Is This Disney Movie What Young Asians Need To See?

Will Disney's new movie Chain Can Dunk be an inspiring hit for the young Asian-American community or will it be cringy? And also, why does it seem like stories about Chinese people always are so wholesome and cheesy? Oh, man, we got to talk about it. So many people message us and they're like, please, can you give us our hot takes? You know, on Chain Can Dunk, the trailer just dropped. Andrew, I would say the reactions were more possibly even negative than positive. But I will say three things first, Andrew Nelson's in the film doing some background work and some stunt work. You do know the director of this film. I met him before. And basically, I am going to tell my nephews to watch this film because it's still going to be positive Asian-American male representation. But all that being said, Andrew, we're about to break down the film just based off the trailer that we've seen and get through some of the reactions and obviously get to the big question, Andrew, why does so much Chinese-American content seem like it's so cheesy? So make sure you like subscribe, turn on your notifications, man. And let's just get into it. All right. So first off, guys, I want to say it's a Disney movie. And I know that the trailer probably didn't do a good job. I think the trailer is underselling the movie personally. Yeah, there's some good parts of the trailer, too. And there's some good aspects of the cast and the vibes. I think like the language being used in some of the jokes, I can see that there's going to be some fun moments. I will say that it looks cheesy in a sense, but you have to understand, one, this is a Disney movie and Disney movies always have a lot of messages. They always do. They weave in message. They weave in culture. They weave in family values. They weave in adolescence, masculinity, who knows high school dynamics. They always talk about it in these movies. And that's what Disney movies are really good at. Also, I also don't think this movie is really meant for a lot of the people commenting. I think due to social media, we see the trailer of this movie getting posted on all these accounts that we as like older people follow. However, if this was a world without social media, I would have never even seen this trailer. But inevitably, it is going to be lumped into the Asian-American representation movement, right? Because, you know, as much as there's been an increase in Asian-American projects getting greenlit, it is still very rare for them to get big budgets, let alone from studios like Disney and let alone being about a Chinese guy trying to dunk. Obviously, there may be some multi-global market considerations in the sense of they're trying to import this movie into China as well. Yeah, I guess, David, what's before we get into breaking it down, which there are some pretty funny comments about this movie, at least about the trailer. Well, what did the director say about it? Just so everybody knows, because we're going to give it a fair shake. He basically said in a town where there aren't a lot of Asian-American families, sometimes you don't know why people are treating you a certain way. And that's why the dunking was so important, because there's an objective goal. It doesn't matter how people perceive you or you perceive yourself. It's just whether you can or you cannot, because long story short, it's about a 16 year old kid, Andrew. He's in the band. He's a nerdy Chinese kid. He likes this hot chick in his band. But then there's this like, you know, cocky, white, Mack McClung dunking jock who challenges him. And he's just like, you know what? I'm not going to be this like low status, low SMV guy in high school anymore. I'm so sick of it. I mean, dunking is just a vehicle for him to change. So I think that's really what it's about, even though the dunking aspect seems silly. But yeah, I mean, you got to think about it. If you saw some little band geek, right? And then he just starts rapping all of a sudden. You're just gonna be like, oh, wow, this is not the kid that I thought he was. Or if all of a sudden he just walks up in gym classes and then just off a two feet dunks it, you're going to be like, oh, this kid's different. You know, it would change your perception of him. Some people said immediately, Andrew, why does it seem like a Disney version of Boogie? And then they had a bunch of pictures that like really matched it up. Shot for shot. I was like, oh, yeah, there's definitely some similarities. Yeah, yeah. Well, Boogie's like the hood grown up version of Cenk and Dunk. Yeah, logical. OK, yeah, I get I get the comparison. What else do people say? Some people said, I don't know, man, it looks like a low budget Netflix teen movie. Man, does Disney really make this? Yeah, maybe not all Disney movies have the same budget. But I mean, I thought it looks OK. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe they could have shot it in L.A. and like maybe made him actually competing with Mac McClung for like the starting spot. You know what I mean? Like maybe that he didn't have to make it as like star contrast. Maybe I don't know. They could have filmed it in South Pasadena. Maybe you you'll start producing movies, David, and then you go produce it all in L.A. and save a bunch of money and then pay for this and that. Yeah, I could do it. I don't know. I have the skill set. Somebody said looks cool, but only for kids, though. Maybe for something somebody kids like K through eight, you know, up to 14 years old. Yeah, no, I mean, I think that's mostly who it's for. And then, of course, there were the troll comments. Basically, somebody said, why not just make a Jeremy Lin biopic instead of doing this weird Wal-Mart version of it? So you look at all these oldies commenting on this Disney movie, man. The funniest one, though, was the yeah, I like the part where he ate dumplings and then karate chopped the bully. That's goofy. Somebody said this feels sort of weird and awkward, almost like a troll parody of like a teen inspirational movie and not an actual inspirational movie because there were so many parts that seemed like hyper unrealistic. I mean, dude, it's a Disney movie. Like if you watch any of these Disney movies, which I actually enjoy them. Luck of the Irish. Wendy Woo Woman Warrior starring Brenda Song. These these movies I watch back, Brink, Johnny Tsunami, classics. Like if you watch the trailer right now, you'd like probably think it's kind of cheesy, too. But when you watched it at that time in your life, you took so much away from it. Right. Disney movies are primarily designed to probably what? Have enough depth that the parents watching it with the kid, they appreciate it. And then the kid can appreciate it, whether they catch the message or not. What I would have liked to see in the trailer, though, is some Asian parents. I think the parents dynamic filial piety is always a good one. And yeah, I mean, I think there's some things missing of the trailer, even though the trailer is like two and a half minutes long. Somebody said, why does the guy have to be kind of like a stereotypical Asian nerd that's just like not cool, even though he's trying to be cool? Why couldn't he be? He have been like a band kid and a good student and actually been cool and just trying to balance it all and then compete with the white guy. Well, yeah, exactly. Everybody's no one's going to be happy, man. Dude, you're going to change the antagonist. Oh, it's not a white basketball player. It's a back basketball game. And then everybody's been like, oh, this is why it's the same man. There's always comments. All right, Andrew, let's get into the takeaways, I guess. Why is Chinese American content? And I'm not saying don't watch this. Watch Can Can done, by the way. Why does it always seem like it's kind of like made for a church leader, valedictorian model minority Chinese guy? Because obviously everybody knows that's the stereotype of the Chinese American culture, even more than other Asians. I think all Asians have it. But like particularly Chinese Americans, this embrace of the model minority myth. Obviously, he's trying to break free from it in this piece, though. But like, why does it seem like whether it's fresh off the boat or ABC, which is this new American born Chinese, even though it's got all the stars in it? It's always based around this kid who's like, yeah, I'm a straight A student. I'm not cool at school, but I want to be more. What if I had a different life where I was the monkey king? Actually, ABC and Disney, they're all the same company. Oh, so I guess maybe it's a Disney thing. You know what I mean? Or is it a reality thing? Well, and a Disney thing is trying to get multi global markets and they have censorship or whatever. I think that it fits. I think a lot of Chinese families do fit into that stereotype. I do think a lot of Chinese backgrounds. I think Chinese people generally are pretty conservative. Of course, we all know if you know enough Chinese people, you know that the other side of Chinese, there is a street side. There is a more, you know, boogie kind of tries to reference some people's parents are like actual gangsters. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Amongst other things, you know what I mean? So but that's just not something that I think one Disney would ever want to put on. And two, it's maybe not what even like maybe other Asians want to see. Like, I don't know, Asians. I think Asians have a lot of space for wholesome content. Look, look at our pop music in Asia because Asia is a very like censored society. Even Korea, it's very it's still pretty clean, right? Edgier than China. Yeah, it's a little sexier and edgier than China. But really, it's not it's not that edgy. Like these pop stars cannot be doing edgy stuff in their life, right? Or they just go to jail for a really long. Yeah, literally, if they're like smoking weed, they're like getting arrested like crazy. You know what I'm saying? So I guess like at the end of the day, we have to understand that the true Asian life that comes from Asia, a lot of it, not all of it, but a lot of it, a higher percentage of it. A lot of it is kind of conservative in some sense. Right. And I think that we're guilty of playing into that, too. Right. Andrew, we made a bunch of music videos that got millions of hits. Boba life. Asians eat weird things. You know, some people criticize some more than others that those were like very much playing into the model minority myth or like the evangelical Protestant Chinese church world. I mean, but I think that's I mean, people would say the same thing about Wong Fu content back in the day. It's like if that's where you're from, like, I mean, isn't this the isn't this just the excuse that rappers make? Be like, oh, why do you talk about guns and drugs and all this stuff? That's where I'm from. I'm just telling the stories from the streets. I don't know. These are just stories from my childhood, telling the story from the geeks. Yeah. I mean, to an extent. I mean, yeah, I do think that there is some marketing play and everybody thinks about marketing and, oh, people are going to like this or people respond to this. So, yeah, it is what it is. But I think that there is a thirst for the other way. But at the end of the day, if there's not a large enough population of people within our community that act like the other way and then then those stories will not get made. Yeah, I would say that people are going off like the bulk distribution, you know, on a growth, you know, when you like do a plot chart curve. I mean, people are going off the bulk distribution, which is like the majority of the people in the middle. Do we need to show them the two bridges trailer? Do we need to show you the two bridges? I'll play it right now on the bottom there. Anyway, guys, let us know what you think of the Chang King dunk trailer. Are you going to watch it? Why do you think so much Chinese American content is like so cheesy and wholesome? And is that good or bad? Anyway, until next time, we hop out, boys. We out. Peace.