Candid and Cringe

Ep. 012
===

[00:00:00] Thuy Doan: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Candid and Cringe, a podcast about growth and the rollercoaster of life. Today's episode is called Everything Everywhere All at Once. If you think it sounds like slash is totally the same as the name of the movie, it is. And, it's very much on purpose. I watched this movie recently and it did seem to get some traction on social media, but it seems more like, um, like a cult favorite then something that blew up.

[00:00:53] So for example, Squid Game I feel like that was a show that was like, it was on Netflix. It was very [00:01:00] popular. People were like, have you watched Squid Game? You, you should watch Squid Game. And like everybody had watched Squid Game more or less. But, with Everything Everywhere All at Once, it operates more on social media.

[00:01:14] Like people tweeting: if you haven't watched Everything Everywhere All at Once, you should. How come people aren't talking about Everything Everywhere All at Once? It's so great. It's more like that. It feels more like a hidden gem or like this thing that people would reject, but is actually like awesome once you watch it.

[00:01:33] So I finally watched it. Back in, I think December was when I saw a clip... promoting it. And that's when I sent it to my partner. And I was like, this seems interesting. Maybe we should watch it. But, we didn't really end up watching it until I think six months later. And this is the podcast to comment on it. Not necessarily to review, but to comment on it [00:02:00] because I had

[00:02:01] very mixed feelings slash thoughts about it. And, I wanted to unpack that in this episode. Now, because it is an, a podcast episode that comments... it's commentary on Everything Everwhere All at Once, there will be spoilers slash I can't promise that there won't be any spoilers. So if you intend to watch it and

[00:02:28] you don't like spoilers, I wouldn't continue past this point. Watch it first and then come back. But, this is your explicit spoiler warning. Okay. So Everything Everywhere All at Once is a movie with leading actress... and by the way, I did try really hard to find the proper pronunciation of the leading actress's name.

[00:02:57] So, you might know it in [00:03:00] terms of how it's spelled. It's spelled Michelle, Y E O H. And the average person in North America might pronounce that as yo. Or maybe even Yay-Oh or Yee-Oh. But, I went on YouTube to try to find interviews where she introduces herself, but couldn't really find any. And instead I found a video that... it's like Chinese teacher breaks down Michelle's Mandarin.

[00:03:32] So I felt like I could trust this person on the correct pronunciation of Michelle's name. So let me listen to that briefly and say what her name is. Michelle Yoong. So the leading actress of Everything Everywhere All at Once is Michelle Yoong. Her full Chinese... the, the full Chinese pronunciation of her name is [00:04:00] Yang Zi Qiong

[00:04:03] Yang Ziqiong. I do not speak Mandarin or Cantonese and I'm not Chinese, so that is my best pronunciation of it. Saying the name right after someone who does speak the language said the name. So you tell me. If you speak the language, how was that? But, uh, yes, Michelle Yeoh. Michelle Yeoh. So the leading actress is Michelle Yeoh.

[00:04:29] How would I describe this movie? Or how would I briefly summarize this movie? It's a sci-fi movie, but it's set in the life of a woman named Michelle. Well, the actress's name is Michelle. I actually forget what her name is in the movie. Anyways. So this woman, her and her husband own a laundromat. They have a strained relationship and a strained business, [00:05:00] and they're currently going through tax season and they're having a really hard time coming up with the paperwork, uh, for their business ... as they're getting audited.

[00:05:10] Okay. While they're going through this tax debacle, this whole like alternate universe sci-fi thing unfolds. This lady finds out that her partner is like, not necessarily that he is able to travel the multiverse, but someone, one of his other versions is able to enter his body. And tell her about stuff that's happening in the multiverse slash teach her how to harness her powers and jump between her other selves and other universes by jumping into this guy's body.

[00:05:47] Okay. And this exposes this lady to how life could be in other places, in other universes, how her life could have [00:06:00] been different if things in her life had diverged. Like what if she hadn't married her husband? Right. What if she had become an actress, which was her former dream? Uh, what if in another universe she was married to a lady and had hot dogs for fingers?

[00:06:19] Yes. That was a universe. In a nutshell, uh, that's what the movie is about. There are other interspersing, um, story lines that I think have largely to do with family and empathy and compassion. A major story arc of the movie is this lady's, Michelle's character's, relationship with her daughter. She has a young adult daughter who is dating a woman, but they have a hard time

[00:06:59] accepting [00:07:00] that slash sharing that news with other members of their family, such as their grandfather, the main character's dad, because he's like old school. And in my opinion, intolerant as shit. And how, you know, as a result of her daughter's sadness, there's other versions of her, ultimate being of her, that's also like really sad, but also very powerful and chaotic and wants to like unalive slash ruin the world.

[00:07:29] And this movie kind of wraps up with them better understanding each other slash

[00:07:42] I think to it's a little bit more than tolerating, but coming to terms with the fact that they're gonna have difficult patches in their relationship and how that affects their relationship, their family's relationship, her relationship with her husband [00:08:00] and also the multiverse. So that was a recap. Next, I wanna talk about some standout scenes for me.

[00:08:09] As I watched it in general, I felt like the movie was really slow in the first half, but once she started getting the hang of jumping between her alternates and alternate universes, harnessing the powers, it got way more, the pacing was much more engaging. It was a lot faster. There was more action. And I generally am like a superhero multiverse kind of girl.

[00:08:36] So I really like that. Memorable scenes for me. Some of them hit just on a human level. Some of them hit because there are things that I've encountered in my you... Personal youth. Some of them were just, wow, that's a spectacle. On the subject of spectacle, the alternate universe [00:09:00] where everybody has hot dogs for fingers.

[00:09:04] That is just, that really made me think, like, man, this writer, how do they think of that? And why hot dogs? For me, like I grew up eating hotdogs, like as my main lunch, like hotdog and baloney. So I was just kind of like, awesome the processed meat of my youth. But, I wonder why hotdogs? Other moments that were memorable for me were the daughter struggling to find acceptance and support in her mother

[00:09:44] and feeling the pressure to not upset other members of her family, but also like, why can't you just accept me? I felt that. I felt that. I've had those own moments with my parents, namely my, my dad. My [00:10:00] grandma was real traditional, but I didn't need her acceptance, but it was very annoying that everything that you did, it was just like, ah, scandalous.

[00:10:09] It was really cool to see what random, what random triggers they came up with to initiate jumping worlds. So in the movie they made it so that like the person who wanted to jump universes would have to do something random. Something specific, but random, in order to initiate the jump. So I can't remember...

[00:10:39] oh, the one that I remember is the trigger was they had to impale themselves, like their asshole, they had to impae their asshole on like an object. I can't remember if it had to be a phallic object or if it just had to be an object, but that was one of them. I feel like licking the [00:11:00] floor might have been one

[00:11:02] but I can't remember any other triggers, but I do remember as I was going through it, I'm like, man, like, how did you come up with this random trigger? Like, did you just all sit in a circle one day and was like, give it to me. Like do some random stuff, like gimme some random ideas. What's a random action?

[00:11:19] So that was interesting. It was also very cool how powerful the alternate version of the daughter was. She was OP. Like she could have like wrecked everybody but the power of love saved her. Speaking of the power of love, possibly my favorite scene is when they ended up, and by they, I mean the main character ... the mom.

[00:11:49] So her and the evil version of her daughter ended up in an alternate universe where everybody was a rock. And in this universe, it seemed to only just be [00:12:00] them. So they were both rocks sitting on the edge of a cliff. Everything is peaceful, everything is quiet and they just kind of talk in rock thoughts.

[00:12:10] I found that to be very... meditative. Calm. Like conveying presence, stillness, acceptance. That one was particularly beautiful for me. The one that grew on me later was the hot dog world. I was really grossed out by it at first, but we'll get into why that, that is. Why it grew on me. So those were my most memorable scenes.

[00:12:37] When I finished the movie. My, my initial takeaway was, I don't know how I feel about this movie because by the end, and maybe even a couple times throughout the movie, I did cry and crying does get media brownie points [00:13:00] because it's an obvious sign that I was affected by the material. By the art. And yet I also found myself being like, I don't know what this, the conclusion of this movie is supposed to be, but I'm feeling like I reject the conclusion.

[00:13:17] And I think that's because the first time when I watched it for the first time, I mean, I've only watched it one time, but when I finished watching it and... the mom reconciled... had reconciled with the daughter, I felt like the movie was telling me like. Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, even though you don't like your aunt or your grandma, or sometimes you tussle with this and that person and your family, you should make up and be a family.

[00:13:51] And I just did not like that conclusion because I, in my core, do not [00:14:00] believe that to be true. I do not believe that you should reconcile and keep together relationships just because you are a blood family. I fully subscribed to the fact that if it is not good for you, if it is not worth it, I'm not saying if... I'm not talking about a relationship that's completely free of turmoil and struggle and sad times. I'm not talking about that.

[00:14:26] I'm talking about a relationship that is not worth all of that. If there is such a relationship in a family, I fully subscribe to the idea that you should cut ties with those people. And I didn't like that the movie seemed to be saying that to me (that I should make up with people whose relationships I don't find worth it). It was like, ah, so I sat through all of this random shit. Cool shit, emotional shit

[00:14:53] just to come to this conclusion that I don't like. So on top of that, kind of like, [00:15:00] mm, you could call it cognitive, cognitive dissonance. I also found myself confused. Like what, what, what were you trying to tell me? Right. So in those cases, I like to, I usually don't care about like reviews and quote, uh, reviews or conspiracy theories or all of that stuff.

[00:15:22] But depending on what I'm seeking after a movie, sometimes it's clarity. Sometimes it's extending the hype train. Like, for example, if I, I really like something I like to watch. Peoples' first reactions to it in, in order to kind of relive that like hype that I got the first time I watched it. But in this case it was more like, I need clarity.

[00:15:42] I need someone to tell me what the, this was about. I found an article that breaks down the movie. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go through it and comment on each of the parts that it breaks down. So I found an [00:16:00] article by the Los Angeles Times. It's called Everything Everywhere All at Once: Explained - Hot Dog Hands, Empathy Challenges, and Meaning in the Absurd.

[00:16:10] And it's that scene where the main character Michelle's main character has the googly eye on her forehead and she's going Kung Fu on people's asses. Okay. First part it says, "the meta... the metaverse as a metaphor for internet overload." Interesting. Did not think of that as a commentary on too much internet.

[00:16:35] "Written in 2016, Everything Everywhere was in part a product of the contradictions and emotional whiplash of being very online. At the time the internet had started to create these alternate universes. We were for the first time realizing how scary the internet was moving from this techno optimism to this techno terror."

[00:16:56] Interesting. I've not, I'm not saying the internet is all fun and games, [00:17:00] uh, but techno terror? Mmm. "I think this movie was us trying to grapple with that chaos." So the metaverse as a metaphor for internet overload. Okay. So how do I feel about the internet? There's people out there. And I wanna specifically name boomers as the people who don't like the internet, but there's people out there who think the internet is basically Satan and that people should go outside and touch grass.

[00:17:32] As the Twitter people say. Yes, I do agree that nature and moving your body and getting vitamin D is great. No question about that. But personally, I have found release and connection and knowledge. Look at me getting emotional about the internet, um, in the internet. So personally, [00:18:00] I think the internet has been of more value than not.

[00:18:06] Yes. There are terrible things that happen on the internet. Like underage kids getting preyed upon by creepy ass people, adults, trying to throw around their power and take advantage of kids. But I met some of the best people over my top interest in life, on the internet. I've learned a lot about myself on the internet and I'm on the internet, well I'm on my phone, like eight hours a day, no regrets,

[00:18:39] and I'm still leading a healthy, active lifestyle. So that's how I feel about the internet. Let's continue on. The next explained portion of the movie by the Los Angeles Times: Asian American immigrant Heroes. So here, I'm gonna try and summarize now [00:19:00] unless, um, I really need to quote, but they're saying that they, they didn't purposely try to make a film around immigrant heroes, but there are dynamics from, you know, Chinese American families that naturally made it that way.

[00:19:17] And by, I guess, wrapping the story in a scifi sci-fi multiverse package, they were able to go deeper into the story, into the immigrant perspective and share this like notion of what if. What if my life went this way, what if my life went that way? The tie in with what the whole, what if tie in with an immigrant perspective is like for anyone really that had to upend their life and move somewhere else?

[00:19:51] The article says, "So the multiverse was supposedly a perfect place for them to explore that. Especially with a middle aged immigrant [00:20:00] person who had a long life, uh, to look back on all their regrets." I, by way of my parents, kind of get that because both my parents were immigrants. They gave up a lot to come here and I'm sure sometimes they would've thought like, what if I didn't immigrate to Canada?

[00:20:20] Like, what if I hadn't met my partner? What if I had ended up like, never getting sponsored to move over to any country? What if I was like a forever refugee? What if I died on in the sea, you know, or on the ocean? The next part that's that they mentioned in this immigrant perspective is the family dynamic.

[00:20:44] They said it's interesting because before you even get into the sci-fi, um, they're already in different worlds figuratively because they just speak past each other. Here as a direct quote, it says, "There's even something about Evelyn and [00:21:00] Joy (the mom and the daughter) conversing as rocks overlooking the Grand Canyon that feels distinctly Asian American." I'm Canadian.

[00:21:09] I mean, I'm Asian Canadian, you know, but similar experience. It continue on... continues on to say, "We don't wanna say the things we actually want to say." Very common in Asian, ethnic upbringings. The cultural difference is so huge. The generation gap is so huge. And when you have an extra layer of like religion versus not, that's even worse.

[00:21:33] So it says, "We don't wanna say the things we actually wanna say, let's do it as rocks, but silently." Okay. So we can talk about, um, difficulty saying what needs to be said and common practice to put aside like differences. Sometimes it's for the better. Sometimes it's not. The other part that it says here that we can also talk about is the [00:22:00] fact that there's this... a kiss between the parents in the end.

[00:22:03] It's... continues to say that it's powerful because in our upbringing, my family upbringing, Asian upbringings, there is not a lot of openly physical affection. There... and I'm not saying all families are this way, but on the whole, it's not common for you to say, I love you. It's not common for you to hug each other.

[00:22:25] It's not common to see your parents kiss in public. They're probably like in the rooms all again, all frisky uh, out of the public eye, as you should. So let's talk about that. The first part is we don't wanna say the things we actually wanna say. One thing that stands out to me and my upbringing is the fact that my parents were religious.

[00:22:51] I, I mean, I grew up religious too. Like I grew up Catholic. Uh, we went to church, I think I had a Bible. [00:23:00] I had a rosary, you know, we prayed, I learned prayers, but at some point I got to this place where I was like... the indoctrination man, the brainwashing. And not to say that faith has no place in this world, but it was just like, I kind of was forced into it realized that, Hey, I don't really subscribe to this.

[00:23:22] Uh, I believe in something I guess, or at least I hope that there's something beyond this life, but do I gotta ha... go to church to do this? To have a spiritual connection with this universe? Ah, I don't really, uh, believe in that. So there was this, uh, moment, or I guess a series of moments where it was like, do I tell my parents, I don't wanna go to church. And it wasn't just me too.

[00:23:49] It was, uh, uh, me and my siblings. Do I wanna go to church? The TLDR is at some point, um, [00:24:00] we were able to have this conversation about that difference. I was able, well, I still fibbed. But essentially, I, I had the opportunity to tell my parents, Hey, like I really go to church or have been going to church or whatever, more so out of habit, you know, because this is what we've been doing as a family.

[00:24:21] But like personally in my soul, I don't really believe. I don't think I'm a bad person 'cause I don't believe in God. Um, sometimes I pray in times of desperation. Like if you got sick. Yeah. I'd pray. But it was a, it was a really tough thing to breach because it was such a difference in core values. And even though you don't think of yourself as a bad person, you still wish that your parents accept you, even if you don't need it.

[00:24:57] You know? So [00:25:00] yeah. There was a time where we had a conversation where. I said to my dad about some topic, I was like, you know, I'm glad that we got to talk about, about it, about this, because I sincerely thought I would have to take this to my grave and that we might have the kind of relationship where it would just not be good that you were at my wedding.

[00:25:25] And, you know, we all cried together. It was a moment of understanding and such. But, the possible future where you and your parents might not have a relationship, especially if you love each other, is really tough. But thankfully we were able to talk about it. And I guess like, this is what happened in the movie.

[00:25:52] They almost like destroy the world as a, as a re you know, in the process. But by the end they kind of have that whole, like, [00:26:00] it's gonna be tough for us to understand each other, but I wanna do this thing. So yeah, I get it. The other thing in the article that, uh, that they talked about was the fact that the parents kiss. And I guess how meaningful it is because of the lack of outward affection in this case, physical affection, in many

[00:26:26] asian families. I, I, I relate to this. Um, growing up, there was a lot of love, but the L the, it was the kind of love that manifested itself in acts of service. Like, you know, you wake up to your car getting wiped off, like, like for example, my dad wakes up at like five, six to go to work. Uh, let's say it snowed that night, and he knows that you are going to school that day and you need the car.

[00:26:56] He'll clean off the car for you. You know, that type of type of thing, or [00:27:00] like. Oh, Hey, I'll help you take the car to the oil change or I'll bring the car for car wash. That type of stuff. Or like, you need me to get anything like, you know, do you, do you need help with any like school supplies? Yada, yada, like, you know, my dad was a provider.

[00:27:16] My parents were providers. But out, oh, and obviously like, feeding you and stuff, which was one of the great things. But, things like hugs and kisses and I love you? Scarce. Scarce. It wasn't until, um, I became an adult and moved out and was able to further develop on my own, and my parents were able to further develop on their own without their oldest child in the house,

[00:27:48] did I think we had more, I guess, room for expanding the way that we show each other [00:28:00] affection. And I think that's in part influenced by the fact that my partner's family is very outwardly affectionate. So like my, my, my partner's family is the type that says, I love you all the time on the phone. My partner

[00:28:15] and I say, I love you before we leave each other, um, all the time. And I basically only do that because he does it. And that caused me to introduce that to my own family. So now we say, I love you to each other, or at least we try, but, uh, I guess the only, it's still a compromise. So we'll say I love you, but like, we have to say it in a funny voice or else it's too serious.

[00:28:41] So we'll be like love yew or something like that. Or if we write it, it's gonna be, I wuv you. Uh, or you send like a Facebook messenger sticker bear with hearts, instead of saying it. That's kind of what we do. Well, like another way that I [00:29:00] tried to like, expand that level of affection with my parents, without it being like mega serious is I'd hit my parents with like some pickup line stuff.

[00:29:10] Like not gross. It's more like I tell my mom that she was the, what was the phrase? Like you're like the sunshine of my life or something like that. Like something real cringe. Uh, but like in laughing together, it was like cute. That sort of stuff. Let's move on from Asian American immigrant perspective onto the next part of this explained article. It says a generational divide. Amen.

[00:29:43] So there's a, it states here that there's a misunderstanding between Evelyn and Joy, the mom and the daughter, the... Joy's alter ego, the super OP one, "has channeled her pain into a burning desire to implode the multiverse with the black [00:30:00] hole." That's extra shit. Um, it says here that the creator of the movie.

[00:30:06] Resonated with this because hi, their parents struggled to fully comprehend their career paths. Listen, I'm, I'm not even like a musician or anything. Like I, I went to school for business and then pivoted to, uh, computer programming. And my dad wasn't even able to comprehend that, you know, because to him it was like, Business. So much... like you can be your own boss.

[00:30:35] You can have so much freedom. You can make so much money. Like, like the ceiling is really high in business. The floor is also very low, but to him, it's just like, there's so much flexibility, so much creation. Like why, why do you wanna do computer programming? And on top of that, like why do you wanna do it?

[00:30:55] And only go to school for like 10 weeks for it? Like. [00:31:00] What a gamble. My, my dad didn't get it. The article continues on to say, "seeing his own mother expand her comfort level with each phase of their career inspire the ways in which the mom and the movie must continue to grow, to accept the multitudes that joy contains, including her queer identity."

[00:31:21] Emotional. The writer goes on to say, "This is in some ways my way of saying thank you to my mom for constantly allowing space for the unexpected parts of us to exist in her worldview." This is interesting. Why? Because I'm a pretty rigid person to be very honest. I, not that everything needs to be exactly the way that I want it, but I, if things... I have a small window of tolerance.

[00:31:55] And in areas where compromise is good, it's really tough for me, [00:32:00] but in areas where you need to make a really tough, really fast decision, it's very good for me. So let's make sure I said that right. Former situation. In every day compromises, me having a small window of tolerance is... makes things difficult for me, but when I need to make a hard and fast decision, it's great for me.

[00:32:23] So, this is what I mean. It is very easy for me to cut off friends. I don't care how long I've known this person. To cut off family, to cut off coworkers, to not take sh*t from my boss or whoever. My mother-in-law. My aunt or whoever. If that person is toxic as shit. Or if they move in this world or have a worldview, or have such a large influence on me that I cannot have them [00:33:00] in my life.

[00:33:01] No problem. You're out.

[00:33:05] That rigidity though makes it difficult for when I clash with people who I do wanna have a relationship with because I'm impatient and I'm just like, well, we're gonna accept this or we're not. When in reality, it's more like, okay, let me take the time to understand how you feel. Let me take the time to explain to you how I feel.

[00:33:25] Is there a way that we can, and, and in my better moments, this is what I can do. Is there a way that you can see and understand what I think and feel without actually having to accept it as a way of life? Yeah. So this section is called Three Words: Hot Dog Hands. This probably refers to the fact that in the movie, Evelyn jumps to a universe where everybody has hotdogs, like the [00:34:00] Schneider's red, hot wieners, like not the big ones that you would put on a grill.. The skinny wieners that you'd put in a hot dog roll, except they're kind of long because they're fingers in this universe.

[00:34:14] I didn't catch this when I watched it. But in this section, it talks about how, because she jumps to a universe that is very, very much not like her own, "rigid Evelyn," and I'm quoting here, "rigid evelyn is forced to rethink her worldview." It says they wanted to come up with a universe that's the biggest empathy challenge.

[00:34:39] You know, what was the toughest universe that was gonna make Evelyn think that the multiverse is gibberish when she first visits it and by the end can make her and the audience care about that universe." They go on to say, "You know, it's such a stupid idea. A five year old ha... has probably thought of this. Oh, they look like fingers.

[00:34:58] The real difference is that we took the time to be [00:35:00] like, in a world of hotdog hands, what is the beautiful story there? Love, of course." So if I recall in that universe, people have hotdogs for hands. So for example, I think one of the people depicted in that universe is a piano player and they end up playing with their feet.

[00:35:18] That's a way of looking at it, uh, from the lens of beauty. Another thing in that universe is E Evelyn is actually married or partnered with a woman in her original universe who she hates. And in this hot dog universe, you see them in love. They live together, possibly married. And I think at some point they get real horny about each other.

[00:35:44] Um, and that or they have sex on screen, but because they're in a hot dog universe, I think they just squirt mustard on each other. That... was that anyone else's [00:36:00] interpretation? Because I took it very sexually. However, as they say, this universe was meant to challenge your worldview. And now that I think about it, I'm like, all right, like in a world that's really different.

[00:36:15] How could you, how could this be seen as beautiful? How could you grow to love it? And I think Evelyn got to that place. And I guess I'm getting to that place by reading this explained article. Moving on to the next part: Raccacoonie. Interesting. I did not think of the Raccacoonie thing as significant, although that may be because I watched Ratatouille

[00:36:41] after I watched this movie. "Maxing out the concept of Everything Everywhere, they posited that if the multiverse is infinite, then every movie exists in its own universe." I do have fantasies about this, where I'm like, what if I existed in the Naruto universe? What if I [00:37:00] existed in the Avatar: the Last Airbender universe?

[00:37:02] What if I was a Bleach character? You know what if I was in Beyblade? All animes. Interesting. I don't think there's anything that deep in here. This might have been just fun. Moving on to the next one. Jobu Tupaki. Let's see, they say, "What's in a name? Maybe it doesn't mean anything at all and maybe that's probably the point. This person, this all powerful, Jobu Tupaki,

[00:37:26] who's, you know, hellbent on destroying everything, supposedly the right nonsensical moniker for this, this person." It had a backstory in a previous draft. So there's not much to say depth wise about the name stuff in this article, but I can provide commentary on what I think about my own name. Is a name important?

[00:37:54] I think so. Or at least am I attached to my name? I am attached to my name. [00:38:00] When I was in high school. I came up with the first username that I've ever loved, that I still love and used to this day and once put on a t-shirt. And that is clearly, Thuy Doan. My full name, plus a, uh, spunky little something, some in the front.

[00:38:23] That was my, Myspace username. And ever since then, it's been my, uh, me on all my social media names. Um, and it has carried into my professional life too. So like on slack at work, I am clearly Thuy Doan. What about my first name? I've always been attached to my first name as far as I know, even though I never remember what it means.

[00:38:50] Like, I'm certain, my mom has told me what it meant, but I've just never committed that to memory. If someone asks me like, oh, like what does your name mean? I don't f*cking know. I [00:39:00] just know I like it. And I know that it's the only name that I identify with. I also really am attached to my last name. Um, I guess that's maybe because my name has always been Thuy Doan.

[00:39:11] So the thought that that would change just because I, uh, love someone and am married to them because of the institution and the patriarchy making it so. Nah, I'm staying Thuy Doan, even into marriage. If I get married. And then what else what's to say about a name? Oh, yeah. It's, I've read somewhere. I don't remember where it was, but I read somewhere that it's the word.

[00:39:43] It's the phrase that people are the most attuned to like less than, Hey, Hey, you, you know, it's. You say your name, even if you're an actor trying to, I've seen actors, you know, they're in a prank [00:40:00] and they're trying to pretend to be somebody they're not, you know, to prank somebody. And as soon as you catch 'em unawares, if you call them by their name, it's, it's really hard to fight against that knee jerk reaction to your name because that's your name. That's your identity.

[00:40:16] I think the second most unique and beautiful thing to a name is a person's handwriting. It's just so like. Yeah. Those people out there that forge people's handwriting, and I think that's, a great craft in and of itself. An art, shall we say? But a person's handwriting is so unique down to like, do you favor angular

[00:40:40] letters? Do you like rounded? If you do rounded, how rounded are they? Are your letters pretty square? Are they boxy? Are they long? Are you a cursive kind of person? Do you always connect every part of the letter? I don't. It's just so awesome. Next part, going [00:41:00] meta with the casting. So before they casted Michelle Yeoh, they wrote a universe where Evelyn was an MMA fighter.

[00:41:10] And that is because, oh, it seems like they wanted to do like a wink wink. Michelle Yeoh is a real life, has a real life career with martial arts. If I'm not mistaken, I think she was in Hidden Tiger Crouching Dragon. I'm sorry if I got that name wrong because I literally only watched it in the last three years.

[00:41:33] So just a, just a nod, wink, wink. That kind of reminds me haven't they done that in a Marvel movie? I wouldn't put it past them where it's like they cast somebody in a role it's very related to that. Actor's other role or maybe an actor played multiple superheroes in the same universe. I feel like there's something like that.

[00:41:57] Next part, Everything [00:42:00] Everywhere All at Once in a Book. They wrote, "I'm bummed when a movie has science fiction, but doesn't go into the science at all or actively brushes over it." Interesting. So kind of like if a, if a movie was about time travel, but they totally threw aside all time travel logic. So they wanted to put science fiction, like real science, but they couldn't fit it.

[00:42:27] Wow. That's it? That was kind of anti-climatic. The second half of this article doesn't really mean much. Interesting. All right. That was our full, very full episode for Everything Everywhere All at Once. It included a recap of the movie. It included me talking about memorable moments from the movie to me, and then going through the most significant parts of the Los [00:43:00] Angeles Times explained article for the movie.

[00:43:06] That's it. That was a, an arguably cult, favorite movie called Everything Everywhere All at Once. Thanks for listening everyone. I hope the people that enjoy this movie enjoy this commentary. Please let me know what you thought of the movie. Do you think more people should watch it? I also feel like not a lot of people watched it, but the people that did watch it really liked it.

[00:43:31] So let me know. That's it. I'm Thuy. Have a great day, everyone. Toodalaoo! And when you feel like crying, let it out, let the tears flow. As I did on this episode. Sniffles and all mood swings and all look. We're upbeat at the end of the episode. Have a great day. Bye![00:44:00]