however, I should've considered that my post could be considered otherwise).

I appreciate your response and completely understand your point of view. And I thank you for your reasonable response.

[Super Ninja]

8 hours ago, paimeifist said:

I dont get the point of this “let’s just focus on the positive” here.

I agreed with this purely in reference to the "race pronounce" related posts, and only in hope this thread don't get sidelined into discussion on the various woke issues. I'm sure many have strong opinions on this matter, myself included. I welcome all comments and articles movie related, positive or negative. 

[Beardys Feather]

I think Bob is right in that we don't need to get into a culture war over a misunderstanding. 

There have been two female winners from the Asian continent already. Nothing to do with pronouns or gender identity. It's always best to understand before getting angry. 

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert): I am back to only missing two Oscar Best Picture winners now (Nomadland, CODA) and while I would not put this as my least favorite BP winner (The Shape of Water or Cimarron) I was not fond of this. 

It has a lot of elements I thought I was going to love like Michelle Yeoh (who I thought gave a good performance), absurdist humor and Kung Fu. But it annoyed me in so many ways. This is a pastiche film. The obvious references are The Matrix (she is The One oh and of course if you have seen Jet Li’s The One then you will recognize a lot of that film here). But you also see a bit (or more) of Men in Black 3 (think Griffin). There is even a Wong Kar-wai scene. But it wears a nihilistic nothing matters attitude while pushing an overused platitude in “Be Kind.” One could make an existentialist film here even with the multiverse. Maybe Woody Allen needs to do that. 

Michelle Yeoh is an overworked co-owner of a laundry mat with a husband (Ke Huy Quan) who is thinking of divorce and a daughter who is a doleful mess –well that universe’s daughter is while taking care of her Dad (James Hong who is still awesome). Meanwhile she is in trouble with the IRS (Jamie Lee Curtis). The multiplex’s daughter is like an evil Jet Li in The One – looking for a mother that is just like her (shades of Red Lights) while destroying everything because of a bagel with everything. One must learn that everything does not belong on a bagel though I could see A1 Sauce. 

For the most part the humor did not work for me. I like absurdism and especially the moleitau of Stephen Chow but found this sometimes crass, more stupid than funny and repetitive. Also, if you need to do an unexpected absurdist thing to jump universes – would the unexpected become the expected? Hot dog fingers? Where's Doctor Strange? 

But I am also tired of comic book movie alternate universe timelines. It has been overused already (X-Men helped push this) and then beaten to death by the MCU. It is a novel idea (also popularized by Michael Crichton’s Timeline (1999)) that becomes uninteresting because there are not limited possibilities, but unlimited. In this film, every choice is a fragmentation (as opposed to some theories where only certain choices cause fragmentation). And with the Butterfly Effect pushed to choices this, of course, can lead to a googolplex of universes. Much more than what you would see in this film.  

Side note: pay attention to how the Cantonese and Mandarin are used here. Hong speaks Cantonese and not Mandarin for example. 

With an overused plotline, some annoying characters (though two good lead characters), too many butt plugs, humor that grated on me and a wishy-washy philosophy I found this to be just an OK film. 

[DrNgor]

39 minutes ago, masterofoneinchpunch said:

I am back to only missing two Oscar Best Picture winners now (Nomadland, CODA) and while I would not put this as my least favorite BP winner (The Shape of Water or Cimarron) I was not fond of this. 

One of my former favorite podcasters once said that the "worst" movie to win Best Picture was The Greatest Show on Earth. Why didn't you like The Shape of Water?

[laagi]

Kind of weird to think that Stephanie Hsu is going from THIS to whatever the hell this is below...

 

[masterofoneinchpunch]

30 minutes ago, DrNgor said:

One of my former favorite podcasters once said that the "worst" movie to win Best Picture was The Greatest Show on Earth. Why didn't you like The Shape of Water?

The Greatest Show on Earth has its points.  It really has to do with how you feel about Cecil B. DeMille.  The production is grand and everything is dialed up, but it works in its way.  However, I do need to rewatch and it is NOT in my top half of Oscar BP winners.

The Shape of Water was so annoying in it's use of politics that it went past didactic.  Some scenes like Michael Shannon's "Americuh" was so blinding stupid that it made me miss the more subtle Communist writers of Hollywood's age (who could actually write three-dimensional characters).  No one was a human being in the movie -- only archetypes.

[WangYu]

This movie was tiresome and confusing for me. By the final hour I just couldn’t care any longer about what was happening.

Maybe I needed subtitles, I’m used to subtitles

[Yihetuan]

I mentioned in another thread that I felt this movie didn't deserve an Oscar and it left me cold & I couldn't figure out all the plaudits and accolades it was receiving. I'm glad I'm in good company!