Why People Are Mad Asians Took Over The Oscars

Asians took over the Oscars this year and it's causing a backlash. Oh, man, we got to talk about it. Shout out to everything, everywhere, all at once. Andrew, for taking home seven Oscars. We're talking about the first Asian woman to win Best Actress, Kee Kway Kwan. Andrew, he spent a year of his life living in a refugee camp. There were so many memorable moments. He's hugging Harrison Ford. He was short round in Indiana Jones. Of course, we got to get into the Internet reactions. We got to get into our own takeaway. So make sure you like, subscribe and turn on your notifications. Andrew, if you follow entertainment, especially if you follow cinema, this was a very, very big night, right? Because this was probably the most Asian Oscars ever. Yeah, I mean, Oscars is it? That's the fanciest award show. They take all year plus an entire year to figure out these awards. The last Asian movie that did win a lot of Oscars was Slumdog Millionaire. They won eight Oscars. So shout out to them. But that was quite a few years ago. Parasite won, too. Yeah, there's been a lot of Asian directors that won, whether that was like Chloe Zhao or Ang Lee. But we're talking about Andrew, the normies Karen now because it's the actors. Yeah, when they won the actor award, supporting actor, main actress. I mean, I mean, that's a lot of awards. I mean, let's just get into the comments, Andrew. Some people said between Michelle Yeoh's speech about, you know, boys and girls or any children that look like her to Kee Kway Kwan's speech about being a refugee to the performance of Natu Natu, which is the Indian song, Andrew. It made them cry. Yeah. No. You know, this is for all the boys and girls out there that look like me, just for them to know that there are possibilities. Yeah. And, you know, it's sort of like Linsanity making people cry who care about basketball or like, you know what I mean? Like somebody caring about it. There's like all these different worlds that Asians care about. But obviously there is a large group of Asians that have been not getting too many wins in past decades. And those are the Asians in cinema. They care about Hollywood, their own production companies that are directors that are also fellow actors. Of course, Andrew, we got to get into the backlash, because interestingly enough, Andrew, some of the backlash from the seven Oscars that EAA01 came from non-Asians, but also some Asians. Yeah. So typically you would think that obviously a lot of like people would look at the Oscars and like, oh, everything all at once is winning everything. So they're like, oh, well, you know, you're just pandering to the Asians. It's wokeness and it's the Asians. Yeah. Some people said I didn't know that I was watching the woke Olympics instead of a movie show. Right. Anybody but a white man could get the award nowadays. Right now. That's the common kind of like regular standard kind of like racial comment. But there's actually a lot from writers and critiques, movie critics. These are professional movie critics that are also Asian who are also kind of giving us some critical feedback. Justin Chang, who is actually a very known, well-known movie critic, sort of came out and said, hey, by the way, guys, I'm a big fan of Asian representation. I support Asians. But this movie was like maybe a seven out of ten at best to me. And that article actually went viral in the L.A. Times today. Yeah, because he said basically he did acknowledge that he loved the impact that the movie made. But but he just didn't love the movie. Yeah. I mean, another guy, Ian Wang, came out and said, here's the truth, Andrew. I think for myself, I just support the movie. Right. I mean, of course, I get it. Do I understand that there is some downstream culture in right now to make sure that Asians get their props after being denied for so long? Probably. I mean, there's probably some element of that. However much you want to say, like it impacted the decisions. It's probably there. Right. Yeah, but I think it's fair for professional critics to criticize the movie. Right. And even if they're Asian, that shouldn't matter because they should be doing their unbiased job. So unbiasedly, they should be able to speak about the movie. Right. But I also want to say, guys, this is a competition. It also matters what your competition is. And I have not heard a lot of other good arguments that other movies should have won instead of everything, everywhere, all at once. I'm not I think everything everywhere all at once deserved all the Oscars because part of it was it was a great movie. But also, who else were you going to give it to? Right. It's sort of like you're the number one draft pick that year, but it also depends on who else was in the draft. No, I mean, all quiet on the Western front. That movie is forgive me about Nazis. So I was like, what are you going to give up? That have been a sympathetic way. Right. Are you going to give that a bunch of Oscars? So obviously, I think it was a good time. It was good timing for that. I think that it's totally fair for any Asian movie critic to say whatever they think about the movie, but they need to lead off with how important it is that Michelle won. Yeah. Kikwe Kwan won that everybody won because at the end of the day, who cares, man, who cares about whether or how the movies are rated? And somebody said, we're finally no longer as lepers. They now cast in the Western Media Society in 2023. We're finally acknowledged. James Hong got a joke in the Oscars and he's been in more movies than anybody living in Hollywood. But nobody cares about him because he's Asian. I mean, I kind of felt like a good time to give a lot of the Asians flowers. And James Hong deserves it. He was also in the movie, of course, but he's also been in a lot of movies. So he kind of does deserve a shout out. Do you think it's true that literally probably the Hollywood fan club for James Hong is probably very small? I mean, even though he's been in like 650 movies, but I think it's really cool because, you know, he is pretty old, right? So we don't know how much longer he's going to be acting for. He's 94. I mean, you know, so it's good that he gets a shout out on the biggest stage because he's probably been in Hollywood for 50 years just watching like all these Oscars and all the wondering like, hey, am I ever going to even like be in the crowd? Why do I always get these like goofy roles? I don't think these roles are going to ever get me an Oscar. So shout out to James Hong. Andrew, he has a house in the 626 in Monterey Park. Kee Wei Kwan, Andrew, from Alhambra. Yeah, obviously from Vietnam. Originally, Alhambra, shout out to him. Somebody said Kee Wei Kwan and Michelle Yeoh had two very different issues. One was a child star and then had a 30 year drought in his career due to biases, whereas Michelle was actually a superstar in Asia. But her fame never just transitioned from the east to the west. When I heard Kee, part of his speech when he was saying how he grew up in the refugee camp and he was like, you know, I was just living in a refugee camp and I came to America and then I became in the Hollywood. And then I this is just like so inspiring. He was just so happy. Like you could just feel that like that immigrant like gratefulness and also that pain that he had went through and it's coming out in every speech. So I would say this was it did hit me. It did hit me for sure. Somebody said, let's be honest, guys. The Oscars did not want another of another Oscar. So white moment. Of course, they were going to give it to Michelle Yeoh over Cate Blanchett. She's so white. Somebody, of course, this is a comment basically be basically being like, oh, last year was the black Oscars. This year is the Asian Oscars. Next year is going to be the Latino Oscars. Then white people are due up in another two years. Hey, man, just tell me another movie that should have won. Just tell me the other movie that should have won. Back to Kee Wei Kwan, Andrew, talking about the American dream. Do you think that this shows that the American dream is still alive or are all the articles and tweets about how it shows the American dream alive, just reading too much into it and extrapolating it too far? Nah, man, I think it does show that the immigrant dream, immigrant American dream is alive, because I think that the only people that truly are living out the American dream right now are essentially immigrants. They're coming here and they're making it in a way that they would not have thought possible because the Oscars is a lot more of a global event and global organization than it was even 10 years ago. Right, right. The voters are way more international. Yeah. And they're also giving more awards to non English speaking movies. Like it can be in a completely different language. Parasite one. It was in completely Korean. So, of course, like now it's like a global award. So I think that's really cool that like all types of immigrants can be like shine on the stage. And and I think that does maybe piss some people off because they miss when it was so America centric or British centric, British or American centric, you're right, or just English centric. You know, all the candidates for NBA, NBA, MVP are also immigrants. Yanis, Jokic, Embiid. Hey, what does it mean? Hey, I guess you got to say America truly is an immigrant country. Somebody said generally Asians were not. And this was a comment from somebody who works in media that's Asian. Somebody saying generally Asians are not considered compelling identities in the Western world. So it was nice to see us finally get recognized. And, you know, people, if you just saw through the wackiness, you would see that there were so many themes in that movie that were so strong. And I think that there's two interesting points here, Andrew. I do agree that up until now, a lot of West Asian identities in the West were not considered compelling, even though they're considered very different. They're maybe not considered super interesting. And if you can see through the wackiness of that movie, you can see the genius of E.A.O. Yeah. Yeah, I would say that it was. And I think that's the thing that a lot of people find it hard to give this movie full credit is because it was very wacky. It is. Yeah, sure. The multiverse, there's some Rick and Morty like aspects. It's probably the wackiest movie to ever win an Oscars. That doesn't mean it doesn't deserve it. But we can acknowledge that it is a ridiculous movie. It is. Somebody said, you know, this deep cut cinema people and other auteurs have always known that Asians were really artsy and great, you know, at cinematography and directing. But it's just the normie casual that finally realizes because normie casual people and only follow like the actors. Now, David, moving on to our takeaways, man, like what is the impact of this movie? Because I think every big thing that happens, whether it's I would say Crazy Rich Asians was a big thing because it showed a commercial viability, even though that movie is like whatever, whatever. Right. Yeah. I mean, I think it's not an auteur artist movie, even some of Ali Wong's like earlier Netflix specials. I saw a bunch of moms like dress up as her as baby Cobra, the one that made her 10 million. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And in this movie, a lot of people, whatever makes people dress up as them for Halloween, people were even dressing up as the Daniels, the Daniels, the directors of the movie. Right. Because you're saying this is like a cultural touchstone. This is a moment. But it doesn't touch every Asian, of course, because Asians are not a monolith and there's so many different types of Asians. So certain Asians care a lot more if you're probably, you know, maybe upper middle class, East Asian and into entertainment. You care the most. Yeah, I think if you're in the Bay Area and you're like a carer or if you are in L.A. specifically, you probably held an Oscars watch party. But obviously we know a lot of people who work obviously across sectors in finance or in tech. They're not as tapped into it. I'm not saying that they don't care at all, but they care way less. Right. I think right now the Asians fear, Andrew, is sort of fragmented in the sense that you've got your Asians that care about representation or your representations that work in that field. Obviously, some glass barriers or glass ceilings, just like Michelle Yeoh said in her speech, have been broken. You know what I mean? Like the glass, the ceiling is raised now. But I will say that that's for those people like in that club. You can either be outside of the line waiting to get in that club or be in line at another club. You know what I mean? Like a different club, which is like another world, which is like sports or politics or et cetera, et cetera. But theoretically, if all the people who get in the club instead of not just be in the line and all these different disciplines link up and build some sort of unified thing, it could really impact everybody. Right, right. So maybe Michelle Yeoh being the first Asian woman, period, to win best actress. I mean, that is going to inspire, obviously, a lot of actresses. And a lot of Tunaju winning the best song, too. That is big. That kind of shows you like, yo, Indians, they really are making some jams. Yeah. Yeah. And what do you think about the criticism even from Asians as well as non-Asians? I feel like the tone when the criticism comes from non-Asians is definitely different, though, where their heart is at. That the move that it was just due to wokeness or downstream politics in Hollywood. I mean, I think any Oscar winner is politics. Bro, last year, you know what movie won last year? No. Coda. You know what that movie is about? No. Me neither. No, it's about deaf people, though. Yeah. Yeah. But like no one watched it. Yeah. Like no one knows what that movie is. Right. You know what I mean? And Parasite won the year before. Right, right, right. And then I believe some people were saying there was a lot of politics the one year Crash won. Yeah. Because Crash, some people were like, oh, that was sort of like a whatever movie, but it had a lot of meaning. What I'm saying is I think the Academy, when they're selecting a winner, they also take into account like timing and the zeitgeist and everything that's even happened with Asians over the past few years. Just in the world. It plays a little bit into it. I mean, all the the pandemic stuff, it plays into it. And then this movie comes out and it is a great movie. And it is so different and so weird. It almost you almost rank it on a different metric. So it's not it's not the same as those older, like slow Oscar winning movies like Nomadland. You had a movie about Elvis eating fried peanut butter jello sandwiches or you had the sort of like the Nazi movie or whatever. Did you watch Nomadland? I watched it. The one that won the year before. Yeah, the Chloe Zhao one. But that is very different than this movie. Like it could not be any more different. Yeah, honestly. No, for sure. At the end of the day, guys, regardless about how you feel about the technical movie, I liked it a lot. I'll say this, man. I love, love, love what it did and what it means for Asians moving forward in society and specifically in the entertainment arts media field. I mean, it was a moment, guys. You guys let us know in the comments down below what you think, because, you know, was this a big deal or was it not? I mean, Oscars is the most like top cinematic award you can possibly win. And what do you think about it? Some sort of perceived backlash. I know, to be honest, though, Andrew, a lot of the English language media is not covering it too much because, you know, they're more focusing on other things. Yeah. Well, the news cycle has already moved on. But, you know, amongst Asians, we're going to keep it lit. Let us know in the comments section below. Until next time, we're the Hot Pop Boys. We out. Peace.