The Bechdel Cast - Crazy Rich Asians with Teresa Lee and Ceda Xiong

Episode Date: August 30, 2018

Jamie and Caitlin invite special guests Teresa Lee and Ceda Xiong into their fancy, first class recording studio to discuss Crazy Rich Asians!(This episode contains spoilers)For Bechdel bonuses, sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com/bechdelcast.Follow @leresatee and @slobear on Twitter! While you're there, you should also follow @BechdelCast, @caitlindurante and @jamieloftusHELP Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, y'all. Niminie here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

There's so much beauty in Mexican culture, like mariachis, delicious cuisine, and even lucha libre. Join us for the new podcast, Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of lucha libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, Emperor of Lucha Libre, and a WWE Superstar. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. On the Bechdelcast, the questions asked if movies have women in them. Are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands, or do they have individualism? The patriarchy's effin' vast. Start changing it with the Bechdel cast. My name is Jamie Loftus.

And my name is Caitlin Durante. And this is our podcast about the portrayal of women in movies. Insert air horns. We use the Bechdel test as a way. Sorry, I sound like I was surprised. We do? We do. We do.

We do. The Bechdel test, if you're not familiar, is a test that requires that a movie has two female identifying characters. They have to have names. They have to speak to each other. And they cannot be talking about men. Hey, can we beta test it really quick let's do it okay hey caitlin hey jamie you were really good at soccer this morning thank you so much for coming to my game you're welcome wholesome doesn't have to be funny it

can be very wholesome yeah just very sincere um yeah jamie you came to my game and i really appreciate it everyone to know what good and supportive friend you are. Yeah, it's really more about me than it is about you. No, it was great. It was fun. Yeah, thank you. And it passes the Bechdel Test because it's an all-women's team. It's an all-women's league.

Wow. So, yeah, my soccer games always pass the Bechdel Test. Every game. Except when you start screaming about the takedown of the patriarchy in the middle during the halftime show. Which is great. Well, sometimes we do yell at the usually male ref so i guess those don't pass but most of our conversations are about soccer so we use that test the bechdel test as a jumping off point to initiate larger conversations about the general representation and portrayal of women in cinema and we are here to talk about a movie, A Popular Request.

I'm so excited. Still in theaters. Yes. We're talking about crazy rich Asians. And with us, we've got two guests. Super episode. It's a super episode. Our first guest, new to the pod.

She's a TV writer, a comedian, Sita Shang. And we have a returning guest, new to the pod, she's a TV writer, a comedian, Sita Shang. And we have a returning guest, a friend of the cast. You may remember her from our Transformers episode. Friend of the Hey Sluts What's Up Network. Hell yeah. And she hosts her own podcast called You Can Tell Me Anything. Teresa Lee. Hi.

Both of you guys have been on. It's true. We're so excited to have you here. Which one of us is the crazy and which one of us is the rich? I mean, we have to draw straws. I just want to be the Asian. So, Teresa, we'll start with you. What's your history with this?

Oh, I read the book when it came out. It's a good read. It's like a beach read, a summer romp, if you will. And I obviously identify with the main character because she's from the Bay and then went to NYU. Oh, yeah. She is, whoa. Is Taiwanese. Well, maybe not.

There's a sequel. Anyways, but she thinks she's Taiwanese. And so, yeah, I read the book. I remember when it came out, I read it and I even, I found a tweet from a long time ago where it's like, I hope they make a movie out of this and I hope I'm in Hollywood when that happens. What? But it didn't happen. Look at you now.

I didn't make it that far. You were physically in Hollywood. Yeah, I should have been more specific about my wish. Manifest more specifically. Right, right. And Sita, how about you? I think I read the book when it came out too because the title was, you know, like that was like clickbait before clickbait. But I really enjoyed it.

Sure. You know, it was like I read a lot of Joan Collins when I was a kid because I just had bargain books in my house all the time because my mom wouldn't buy me new books. So I read a lot of like 80s Joan Collins. And that's what Crazy Rich Asians reminds me of. Sure. Like super shoulder padded, like extravagance. Jamie? I read the first book, I received the first book as a gift. And I read it on a couple different, it was just my plane book for a while. Liked the book, thought it was like a fun beach read that I happen to be reading on a plane. Sure. And then saw the movie last week and really liked the movie. Yeah thought it was like a fun beach read that I happened to be reading on a plane. Sure.

And then I saw the movie last week and really liked the movie. Yeah, we saw it together. We did. It was fun. I did not read the book, but I did watch the movie three times in theaters. That's basically reading a book. Yeah, exactly. Wow, you beat me.

I saw it twice. Okay. You beat both of us. Both of the Asians here. I just wanted to make sure I was adequately prepared so i saw it many many times so i'll do the recap yeah sure okay so the story focuses well first we open on a scene where eleanor young is trying to check into a hotel in london and a bunch of uh white people are like you don't belong here please go away and she's like actually i'm buying this hotel so fuck all y'all so that sort of sets up the young family fun power move to kick it off yeah and then we see nick young as a

little boy um in that scene and i think he's with, is it Astrid? I think so. Oh, is that the little girl? That makes sense. Yeah, so his cousin. And then we cut to present day. We meet Rachel Chu. She is an econ professor at NYU. She is dating Nick Young, who is very hot and who is very good at wearing pants.

And not wearing a shirt. He wears a lot of pants. Fitted pants. He just knows how to wear a pair of pants. A tailored pair of pants. I was like, were these made for your butt? It's wild. Well, I mean, he can afford it, so probably. Imagine being

able to afford pants with your butt in mind. Unbelievable. Jamie, when we were watching this together you turned to me at a certain point in the movie i'm pretty sure you had tears in your eyes and you said nick young is just so handsome i was fully crying at nick young being just too hot at one point that I just was sent over the edge and I began to cry. Yeah. It was a worldwide casting for Nick Young's character. And apparently one of my friends told me that he was on one of those travel shows that shows on the back of airplane seats. Yeah, he was a host. No way!

He wasn't even an actor. He's never done something like this. He was just a host that was very charismatic. And they were like, how about that guy? I honestly, I'm like, I don't know. I'm sure he did a great job acting, but I was just like, oh! I just was really overwhelmed. I also, you know, I would say that the Mike's Hard Lemonade I brought to the theater with me

probably contributed to sending me over the edge in the first 20 minutes of the movie but yeah understandable so rachel and nick are dating and nick invites her to singapore because um his best friend colin is getting married and he's the best man so he's like why don't we use this as an excuse for you to come and meet my family and you can visit your friend while you're there and it'll be a great time and she's like okay so they go to uh they're like at the airport and she's like i've got my tupperware food we're all good and then the airline people come up to them and they're like uh we'll get you checked into first class and she's like um excuse me what do you mean and then they're like here's some champagne here's an airplane bedroom

and she's like wait a minute nick um are you rich or something and he's like idk i guess and she's like oh wait a minute he's like i mean i we're comfortable like dog you are rich so she learns that he comes from an extremely wealthy family of like real estate moguls and like finance people and all this stuff so she goes and meets his mom nick's mom eleanor and eleanor's like this girl is not rich so gross she's not crazy or rich so basically this the story revolves around Rachel trying to earn the respect and the blessing of Eleanor because it seems like she and Nick are on like the track for marriage and because Rachel is Chinese American she was raised in the U u.s and she just has sort of like a different set of values is what we call them oh wait what is that american-born chinese

call us when we went to taiwan oh that's what aquafina says in the movie yeah she's a banana which is like yellow on the outside white on the inside got it okay i've never heard that either okay so because she just sort of has like a different set of values than like the young family, Eleanor's all like, she's not the right person. Like she's not the one for you, Nick. But Nick is like enamored and in love with Rachel. Over the course of the story, you know, Rachel's like trying to like make Eleanor like her basically. And Eleanor keeps being like, you will never be enough.

And then finally, at the wedding that they've gone to Singapore for, Eleanor has hired a private investigator and reveals some information about Rachel's mom's history that would have caused a huge scandal, where her mom had an affair with another man who wasn't her husband, got pregnant with his baby, and then left him in China and moved to the U.S. So that was grounds for basically dismissal for Eleanor to be like, go away, never talk to us again.

That part is, I feel like, one of the most believable things, too, because I'm sure in American culture people hide things all the time, but especially in Chinese culture, I feel like there's just so many secrets, but there are secrets where it's like families will just be like so overbearing in one way, but then also so like, oh, no, I just didn't tell you that your grandma died because I decided it was best for you. And so there's things like that all the time.

And so the fact that all these families have these secrets, I'm like, oh, yeah, that's exactly true. So weird. Because her and her mom have a good relationship. Yeah. She's just like lied her entire life. Yeah. Yeah.

But then it's revealed that whenever Rachel like kind of confronts her mom about it, her mom's like, oh, well, my husband was abusive and I left him because he was hurting me. But yeah, they have a really good relationship. So then Nick proposes to Rachelachel and she he's like i will leave my family behind like you know he's supposed to be next in line to run the young corporation he's like i'll walk away from all of that i just want to be with you and then we cut immediately to a scene where she has invited eleanor to play mahjong with her and she's like i'm playing losing hand either way like nick either leaves his family and then like that's not good because he doesn't have a family or he chooses his family and doesn't stay

with me and then he will end up resenting you his mom so she basically rejects him his marriage proposal so that she's basically making the choice for him. And then that is the thing that makes Eleanor be like, oh my God, she is enough. She's strong and she's a fighter and she's good enough for me. So then she finally gives her blessing because then Nick re-proposes with his mom's ring. Yeah, so good. And we're all like, yay!

They set it up so well, I feel like. And I think the ring was great because the ring was the ring that Eleanor's husband, Nick Young's dad, had to create especially for her because the matriarch wouldn't give up her old ring. Right. So the ring is also symbolic of a marriage that wasn't approved by the families. And now it passed on to another. And the idea that traditions can be malleable because now it's a tradition because it's her his mom but when it was created it was because she wasn't allowed to continue the tradition so it's like see it's a new tradition yeah yeah unapproved wives the unapproved wives

so then she says yes this time and and then they go and have, like, an engagement party on a rooftop in Singapore. There's a few subplots where Nick's cousin Astrid is dealing with her marriage to a guy named Michael. He was, like, also a commoner who marries into this rich family. A guy named Michael is always a red flag, no matter what. So there's that subplotot and then we meet many of other nick's families and then um we meet paiklin which is aquafina's character and like her family so we've got a whole cast of characters but yeah so that's the main storyline there's also a lot of um twin representation in this film i feel like nobody's talking about. There are three pairs

of twins. Wait, really? That I recognize or maybe more if I watch it again. So like Awkwafina. Her sister's twins. Awkwafina's sister's twins.

Her little baby sister. That's what I mean. Yeah, her sister's twins. Then there's the adult gossipy twins that are at the bachelorette that they call the twins. And then there's

the flower girls are also twins and they couldn't be Awkwafina's sisters because it wouldn't make sense that Awkwafina's sisters would be there. Because they wouldn't know them. So there's at Flower Girls are also twins. And they couldn't be Awkwafina sisters because it wouldn't make sense. They weren't Awkwafina sisters. Right. Because they wouldn't know them.

So there's at least three pairs of Asian girl twins, which I feel like is like a big win for me because I am an Asian girl twin. And I was a flower girl in a wedding in Malaysia. But the rehearsal was in Singapore. So it's like it's basically a story of my life. I bet like Asian girl twins a hot commodity during wedding season. They're just like, look at the pair of cuties walking down the aisle. Yeah, we crushed it. Full twin season.

Well, I mean, Gemini season in the spring anyway. Are twins especially lucky? No, I think they're unlucky. Especially because they're girls. I guess I just want to start by saying that, I mean, this movie is a box office hit right now. It's what everyone's talking about. Second weekend number one. It's like a genuine blockbuster.

I feel like it's like a rom-com, but also like it's funny and it's tight. It feels like a blockbuster. Yeah, it's a solid flick. A solid flick. Kayla D my mom saw it with her former colleague there were airline ladies what are the flight attendants together in Taiwan and they're still friends and she came to visit her from Taiwan and they went and watched it and I was like that's so awesome her friend is kind of like a crazy rich asian though oh really I think she liked she's not this crazy rich but she's very

like she's more like an educated rich asian rich enough to be like can relate yeah I think she's into it wow cool cool all right let's take a quick break and then we will come back to discuss crazy rich asians so y'all this is quest love and I'm here to tell you about a new podcast i've been working on with the story pirates and john glickman called historical records it's a family-friendly podcast yeah you heard that right a podcast for all ages one you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on september 27th i'm going to toss it over to the host of Historical Records, Nimany, to tell you all about it. Make sure you check it out. Hey, y'all. Nimany here.

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on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. Hello. Hi. Welcome. We're here. It's Sunday. We're literally a brunch club right now yes it's great yeah i read that a lot of like asian immigrant people and parents ones who

normally never go to the movies are seeing this movie because they're seeing themselves represented for like yeah the first time in a very this is the first american movie that's an all asian cast since i think joy luck club yeah like 25 years ago i mean it's funny too because it's like even if you don't because a lot of the criticism before the movie came out was that it's not relatable because it's about crazy rich people but i think it's like i mean like when we watch superhero movies it's like is that relatable right so i think that's a dumb thing because it's like i don't know we got to start somewhere like do you really want to watch a movie about people doing nothing uh sitting around getting high i mean maybe actually that's like harold and kumar

also by the way harold and kumar is also leading asian cast and people keep forgetting that that's that's true people it's bill does a stoner movie yeah not an asian movie right but i guess that wasn't a major studio movie maybe it did really well everybody talked about there's also it's there's a lot of white people in it so it's not like an entirely asian cast like but the leads are asian so more leads should have been asian after that but everybody seemed to forget that that did well but um that was mainly a boon for white castle true yeah white is in the name. This is a white movie. That's the only way they could get the movie made. It's like, put something white in this title to trick the audience.

Did you guys know that there is a very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas? Yeah. I think I've seen it because it was on TV one year. Whoa. Without the 3D glasses you saw it? Yeah. I showed it to Rachel. There was something about a Christmas tree. That's why I think that's what that is. Oh showed it to Rachel. There was something about a Christmas tree. That's why I think

that's what that was. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, either way, we've come a long way from, like, Mickey Rooney's character in Breakfast at Tiffany's from, like,

the long duck dong in Sixteen Candles, even from, like, Scott Pilgrim where, like, Knives Chow, so much, like, tone-deaf stuff

is said about that character. So, I mean, we're still a far cry from what it should be representation wise for nearly everybody. Well, we're interested in like what your thoughts on that are. Yeah. Well, I actually think because for me, it's not representation isn't just, I mean, half of it is visual. Because of course, the more Asian people we see, the more we'll realize, like, oh, okay, like, we can be in movies, but I also really like that the story itself is representative, because it's just, like, the, someone I saw it with said this well, it's like, it's just, it's funny, because the jokes are new, because it's a new

point of view, so that, like, does well for everyone, it's not something we've heard before, but it's not explicitly an Asian movie, movie like the story about family and about tradition isn't explicitly asian it's very tied to asian culture so that i think obviously we relate to it more but um anybody can watch it and not think like oh this isn't for me because everybody has a mom like that i think we can all relate to it so i i really like that it's representative in the story itself, just like the point of view, for sure. Yeah. And I was thinking about this, because my boyfriends are watching the Godfather Trilogy over again, and watching that movie over again, which is probably like the most famous movie in America, you realize that like the Godfather Trilogy is an immigrant story. It's, it's really

American, but it's also about an immigrant story. So I was thinking about that in context of Crazy Rich Asians, and it was like, oh, this is an immigrant story. It's like finding your identity, making a new life for yourself, all those things that are kind of what being American is all about. So that, to me, was really relatable. I actually bought tickets for my parents to go see it, and my mom was like, this is good, but... So Asian. What were her notes? to go see it. And my mom was like, this is good, but...

So Asian. What were her notes? Her notes? This is very, also just more about my mom than anything else. Her notes were that it was too loud. Oh my God,

that's funny. She was like, it's too loud. It's funny, like moms don't realize, I don't know if my mom recognizes herself in Eleanor Young.

Like she's not that strict, but like, like it's funny because I don't think people recognize mom recognizes herself in Eleanor Young well she's not that strict but like like it's funny because I don't think people recognize themselves in it you know yeah and I and my mom's point about their wealth was also really funny too she was just like oh it was so over the top it was so extravagant like nobody lives like that and I was like well that's the point of the movie it's in the title um but. But I think a lot of the criticism leveled at the movie. I mean, I enjoyed it. I sort of see the shortcomings, like, but I think it's because there's not enough of this kind of movie. There's not enough movies where there's, like, a majority Asian cast.

There's not enough movies kind of with an Asian-centered story. If you have, like, a variety, like, a body of work to choose from, like, we've been able to name, like, five movies made over, like, the last 40 years, which is, like, not a body of work. choose from like we've been able to name like five movies made over like the last 40 years which is like not a body of work that's like five movies right so if you had a body of work to actually critique against and then it would be interesting right now we're just like picking like right like if there were like more stories about asian people who are middle class yeah yeah and then you could be like, okay, well, then like Crazy Rich Asians, like, yeah, that's a lifestyle that most people don't lead.

But like, there are many other examples of Asian stories. But the problem is, there aren't many other examples. I even think as a rom-com, it's diverse in the storytelling because most rom-coms will have a meet cute. But this starts in a point of the relationship when it's healthy, nothing is going wrong. They do introduce his do introduce his mom and like there's some lies that have been told but like you know every relationship has its bumps and then they deal with it and it still feels cohesive and there's an arc and usually i feel like rom-coms aren't like that right and it doesn't

end in their wedding so it feels like a realistic sort of sliver of their life where it's like this is a thing they had to get through they got through it i feel a resolution right the main the arc of the story has to do with the relationship between rachel and eleanor not really rachel and nick yeah so it's it's yeah it's more about like a class struggle a generation gap kind of thing a like american asian person versus an asian person from asia like it's right so yeah it's like those are the themes of the movie and about like Americans caring about passion like got to me so much like oh why am I doing comedy I've let my people down this is big it's it's very much East versus west you know it's individualism versus

collectivism and eleanor is on the side of collectivism because she'll do anything but she's not see that's also why i feel like it's a diverse angle because i don't think any side is really portrayed as like the right side in this rachel's not really portrayed totally right she's a little selfish but eleanor's she says she's all about the collective but look at her house i mean like handing out food to the poor people i don't think she cares about her country but like does she i mean like they're starving people she cares about her family and that's yeah pretty much it yeah so it's like everybody's kind of selfish the unit is the family which is a larger unit than the self which is like until the fan until there's a black

sheep in the family and then you cut that person out and then they're not in your family so your family can be perfect i feel like that's a very asian thing family and then you cut that person out and then they're not in your family. So your family can be perfect. I feel like that's a very Asian thing to do. Well, the character of Oliver says that he's like the rainbow sheep of the family. He's like the one like out queer person. But it seems like he still has good enough relationships with like all of his like aunties and stuff. Well, I'm curious your guys' thoughts, too, because I do feel like obviously so much is tied to Chinese culture, but it's all those like themes of just like, you know, the filial piety is really tied to Chinese culture, but also I feel like people outside can

follow along. Were there things that to you felt so new that was like, oh, that's something that like I don't understand or like that doesn't click or did it all like feel like, yeah, this all makes sense. I can track. To me, it all tracked. There were certainly things that like I hadn't experienced firsthand in my family setting or anything like that. Because like I'm like German and Italian, but like so far removed from those cultures that I really feel like I was brought up to be like cultureless somehow. Like I didn't have like an Italian grandma like cooking us big

Italian dinners or anything like they're just like, really just like the most boring flat American experience. Casserole, white bread, exactly. Mayonnaise, hamburger helper, like, so like, yeah, don't knock hamburger. So nothing was so unfamiliar to me that I was like, what I don't this doesn't make sense or this doesn't track but um it was certainly experiences that I have not had but that's why it's so important to have movies like this where you know people like me and I would say a large portion of white America can like see these stories and see these cultures represented and say like wow this is different from my own and and, and it's,

you know, delivered to us respectfully and in a way where, you know, we can learn about a different culture. Yeah. I feel like it did a good job of being critical with that. Like it was authentic so that I, cause like I'm critical of my own culture as we all should be of everything, right? Cause nothing's perfect and that's how we get better. So I feel like it did a good job of being critical without feeling like it was like exotifying anything. get better. So I feel like it did a good job of being critical without feeling like it was like, exotifying anything. It didn't feel like it was like, white gaze-y, like, oh, look how weird they are. It felt like it was like criticizing from within, but also understanding where they're coming from. Like the table scene when they're making the dumplings, that was, I really liked that scene, because you see the generations and the kids joking,

even like Astrid, who understands because she grew up there, makes a joke about like, oh, like they don't guilt their kids. Right. And it's like, oh, you see how there are flaws. I don't think we should just be like Asian people on TV. They're perfect. They're not like we've got a lot of issues. We believe in ghosts, like all this stuff. It's like, what's going on over there?

But we can't have it in TV. Yeah. It's censorship. Depression's not real. But mental illness is an issue. Sexism is such a problem in Asia like that's why

there's so many girls that are left in orphanages because you know the sons are favored so that's not kind of talked about in the movie but there's a reason

why Henry Golding's character is so important because he's the son yeah like they didn't have a daughter that was taking over the young corporation

it was the son which like is like a big deal. I think the movie makes it so that we're able to be critical of it without feeling like we're antagonizing or vilifying a whole culture because it's very well-rounded in its criticism, I feel. I feel like most of the stuff that I just was like, oh, that's not something I'm familiar with or fully understand were specifics inside of a larger narrative that, you know, is a rom-com, which seems really smart. Yeah, what's love?

I didn't get that. I didn't understand that. Wait, kissing and also sex? I'm a virgin. We don't understand. But no, it was like, I don't know. I mean, in terms of presenting a movie with a culture that the majority of the audience won't be familiar with, I feel like it was like it's so smart to put it in a construct that everyone's going to understand. Everyone, whether they like it or not, have seen a rom-com and understands the general conventions for better or worse of a rom-com.

And seeing things I didn't fully understand plugged into a larger structure that I definitely understand was cool and like made it easier for me on first viewing, at contexts were in this kind of, not entirely familiar story, but like a romantic comedy that wasn't like, wait, what's happening? Yeah. Well, like the unfamiliar stuff. I'm curious. Well, like the Mahjong scene, where I was like, they are playing a game

that I have no idea how to play. And I read an article after I saw the movie that explains like there's a very important like significance to like Rachel's hand where she like gives up a specific tile and it's symbolic of like her basically giving up her relationship with Nick. So there's like all that symbolism there. I wasn't allowed to play Mahjong because my mom's dad like gambled away their house when they were little and he was a big gambler. So I was not allowed to play. And so I've never understood how to play mahjong because my mom's dad like gambled away their house when they're a little and he was a big gambler so i was not allowed to play and so i've never understood how to play i just associate it with like the amas in the like smoky room and i'm not allowed to go in like i understood what it culturally meant but i didn't know the tiles but i thought they did such a great job setting up the first scene about game theory because when they map it back and it's

like the chinese version you instantly know what's gonna happen because they've set it up already with poker which you you do understand exactly exactly like here's something american audiences will definitely know and then here is like something that you probably haven't seen or understand but there's some context for it and it makes it i don't know like it it does make it accessible for someone who's not familiar with Chinese culture at all. Because even if you don't know the game, what's happening in the scene is still like, Rachel is basically sacrificing her own happiness

because she loves Nick so much to be like, I'm giving him up for you, Eleanor. And then luckily that's the catalyst that makes Eleanor see that she's cool after all. And it's played out in the game dynamic as well, which was just really good writing on like two different levels. She's playing not to lose. Yeah.

But I think the fact that this movie, it's representation that we don't normally see. It's respectful. It's a city we don't normally see. Yeah, that's true. Like I just truly did not know that much about singapore as a city at all so a lot of those like images and you know even establishing shots i'm like oh whoa this is like just not a city i see very frequently in my day-to-day media consumption

right i'm gonna say bullshit because everything i do is wait singapore it's a is it a city and a country i believe so it's a it governs itself yeah it's like a sovereign so it's like a city state it's kind of like hong kong where it's like its own i see okay got it yeah got it sovereign city state thank you super producer sophie so basically the fact that we see this representation it's handled responsibly that i think is largely due to the fact that it's directed by an asian man it's uh co-written by what a white guy and an asian woman it's based on a book by an asian guy so it's it's stories by this community and about this community so when that happens as we see in many of the movies that we've covered, where, you know,

if it's Michael Bay trying to, like, depict anything, he does it terribly. Michael Bay is crazy rich Asians. Crazy exploding Asians. Remember once was there a geisha in this movie? Right. And she was a robot. But, you know, if it's, like, Ryan Coogler directing Black Panther

or if it's John Ryan Coogler directing Black Panther, or if it's John Chu directing Crazy Rich Asians, like it's, that is why we have just the stories and the characters and everything depicted in much more positive ways than we're used to seeing those types of characters on screen. And it's also just like a really well-written movie. Yeah. So, yeah. I think the thing with having like Asians do this particular movie I'm not

saying like all Asian movies have to be made by Asians but there are particular things that they pay attention to I think that help the process along and makes it feel more authentic because I think through like the Hollywood development machine you just you get scripts that are very broad and so there's just things in the movie where you're like, oh, I get it. This is like what being Asian is like. And I think John M. Chu and especially Adelaide Lim, who is a Malaysian-born screenwriter, she's very adjacent to Singapore, which is also very different from China, China.

It's the island parts of Asia, which have their own culture and their own way of doing things too. So I think that specificity really helped them pull it together. Yeah sure one of the things that i wanted to point out and i'm interested in sort of everyone's takes on this but um the like older men who could be in the story basically like the patriarchs are largely absent from it because we do not ever meet nick's dad we get to know nick's mom a lot at work he's like off on business right yeah we meet ama but nick's grandfather has passed away so we never know him but we get to know ama we spend a lot of time with like nick's aunties but we never meet any of the uncles i don't think i feel like this is kind of accurate because i think it's very much

like the home life is matriarchal i mean i didn't grow up in singapore so i don't think I feel like this is kind of accurate because I think it's very much like the home life is matriarchal I mean, I didn't grow up in Singapore. So I don't know how accurate that is But I feel like in Taiwan culture, it's like it is very much around the like ama like in the house But you know, it's like doesn't mean it's necessarily elevating woman. It's just like the home is their place, right? So it's like kind of a double-edged sword because they do run shit but also it's like they run shit at home right right um but i don't know because even like my great aunt she's like the first female architect in taiwan and so she worked so it's not like she's home because she didn't work but like at home it's like everything is about her so i think there's like this more emphasis on the woman at home for sure in chinese culture got Frankly, I found it refreshing not to have a patriarchal leader around.

We didn't need a man. Yeah. And then Eleanor also met her husband at Cambridge. Like they were college friends. So she gave up like a promising law career to support her husband. So I think that also means, I guess in the subtext,

is that she was so smart and brilliant that she was able to help her husband grow her business, which was the acceptable gendered role at the time. But that without, you know, her backing him, maybe like the young empire would not have been as successful as it was. Right. That kind of seems like the implication. Yeah. Yeah. I think, yeah, it's interesting because I did notice that, too. And I think it felt for me that felt more authentic um not having the grandpa around or the the dads

around but also because it's a story about the mom and the daughter and i think even though that's universal specifically within asian culture like the in-law relationship is also very unique because there is always like a lot of conflict with that especially because oftentimes they end up living with you right and so then it's like two women of the house and the son. And that's like a common living situation. So even in circumstances where it's not like a huge difference in like socioeconomic class and stuff like that, is there still like kind of like a lot of tension in a lot of those scenarios? Yeah, I think so.

My mom doesn't get along with my dad's mom. And I see it a lot in other places too. I feel like the in-law thing, that is like a universal thing. I don't think they always have to live with you. But there's kind of an expectation if you're the oldest son, like your mom will live with you as you get older. Got it. And so there's like you're taking on caring for someone that's not your mom

and maybe resenting a little bit because you can't take on your mom. Right. Because it's not right to do that because you're – actually in Chinese, like we differentiate – like your grandma on your mom's side it's called y pool and y means outsider so within the word you're if you're a woman you're considered an outsider of your own family so if you marry a man you're always going to be referred to as outsider within your family even by your kids i mean not your kids but like your kids kids call you like outside grandma so there is like this embedded um idea that like the woman side of the family you're an outsider and so that's why there's so i think there's so much tension because like let's say you have to

take care of your husband's mom and then meanwhile you're you're treated like an outsider you're never going to be part of the family and you can't even treat your mom because you've married out of your family. So now you're not, you've left your family to take care of another family. And Eleanor does that, especially by handing Nick over for the Amma to raise. Because she knows that she's the outside person. So she essentially, she gives her son up to the family. And so that is also an interesting thing, too, because that means the powers pass between the women and the generations. The ama is the one who's going to determine the favorite of the next in line when the grandfather's gone.

So that's also a cool thing that they did in the movie. I liked it. Yeah, that's all very fascinating. That's attention. Yeah. A question I had when we were briefly having technical difficulties difficulties we were discussing it a little more is the various accents oh yeah this could we talk because I genuinely just have no context for any I was like okay some people have British accents and then just and then and I think a lot of people

who learn British English or the Queen's English because it was Singapore was like a colony but the accents I thought you're talking about the Chinese accents so many of the Chinese accents or the Queen's English because Singapore was like a colony. Is that some form maybe? But the accents, I thought you were talking about the Chinese accents. So many of the Chinese accents are so bad. Like Nick Young's Mandarin is horrendous. And Rachel's is pretty bad, but that's okay. That's normal for an ABC. But I think the grandma had the best.

I think she's Taiwanese. She sounded Taiwanese, the way she spoke Mandarin. Which they're not Taiwanese, but a lot of, I don't know. That's not what I'm used to. My grandma's from Joy Luck Club. Oh, that makes sense. But so much of the Mandarin was just bad. And I was like, ugh.

And then the Asian accents, like the Singaporean accents, like very specific too. And not a lot of the actors had like the Singaporean accent because it was like a really international cast. You know, Ronnie's Australian. Awkwafina's from Queens, you know. And Nico Santos is from like here, I think, right? Singaporean accent because it was like a really international cast. You know, Ronnie's Australian. Right. Awkwafina's from Queens, you know. And Nico Santos is from like here, I think, right? I think he's in the Bay Area. Yeah, he's a Bay Area guy.

And then Jimmy O. Yang's also, you know, just crazy. Right. And in like literally every single movie right now, too. He's also in the Melissa McCarthy puppet movie. Is he? Did you know? Yes. That's so funny. Lots of peaks and valleys for Jimmy O. Yang past couple weeks if you watch um Chinese soaps

whenever they have like a white character she's usually like very caricature like blonde girl whatever and she's usually some sort of like either like hot model or like evil girl it's like she's either like really great or really bad but usually their accents are bad too so it goes both ways I think they're just like well people who don't speak English it's either like really great or really bad. But usually their accents are bad, too. So it goes both ways. I think they're just like, well, people who don't speak English, it's usually like a Eastern European person because closer maybe. Right. I don't know whoever's available in Taiwan, Hollywood. But it'll be like, I don't know what you're doing.

And you're like, that's not an American. But they'll be like, she just flew in from New York. No, she did not. So, I mean, I'm more forgiving, forgiving i guess because they do it there too and whatever yeah accents in all hollywood movies i mean even like american dialect accents in hollywood movies can be very like you're supposed to be from where every time there's a boston accent in a movie i just get furious and my head spins you know who has a good Charlie from Stranger Things it's British but I feel like I didn't notice when I watched Stranger Things

I did know he was arrested for cocaine possession at the airport he was a troubled young boy we've got to take a break we're going to go rescue Charlie from Stranger Things from his coke pile yeah we'll be right back. So, y'all, this is Questlove, and I'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman called Historical Records. It's a family-friendly podcast. Yeah, you heard that right.

A podcast for all ages. One you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on September 27th. I'm going to toss it over to the host of Historical Records, Nimany, to tell you all about it. Make sure you check it out. Hey, y'all. Nimany here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records.

Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history, like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was murdered.

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insightful. Tune in for all the laughs, the stories, and of course, the culture. I feel some Sandra Bernhard in you. Oh my God, I would love it. I have to watch Lost. Oh, you have to. No, I know.

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your podcasts. And we're back. Rachel, i mean i love rachel i think she's uh constant woo is amazing but um rachel's character i thought especially for the rom-com genre we've sort of touched on it already but like kind of is a standout for like you were saying theresa like we don't have that meet cute scene it's like clearly portrayed that she has a career that makes sense which never happens right it's always like she is art curator like I work for a magazine a fashion magazine right she's like I own a bakery but my house huge. So that like that trap is kind of like where she has a successful career.

She's like the youngest faculty member at NYU. She's like, she's like, yeah, very impressive. They go to great lengths to make you know that she is like smart, capable, etc. And we have a very well fleshed out background for her as well, where we meet her mother. We learn about the interpersonal dynamics of her family. Do we see friends that are just her friends or is she mostly meeting? Just Paik Lin, I think. Yeah, right.

Right. I mean, and so I think especially for this genre, she's like a well-written character that we know more about than we would know about the average rom-com lead. Yeah, she has a lot of agency. And I like that her and Nick's relationship is very honest. Like after the fish gutting, she just tells him and she's like, yeah, it was gross. But I feel like even like in real life, a lot of people would be like, well, I don't want to mention it because I don't want to give them the satisfaction. But it's like, no no you should tell you should tell him yeah right and he is surprisingly unlike many you know male love interests in rom-coms like

he's not actively lying to her or actively manipulating her or stopping her at the beginning well he withholds information that's lying lying. Yeah. But he's also very committed, which is also something that's really nice to see in a male love interest. Because I feel like a lot of rom-coms are like back and forth, back and forth. Who likes who more? And he's always like very steadfastly committed to Rachel. For sure. And that's hot. And does something that men never do in movies in any genre, which is apologize when they do something wrong.

Where it's like he is lying at the beginning of the movie, but once she is like, hey, you're lying, he's like, yes, I'm sorry. And you're just like, ah. Like, it sucks that it's such a relief to see that, but there's so many. I mean, we just did an episode on 10 Things I Hate About You where, like, the lie lasts the whole movie,

and then at the end, she asks for an apology. And Heath Ledger cuts her off by making out with her. And so men don't apologize in movies. Very rarely. So it was nice to see his character. We also don't know what he does for a living in the movie. Oh, in the book, he's a professor. But also in the book, speaking of lying,

so Amanda, his ex, is mentioned in the book he's a professor but also in the book speaking of lying so Amanda his ex is mentioned in the movie but in the book she is his ex and he had a threesome with her and one of the other girls who was on the bachelor trip yes they bring it up in the book and and and it's like that's why Rachel so pissed so you didn't a didn't tell me that your ex was coming B didn't tell me this childhood friend of yours that you mentioned was a girl you had a threesome with your ex and they all want to marry you so yeah they hate me she deserved a heads up about all of that yeah yeah yeah so uh we don't in the book uh he's a professor but in the movie we don't even we know like what rachel does and that she's very good at her job and then like nick is just the guy that she's doing right um yeah i

liked nick's character a lot. But he does, at certain points, fall into the trappings of, like, man who withholds conversation and then is like, whoops, my B, you're already mad, you know. But he does apologize, which I don't even want to give him too much credit for it, but that never happens in movies. And she makes him wait for it. Like, she is obviously heartbroken, but she didn take it back him back right away so i like that he apologized and has to deal with the consequences right has to work for it as should everyone right where are we going next we've talked a lot about eleanor but is there are there any thoughts on eleanor that we haven't so good she's like everything. I feel like she's such a like acclaimed actress.

Yeah, I thought that character was really well written. Just like, even the idea of her having been treated that way and still doing it is very accurate. I tweeted something. My mom reads my Twitter. Just a joke about how my mom was really hard on me growing up or whatever. And she saw it

and then responded like, because I told her I was like, it's a joke. I don't think you're hard on me whatever she might listen hey mom what's up uh anyways but you know i was like obviously it's like a joke about having high expectations even though i know it's for the best and then she made a joke back and she was like oh well like i'm not like that but you did you know my mom was like that and i was like but you are like that but she said my grandma once my mom brought home like a test and she said she did the best are like that but she said my grandma once my mom brought home like a test and she said she did the best out of 700 kids and then my grandma's answer was like why didn't you get a hundred percent yeah but I guess it's like the cycle like an Eleanor character kind

of embodies that like she was treated that way but it didn't make her more sympathetic it made her actually harder because she in her mind she's like's like, oh, you have it easy. I had it harder. But she's doing the same thing. Right. If you kind of compare this movie to something like Meet the Parents, which has a similar premise in terms of just like, you know, meeting your future in-laws kind of thing. In a standard, like, you know, Hollywood garden variety rom-com like that, Robert De Niro's character is like pulling out all the stops to like make sure he's like sabotaging ben stiller and it's just like really goofy and like silly in a lot of ways whereas like with eleanor's character like she's very grounded and it doesn't resort to these like really stupid silly moments i mean i mean there maybe there's gonna be a movie

like that but in this case it's just like yeah like you can see where she's coming from like you can tell based on her background and her upbringing and her like just that cultural context like even if we don't agree with her we're still like yes this makes sense like this this tracks for her character and yeah she's developed really well i think i was thinking of another in-laws movie i was like which apparently is a sub-genre of movie yeah but did anyone ever see Monster-in-law with J-Lo and Jane Fonda right where that

is such a like classically like woman on woman hatey and the reasons given are very vague and it's just like you just know by the poster that it's gonna be Jane Fonda yelling at j-lo for two hours and if you choose to see that then you choose to see that but and and so anytime

there's like a future daughter-in-law mother-in-law or even just like any woman-on-woman conflict in a big movie you're like oh boy like this could fall into so many like tropes but like you were saying caitlin like we've been talking about in general it's just like everything is so grounded yeah and we're given all the information we need to understand and both characters grow and have a better understanding of each other by the end and it's like oh that is like a very well managed conflict between women in movies where usually i feel like we're given almost nothing. Well, the two characters are written as the conflict is sort of central to how they understand themselves.

And I think that's what makes the conflict feel so grounded. It's not like you were saying vague reasons, like I don't like your hair color. Like that's not a reason to fight or like the color of the wedding or whatever. It's really how they see themselves in the world. And when that point of view clashes that's when you get these really strong moments,

but you also just understand where both of them are coming from. Yeah. Because speaking of like, I mean, bringing it back to like the Bechdel test, because even though they're fighting kind of over man, they're not quite, because it's like they talk,

even in that dumpling scene, they're talking about like career and tradition and like values. So indirectly, like Nick has wrapped up in that as an example of values but like replace it with anything else like rachel wants something that eleanor has and their values are clashing so it's like it's not really about the man it's about like what does rachel value is it like her passion and happiness and love and eleanor is like no, you value hard work and building relationships and tradition. Sacrifice.

Yeah, sacrifice. That's what love is. It's sacrifice. It's giving up what you want. So therefore you should give up what you want so I can have what I want. That's kind of like what she's saying. And so I don't think it really is about the man,

even though indirectly he is. Yeah, I see what you mean. Yeah. Right. And like Jamie, you were saying, like oftentimes if there is an antagonistic female relationship it's usually because like one woman will just hate another woman simply because she's a woman and she sees her as competition or you know it's if we see like a high school movie where there's like just like pettiness between two women. It's never really established why that is, or like, there's no background or

context given as to like, why two female characters might not like each other. It's usually just like relying on, you know, the stereotype of, you know, Hollywood being like, hey, you know how girls can't get along? Well, here's a movie about it. So to me, even though this is largely a story about kind of what starts out as an antagonistic relationship between two women it's not what we usually see in movies it's like we said it's there's the context that explains why they are butting heads it's more of a difference of like values than it really is like them you know fighting over a man which is weird to say because one of them is his mom but like but yeah it like i think it's handled much better than it normally is it's like a double win too because it's like you not only have a very well-written

female conflict because there is like sometimes in the wide ways there are to criticize movies now and the different mediums to do, sometimes I feel like it gets lost. And I've definitely read, is it Gillian or Jillian Flynn? Is it Gillian Flynn? I thought it was Jillian. Is it Jillian? I don't know.

For the purposes of this little soundbite, it's Jillian Flynn. But she wrote this great thing about having female characters in conflict and how because it's never historically been written very well, there was sort of like this prevalent criticism that was like, we just shouldn't show women in conflict at all. And it's like, no, you can and should have women in conflict. That happens in the world all the time. But just don't not give us any context for why it's happening. And so seeing it effectively written and it's grounded in who they are as people, like, it just, I don't know.

It's great. It is. It's some of the best scenes in the movie. What did you guys think of Araminta, the girl getting married? Oh. So for her, for me, I think it's she, I don't know if she's complicit in like the really horrible treatment that like Rachel receives a la like Araminta's friends who like put a fish in her bed. Right. Because she knows about this relationship.

I feel like she's a good example of trying to write. Yeah. Like they write varieties of types of rich people and I feel like she's almost like she's not the worst kind but she's the kind where it's like

they get off scot-free because they're not actually being horrible so in comparison they're good but they also are obviously turning blinders to other people

who aren't privileged like they're the kind of people who are like oh poor people make me sad oh they're cute look how cute they are exactly

like she's having this lush every once in a while exactly like her extravagant party and then she's having this lush every once in a while exactly her extravagant party and then she's like I want to be cute to invite Rachel

but also like maybe funny but I'll stay out of it right she creates the environment for the conflict to happen and then she's like conflict is happening

oh no not at my bachelorette party oh no drama at the party I think she's kind of I don't know if she's actually based on Angela Baby but do you guys know who Angela Baby is think she's kind of, I don't know if she's actually based on Angela Baby, but do you

guys know who Angela Baby is? No. She's like one of the most famous people in China. She's just like, she looks kind of like what a computer program version of a perfect Chinese person would look because she's got so much plastic surgery. But she's just like on everything. And her wedding was like three times Kim K's wedding or something. Whoa.

I think she's in some big Hollywood movies where she has like very, yeah, not a lot of words. She's very CG, yeah. But they'll put her in stuff to sell tickets. Got it. But she's like that. She had like four wedding dresses and like a carousel wedding cake and stuff like that. Yeah, Araminta's character was one of the few characters in this movie that to me like i saw it and registered as like oh that's a rom-com stock character that's being used in this movie another one that i i felt like was

very and i think killing we talked about this after the movie aquafina's brother and who's like it's funny because he's a pervert and he's trying to take pictures of her naked like that is such a rom-commy trope that was like right, I guess that's in the movie. Sure. And it's always unchallenged. Like, Awkwafina, she's there noticing it happening. And she's never like, hey, brother, like, stop that. That's gross and creepy.

Like, no one challenges it. And it's just, that was like the one part of the movie I was like, ew. Wait, when does he try to take pictures of her naked? Not naked, but like. He's always. He's stalking her. Yeah, like just the stalker narrative in that character. I thought it was funny though. I thought it was

because he was going to post it on social media, but I guess that makes more sense that he just wanted it for his collection. I thought he was like a real famous person. That's what it seems like at first. Either way, he's taking photos of her without her permission over and over and over and over. And then there's a scene where she's like lying in bed with

her mom and they're having this like big heartfelt moment and then like the button of that scene is like him taking the pictures. And they're just like, oh you, how long have you been there? And he's like, a short while. And they're like, tee hee hee. And it's like, no, he's invading your privacy. And especially that coming as the button at the end of a

really well done scene about abuse. And it's like, and here's this creepy boy taking pics. I was like, get out of here. Why are you in this scene? It was tonally really weird. It was. Yeah. I was like, who let you know, they're like, hey, Judd Apatow write the ending to this one

scene. Let's just see what happens. Write Ken Jeong's character and the end of that scene. Another super stock character I really liked was the film producer and his trashy girlfriend. Alistair. Just fun, comedic. He's producing a movie where his girlfriend is tied up and a guy is nearby fighting.

And it's like, what is this? The end of Spider-Man 2? From the Lena mentioned. So yeah, Araminta just read to me as like, yeah, like this is like kind of a less written out rom-com character. Yeah, she's a little plotty because everyone's going to her wedding too. Right, right. So she's kind of just serving the story. Let's talk about Astrid.

Astrid, sure. She is the, I would say, other main female character with, like, kind of her own story arc. Yeah. And it's there partly to sort of, like, mirror what's happening with Rachel and Nick, because she is this, like, rich, like, charity organizer, socialite, like, fashion icon organizer socialite like fashion icon vibe at the beginning yeah yeah but she's like nick's like one relative that he's like really bonded with and like they're actually like friends and stuff like that and then she and rachel kind of forge a friendship over the course of the movie but, so her main storyline is she discovers that her husband,

who was like a military officer, I think like that. Yeah, he's like a captain in the army. Michael. Michael. But like does not come from a wealthy family. So that was like cause for some controversy in, you know, the family where like he married into money. She married like a poor guy.

Yeah. So for her. I have a lot of thoughts about her please oh hit it i don't feel like she's as innocent as she tries to act like i think she's the kind of person who wants to be so perfect she has done all the right things went to the right school whatever it looks beautiful but i don't think she's like like i think she wants to be with a man of lower status even though she would never say that to him. But because she enjoys being high status and she enjoys being not wrong. So she, I think in her mind is like, maybe I think in her mind, she's like, he would

never stray because look what he gets. Like, in no world would he ever get this. And I'm giving it to him. And so it hurts more when he strays. But then when he does stray, she can't be wrong because nobody will be like, oh, what did she do wrong? Because it's like, no, she's like hot, rich, famous and perfect and smart. So he must not be a man. He must be insecure.

It must be his fault. And I think she builds that situation purposefully or maybe subconsciously. But I think she's the kind of person who wants to be always right and always perfect and that's why she's not actually that innocent and there yeah there's like hints of that in the movie in fact like her husband's even like you always like have to be like the prettiest most like you're not like reacting to learning that I'm having an affair because like you can't be bought so is he having an affair? Whoa, hot take. Hot Michael take.

I'm not one to be a Michael apologist, but I mean, I definitely see what you're saying. That was something that I remember being presented more effectively in the book. Maybe there just wasn't enough time for it in the movie. It's already a two-hour movie. They didn't get too much into it, but I think in the credit sequence, they have a quick sneak peek about her running into charlie which is her ex um but i think in the book she's

not having an affair but she keeps talking to charlie about how she thinks michael's having an affair and it's like you're hiding the fact that you're talking to your ex around your husband and this is your ex that you almost married so who is actively in love with you and who you know that which is not like covered in yeah the movie at all yeah i mean she doesn't really have this much to do no but i think she wants to be not wrong so i think she talks you know she'll if she's talking to her ex who's in love with her complaining about her marriage she gets to then be the hero of that story to him right she gets to be rescued too i appreciate her presence in the story and i don't know if

this was done purposefully or not by like the writer and the filmmakers but her being in the story and making like forming a friendship with rachel sort of balances out the antagonistic relationship that she's having with eleanor so if you the only female relationship you saw in the movie was Rachel and Eleanor, we might be like, oh, that's like, there's other options. But we get a lot, I mean, we get that relationship. We get her relationship with Awkwafina's character. We get a relationship with her mom. Right. Yeah. Whole spectrum of woman on woman interaction. But I think because she's like so rich and like, you know, this like high status woman,

she could easily, you know, ignore or pay no mind to Rachel. But the fact that she's like, I'm going to make an effort to actually like be her friend, I think is like maybe a conscious effort to be like, hey, look, rich people can be nice too. But she cares a lot about her image. Like she invited Amma to the wedding after Michael left her so that nobody would wonder why Michael wasn't there and that's why she walked in with Amma. That's why Amma says, that's why she says thank you

to her Amma when they're walking down and people are like, oh, she never comes. And so that's, like, a hint to, like, this girl cares so much about image. She's, like, neglected her actual relationships. Yeah, I felt the Michael Astrid storyline felt i mean i think it was just because it was like more addressed in the book but like it it felt it felt

weird in the movie a little bit where it's like i in the movie i like felt for michael a little bit where yeah it was kind of like cut and dry in a movie that it does very well with a nuanced storyline. There's felt a little bit less like you cheated on me. Yes. Queen. Bye. Like that was kind of, but I really enjoyed her,

her relationship with Rachel. Uh, that was like presented awesome. And that scene with them on the beach and like where they're bonding and said, and you're like oh this is great and astrid actually didn't want to go on the bachelorette party trip because she says to michael how would you feel if i like came and worked at the office and i was that was the scene where i was like oh this is like actually a real marriage this isn't just like some pretty

thing because like she's offering to give up some like fabulous vacation time to spend time with her husband right and so when she's on the vacation it very much feels like she's like giving up her husband and the trip itself was wasn't something that she really wanted to do it was like a consolation prize so like then when when Michael says that like she never loved him I was like well dude you haven't been paying attention. Well, so I really do like Ash. I know I'm going to be super hard on her, but I, cause I like her and she's the one that I feel like I'm the most aspirational

to. Like I would love to be in her shoes, but I also feel like I recognize her flaws of wanting to be this perfect image. But I also don't think that relation, her relationship with Rachel is all that innocent. I think again, her wanting to be high status draws her to Rachel because she can be the nice girl in high status because Rachel is a commoner.

And so being around Rachel, she's kind of like immune. Whereas if she gets involved with the girls, she's not immune because they're of her level. And so they can play catty with her too. And she could get hurt. And so I think that it was all very calculated and i think even her offering to help out at the office is calculated because it would be taken as an act of sacrifice and she wants everything she does to be recognized as an act of sacrifice so i think i don't know like i just think i really like her but i also i'm really hard on her because i feel like she's like this embodiment of like the sort of Chinese need to succeed and be perfect.

But also being so privileged, you don't see how you are privileged. I don't know. She just isn't perfect. Well, the fact that you're able to say so much about her means that she's written in such a way that you could actually glean this kind of stuff because so many female characters in movies are just like, we don't know anything about this person or her personality or her background or anything like that. So the fact that she is presented with different choices and situations and that you are kind of reading.

Also, she neglects her son. Like they say your son wants to see you. And she's like, okay. And she's like, okay. And she's like, I'll read him some French. A language he doesn't understand. I mean, like, she's already trying to, like, make him into this perfect little international kid. It's like, I think he just wants to spend time with you. Yeah.

She was shopping all day. Spending a million dollars on earrings? Come on. 1.3. But also, i want her life in her defense those earrings were really nice yeah should we talk about uh paiklin yeah aquafina love her yeah i mean she's like the kind of stock like comic relief best friend character as you see in many rom-coms they're like oh we're gonna hire a stand-up to

do this part yeah like yeah her main contributions to the story i think are making sure that rachel looks the part basically so there is the scene early on where she gives her address to where to the party at ama's house and then later there's the makeover. A lot of people tweet at us about the makeover scene. They're like, can't wait for the Crazy Rich Asians episode, comma. Talk about the makeover scene. Oh, no, the makeover scene. This is, I mean, for me, this is just a trapping of the genre that could have been avoided but wasn't.

I don't know. I didn't hate it. It'll have a good montage. Yeah, it was fine. I mean, it's like, the thing about this particular makeover scene that wasn't, I don't know, like, it didn't bother me where

our mentions got flooded about, like, red flag makeover scene, but the way this one is done, I feel like if it's like, okay, we have to have a makeover scene, there has to be a montage scene, whatever, some good looks are seen, but it's not we have to have a makeover scene, there has to be a montage scene. Whatever. Some good looks are seen. But it's not like the Princess Diaries makeover scene where it's like you're becoming another person and we're stripping you of your identity.

Right. Which is what so many makeover scenes are coded as of like, you know, take off the glasses, lift up your tits, like the whole thing. You're not enough. You're not good enough. Right. Stop using three-syllable words. Like, the whole thing. Like, it's a personality makeover, too, where this was sort of just, I don't know. My reading was like, all right.

She just needs a nice dress for the wedding. Right. That's true, though. The whole thing is, like, you're not going to be enough. And she's like, just watch me become a different person. Right. Right. What if she just showed up in sweatpants and was like, I am enough.

I'm so enough that I'm going to scale back how enough I am. She just can't use the entire night on the way. I do. Well, so we'll talk about the makeover scene in a second. But I do kind of wish, one of my issues with this movie is that I wish Rachel, who has a PhD in economics, who's an expert in game theory, which admittedly, I don't know what that is. Should have Googled it, but I literally have no idea. I use game theory in dating all the time. Oh.

Whoa. Are you game-ly? You gotta use it. It's all about cutting your losses. Are you a pickup artist? Did you read the game? No, I don't mean it that way, but your emotional losses. Oh, okay.

It's not about trying to pick up people, but it's like... Game theory is just looking at all the options and deciding all the outcomes and then going off of the worst instead of the best, right? So then if I hide how I feel, the worst case scenario is I'm always going to be lying to myself. So then no matter what, even if you tell the truth and it hurts, it's still better than the one where you're lying to yourself.'s how i use game theory okay got it interesting i should try that if i ever date again um so rachel is an econ professor so she knows about economics she surely knows that capitalism is maybe not the best thing so i what i wish for this movie is that she just did a little bit more to

challenge just the extravagance and the wealth and the opulence and all of that because i mean anyone who gets that rich has exploited people they have probably not done some great things maybe and then doesn't seem like they're aside from astrid they don't seem to be that charitable they seem to just be kind of hoarding their wealth and buying these huge like aquafina i think at one point says like that house is 200 million dollars like that's crazy so i just wish that maybe in in a in a perfect world rachel would have been like hey you guys in all of your wealth, gross, like maybe share some of this IDK. Anyway, basically, I wanted Rachel to be a socialist icon. So back to the makeover scene.

So we talked in the I think it was the Aladdin episode. I think we made the mistake of saying that it's kind of rare to see a movie about a lower status or lower class woman getting together with a higher status guy. But that we weren't right about that. That myth was busted. Because there are plenty of movies like that. This one being one of them. Cinderella. Pride and Prejudice.

She's All That. Made in Manhattan. A true classic. Pretty Woman, My Fair Lady, Flashdance. There's kind of different examples. Mistakes were made. Coming to America. Right.

But in many of these examples, the woman does have to get a makeover or kind of lie about her status to be more appealing to the man. So in Crazy Rich Asians, the makeover, as we said, it's literally just to be like, hey, or Crazy Rich Asians, the makeover, as we said, isn't it's literally just to be like, hey, or it's not even a makeover. It's, it's a dress trying on montage, right? So that I can wear a nice dress to the wedding that I've been I've been planning to go to. And it's not built around a lie. Right? Exactly. That happens. Yeah, it's not like I need to make

myself more physically appealing to the man so that he will realize that he loves me but in movies where it's a like lower status man who ends up with an upper status woman and we see that in things like aladdin titanic obviously swish swish um the notebook lady and the tramp dirty dancing look i'm not running in the tramp we see like in star wars with like han and leia even like there's all these different examples usually in in those cases the man doesn't really have to do much of anything to change rarely even changes his clothes in aladdin yes he becomes a prince, but that, I think, is kind of an exception to the rule. The Beast puts on that nice suit. But he's already

he's the rich one. Oh, true. He's the prince, and Belle is a commoner. Yeah, he's the dog prince. He's that guy in Prince of Dogs. The dog prince coming to CBS this fall. Honestly, wait, really quick side tangent.

Has anyone ever seen the network series from the late 80s about Beauty and the Beast? Oh, the one produced by GRR Martin? Yes, yes. Oh my gosh, it's Beauty and the Beast in late 80s New York City. Beauty is a high-powered lawyer. And she's Linda Hamilton. Yes, she's Linda Hamilton. The Beast is her boyfriend.

The Beast is, what's his name? The guy from Sons of Anarchy. I can't remember. Wait. Ron Perlman. Ron Perlman. Hell boy. So it's like hell boy, Terminator, cowboy.

It is. I won't say it's a good show. I'll say it is a wild ride, and I highly recommend it. He lives in a lair underneath the city, so Linda Hamilton's forced to come see him whenever she has trouble with a case. He's like growling amongst his books. He's like, oh, let me help you with this case. Is he a man or a beast?

No, he's a beast. He's a beast. He's an actual beast. It feels like such a weird, like... Oh, my God. It feels like such a weird, like... Oh, my God. It's like a furry entry. It feels like such a focus group workshop show. I was like, okay.

No. People like Beauty and the Beast. People like lawyers. People like New York City. I just have to remind everyone that without that furry Beauty and the Beast, we would not have Game of Thrones, because that's where GRR Martin got to start. It is.

Wow. So just a quick hot rep for the 1987 Beauty and the Beast TV series. It's real. He looks like the Grinch. He does. The Beast looks very Uncanny Valley in this show.

Anyways, what a time to be alive. To close the book on the dress montage scene, I didn't hate it. It's, I think, there because you can't have a romantic movie without people trying on different clothes. But I think because it's unlike many movies where we see a lower status woman having to basically change everything about herself in order to be even a viable romantic option she has to take off her disgusting glasses and get rid of her horrible ponytail and put on rich people clothes so that doesn't really happen in this movie it's really just her trying on some dresses could the movie have done without it sure it's not a cornerstone plot point of the

film so it easily could have been gotten rid of and the movie would essentially be no different uh another we're talking about i almost feel like maybe it is included because this is a romantic comedy and that is such a familiar scene in that genre and so maybe it's just like the movie's way of being like okay here's this scene this scene, but it's not, there's not the same implied toxicity that this scene would normally have. True. Well, before that scene, Rachel says to Peckin,

she's thinking about not going to the wedding. So the scene sort of serves, I think, as like a supportive scene from her friends, like that we're kind of arming you for the battle of this wedding. Like this wedding is the thing that you came to Singapore for. And so the clothes are, like, almost like a symbol of how to get ready for something as big as this,

which is kind of nice, you know? It's really, it's like about her community helping her. Right. And that scene is part of a larger kind of sequence where before that, they're, like, eating dinner. And Piglin is basically, like, gearing her up to be like, you have to, like, you have to challenge this woman. Like, you need to show her that she that you're like a fighter that you are enough uh there's that whole like bach bach thing and then she says chicken suit to the wedding yeah

yeah and then at the end of that scene rachel's like what are you doing tonight she's like i don't know i'm probably just hanging out at fedex which is the funniest wild shit i would say i was like what are you doing uh i gotta i gotta do my send the mail it doesn't take all night but i gotta psych myself up to do it and i might not even leave my bed because it's so stressful thinking about FedEx it was great and then in the aftermath of the wedding is Pagelin again being a very supportive friend and you know she goes to stay with her I really like that friendship and how that all plays out yeah so makeover scene you know it's it's there it's not the worst example we've ever seen no definitely when did you guys first cry in this movie okay oh okay we are coming on i saw henry what when i saw henry there are quite a few like kind of female gaze shots in this movie where like when michael's

taking a shower and you're just like oh yeah it's yeah but i love that because like asian men i feel like often are desexualized in hollywood yeah so i think they made a point to like almost so much where you're like i get it but they like really linger on makeout scenes to be like look these are sexual beings like there's a lot of asian people where do you think they come from sex well it's also a trope in asian dramas there's always a shower scene to introduce a male love interest in the asian drama there's always like gratuitous showering you're just like okay i've seen it all so it's like a nice nod to that yeah okay that's awesome so my okay we're coming off of our mamma mia episode in which i talk a lot about how I'm not a huge fan of wedding culture I you know don't like

a whole lot of what weddings are about the wedding scene in this movie made me cry each time I saw each of the three times I saw it it's really whenever the lights go down. Yes. Like the illuminated little, is it like fireflies or kind of, and then it's, it's so beautiful. This whole movie is very beautiful. When it really gets me, I know it's crazy. I was thinking about wetbacks that whole scene. I was just like the number of wetbacks taken to this room afterwards. It's when Nick mouths, I love you. and she mouths it back and i was just like i've never cried at a wedding in real life i've never cried at a wedding scene in any movie ever

until this one and i just don't know who i am anymore so i cried a lot in the mom scenes i cried at the wedding but i was also thinking about wet facts, about 50-50. I was like, I want to see the scene of the poor people who have to clean this fucking wedding cup. All the PAs. There's so much.

Like, there's just so, or like, in the world, in the movie, like, the janitorial staff who are like, well, good for them. Like, and then have to,

like, fire up their wet facts. Would see that short film. But anyways, cried at the scene at the end between Rachel and her mom. And her mom, just even when her mom showed up, I was like, mom. And man, yeah, mom scenes make me cry. Mine was at the very end when Eleanor gives her that look. It's like barely an acknowledgement, but there's like just so much in that moment where I was just like, ah! Yeah.

They get it! And I was all in. I really liked the restraint that that scene showed, too, because it could have been like they met up again. Oh, I'm so sorry for being such a bitch. Oh, it's OK. Thank you for accepting me into your family. And it's like none of that happened. None of that needed to happen that like classic and i always cry at this the version of this scene

as well where it's like you are my daughter now and they're like ah but you're right there is a ton of restraint in that scene and it is communicated with the look which is nice yeah is there anything else uh anyone wants to say about the movie? Not too late to cast me in the sequel. It sure isn't. Yeah, Teresa should definitely be in the sequel. Sita, you too. I'll be pickling. So the only white people you see in this movie who have lines are being racist.

Which is? The British guys? are being racist um which is the british guys yeah the british guys at the hotel at the beginning except for the one white guy comes in and he's all like eleanor my friend here let me sell you my hotel so he's being nice but other than that really the only white people you see are either being racist or they are kind of just in the background, sort of the scenery of the movie, much like people of color usually are in most movies. So it's really refreshing. Yeah, we're so racist in other movies. I think minorities get to embody racism in movies.

That's usually their role. Right, unfortunately. But yeah, so this is a movie where white people are treated the same way that people of color normally are in white stories so that was a great kind of reversal there was like an article that said early on when they were adapting the script a producer asked kevin if uh he would consider making rachel white and he's like what the fuck how would that be like a white girlfriend and going to see this crazy rich asian world i'm so glad they didn't do that god that's so of course someone would be like hey just throwing this out there have you thought about emma stone the holy trinity um asian american actors so oh god um there's also been some criticism about the erasure of South Asian people.

I don't know exactly population wise what they comprise in Singapore, but we do see like a few brown people. Yeah, the sea guards. Yeah. But that makes sense to me because the world like again, I don't think this world is free of criticism. Like they're really rich, privileged people. But I think their world is really elitist. Right. So they probably do have a class thing.

Yeah. And I feel like tonally, it would be nice to see more movies about that. But tonally, it would have been weird if we then saw, I don't know, the workers or something and just a serious scene about how it's really hard. The youngs have oppressed us for decades. I feel like would give me my wet vaccine my wet vaccine yeah i mean we do see the market and there is more diversity there true yeah i mean if if anything no movie is impervious to criticism but that to me would, okay, so we need more movies showing a wider range of different types of Asian people. Right.

All right. Well, should we determine whether or not the movie passes the Bechdel test? Yes. Yes, we should. And yes, it does. A million billion times. Yeah, a lot. I stopped counting.

Right. There's a lot of different combinations um rachel and araminta uh rachel and piglin rachel and her mom rachel and eleanor although i would say the vast majority of conversations between women are about nick or the subtext is nick i mean that gets tricky yeah for example like when aram like, hey, come to my bachelorette party. And Rachel's like, I'd love to. Does that pass the Bechdel test? Because they don't specifically say a man's name.

But she's saying, hey, come to the party that celebrates me being single before I marry a man. Right. Kind of thing. We can fall down that rabbit hole all damn day. Right. But there are, like, whenever Rachel's like, Paiklin, you have a cocktail dress in your trunk, and she's like, yeah, I'm not an animal.

That passes the Bechdel test. What are you doing tonight? I don't know, going to FedEx or something is my favorite pass of the day. You're like, wow, okay, cool. And her and the princess talk about something. Oh, yeah. They talk about microloans and how giving women microloans uplifts the economy.

So feminist icon, princess, whatever her name was. She had a name and therefore it passes. Yeah, it passes a bunch of times. And like we were saying, speaking to just like the way women are portrayed. I mean, we see a lot of different types of relationships between women, which is good for any movie. For sure. Definitely. And a lot of twins.

And a lot of twin representation. All time high. Oh, I remember the one thing I didn't say that was in the book that wasn't in the movie. So she has three Pekingese dogs. In the movie, I don't remember what the first one was called, but it's like Rockefeller and Vanderbilt. But the third one in the book. Oh, yeah. So she has three Pekingese dogs. In the movie, I don't remember what the first one was called, but it's like Rockefeller and Vanderbilt. But the third one in the book

is named Trump. No! And they changed it for the movie. Well, they do say, like, Paiklin says, like,

my mom, like, designed her house after Donald Trump's bathroom. That was funny. But I think they were like, we shouldn't have this dog in 2018 named Trump. It's so crazy because the book was written five years ago

and already, yeah. Dystopia. Amazing. Let's rate the movie on a nipple scale. Yeah. Where we rate based on its portrayal and representation of women, 0 to 5 nipples.

Did you feel like how women exist in Chinese culture was represented accurately by this movie? Or were there blind spots that were like missed? Because that was the one, I mean, when I was thinking about my rating, I'm like, I just like, I have lower knowledge of like, is this an accurate representation of women in this culture? I think they had a lot of different kinds of women in this culture too. In the movie, which I liked, I mean, Rachel's the classic

high-achieving Asian American. Her mom is an immigrant that came up through her own education, and then there's the very wealthy people. I would say there weren't enough average Asian representation, like people who are mediocre. There were extraordinary asians represented so that was fine uh but yeah i i would say overall did a good job yeah yeah i feel like that they could probably put like a gay girl in there or something yeah not a gay guy but they also

didn't explicitly say who's gay i feel like it's implied so i feel like it's still very much they say rainbow sheep it's all implied okay a broad comment. Do they not explicitly say it? No, they say rainbow sheep, but it's all implied. Okay. Coded gay characters, man. Right. We gotta say it. Yeah, well, the thing with Oliver's character is, and, well, listeners, if we have any, you know, queer listeners that want to weigh in about this Oliver character,

I think because he identifies himself as the rainbow sheep of the family, I think that's, to me, that's identifying himself as being queer um so i don't even know if he's coded queer i think he's like pretty explicitly that way he just he doesn't like scream i'm gay but you know by him saying rainbow sheep of the family i think that's him identifying himself as queer i do wonder if he sort of falls into sort of a trope queer character, especially a gay man who loves fashion and is all about, like, look at your earrings and look at your shoes and your dress. So I also, the Vito Russo test came to mind,

where it's like, okay, is there identifiably queer characters in the story? Would removing them have an impact on the story? I would argue with his character, it wouldn't make that much of a difference. And that Paiklin would basically take over whatever. And again, that was another thing where I'm like, this is more of a failure of this genre

that this movie doesn't correct per se. Yeah, but I also think it's a little bit like culturally, like that's probably part that if they started talking about it would just be its own movie. But like, I do think he, I don't know how accepting his family is of him being gay. So maybe that is one of the reasons he's kind of marginalized in the story. And also maybe indirectly, like, to the main arc as well.

Yeah. Right. And just, like, mainstream movies are still so hesitant to, like, have out characters. Right. I don't know like rainbow sheep i do i i agree that is identifying as queer but it's just like i don't know yeah yeah it's still felt a little bit tropey yeah for sure so then i guess for my rating i'm gonna give it a four and a half i mean just the obvious wonderful that this movie exists in terms of its representation. I hope to see many more movies like this to come. Hopefully, this is the beginning

of a large trend of seeing many more Asian characters represented on screen, many more Asian stories, mainstream Hollywood stories. I think that the female characters who we do get to know, which there are quite a few, are developed well, they're written carefully, we are given much more context and background for most of them than we're usually afforded in most movies. I do wish that Rachel was a socialist and that she was... I wish she smacked the hammer. Right, of capitalism. She invited people to a DSA meeting at the end of the movie. No, she probably goes to brunch.

Brunch DSA is such a thing. Such as amazing. But yeah, and I like that this movie doesn't adhere to a lot of the tropes of a rom-com and maybe because it's not even really a rom-com. Like, it's not about the pursuit and the developing of that romantic relationship. It's a mom-com. I wanted to read that.

But, yeah, I think I would say most of the characters are developed well, written responsibly. Yay. Hurrah. Four and a half nips. Who are you giving them to? I'm going to give two to Awkwafina. I'm going to give two to Constance Wu. And I'll give my half nip to Oliver

because I like his character too. I'm going to give this a 4.25. All right. Precise. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I just feel like kick it, give 100% or then we'll feel, like, satisfied with ourselves and stop making movies. You got to keep, you know, you got to have a little bit of aspirational growth.

It's the Asian way. Back with the game theory. I felt like it was a really strong story, like, really well written. All the women had agency. I mean, obviously obviously it's about love so it's still gonna go back down to the idea of like being with a man but you know it works with any you know didn't have to be a man it's any relationship is hard and meeting the family is conflict and it's all about sacrifice so i didn't think him being a man and like controlling

her life was so central to right and he wasn't asking to control her life, too, which is nice. Yeah, for sure. So, yeah, high score. And also because Rachel is like, you know, I don't know, she's just like me. Privileged bitch. Who are you giving your nips to? Yeah, I'll give, let's see. I'll give two to Constance Wu.

I'll give one to Awkwafina. Can I give one to the soundtrack? I really like the soundtrack. Oh, go for it. Okay, I'm going to give one to the soundtrack. Great soundtrack. And then I'll give a quarter to the director. I feel like he did a good job of realizing a well-rounded vision. Hell yeah.

So I'm going to be five nipples because everyone should see this movie again next weekend. Yes. Trying to promote it as much as I can. Who would I give nipples to? I would give two to Adelaide Lim, the writer. I just feel like there's such great cultural stuff that she did. One to Constance Wu. One to Eleanor.

One to, I'm sorry, Michelle Yeoh, the goddess Michelle Yeoh. She's amazing. And then I would agree with Teresa. I went to the soundtrack as well because I think the soundtrack did this really good job of showing, like, the cultural dissonance of being Chinese and American. And it kind of gave that to the white audience because it was familiar, but it was different at the same time. So I thought it did a great job. Wait, I want to take back one of my nips from Constance and give it to Michelle. Tough luck, Constance.

Maybe next time. Go back to your syndicated show. I'm going to go four and a half. I really like this movie. I'm excited to see it again. Like, knowing everything we've talked about, it's, like, cool to, I don't know, just, like, I feel like it'll be a slightly different more informed viewing which i'm excited for the only half nip i'm docking it for is the times it falls into the rom-com tropes that i don't love as much the creepy brother trope the

the few things and i just wish that and this is again a genre thing but like i wish that picklin had more of an arc herself other than getting to see cool rich people stuff. She's already rich. Right, right. Where it's like she, I felt like there was room in the story for her to have a small arc of her own and that character for whatever

reason just didn't have it and Awkwafina is amazing in every scene and can do more so I would have liked to see her be allowed to do more as a comic relief have liked to see her be, you know, allowed to do more as a, you know, comic relief character as well. Anyways, four and a half, giving two to Michelle Yeoh, because I love her. Giving one to Constance.

Give one to Aquafina. And I'll just toss my last half one out to Jimmy O. Yang, who we didn't mention the whole damn time. Bernard Tai, he wears shiny underwear. That's what we know about him. That's what we know. And he gets my half nip. Great.

Well, thank you so much, Teresa and Sita. What a treat. What a treat it's been. Thank you for having us. This was so fun. Would you like to plug anything? Where can people follow you online? Oh, sure.

I have a podcast, which you guys both have been on. It's called You Can Tell Me Anything. So you guys should check it out. Checked it out. Check it out. Yeah. People confess secrets to me. So that's on the podcast places.

Yay. It's great. And where can people follow you? Oh, I'm on Twitter at Larissa T. L-E-R-E-S-A-T-E-E. Nice. Perfect. And I'm on Twitter as SlowBear. S-L-O-B-S-A-T-E-E Nice. Perfect. And I'm on Twitter as SlowBear

S-L-O-B-E-A-R and I run a monthly show Interior Defined, which is a couch store, but you can come and enjoy the couches and the store feeds you wine and pizza. That's amazing! Look out for it on my Twitter. Cool. Well, thank you so

much for coming in. You can find us on the Bechtelcast at Bechtelcast on all of the things. If you have any thoughts on this episode, on this movie, we always love to hear from you. We have a Patreon, a.k.a. Matreon, at patreon.com slash Bechtelcast, where we do two bonus episodes a month. This comes out in the very end of August. End of August. You've already heard our doubt episode.

So we're closing out. Jamie's B-Day month, doubt and hackers comes out. The feminist text, hackers 1995 with Matthew Lillard topless. Also, don't forget to go to our website, Bechtelcast.com, and there you can access our Tee Public store, where we have all of our freaking merch.

Get your feminist icon t-shirts. Get your queer icon t-shirts. Get your Alfred Molina feminist icon t-shirts. Get your cat facts with Caitlyn. There were no cats in this movie, but just a reminder that cats do have eight nipples, and that's cat facts with Caitlin. Yeah, we've got clothes.

We've got mugs. We've got wall art. So get whatever that means. Get whatever that is and hang it on your wall. Also, if you live in the Los Angeles area, we are doing a live show in LA on September 15th at 9pm it's at a venue called The Ruby on Sunset Boulevard

in Hollywood, we are talking about Edward Scissorhands and our guest is Maggie Mae Fish, so if you go to our website Bechtelcast.com and you click on the live appearances tab, you'll be able to find the link to get tickets, so come check us out September 15th, 9 p.m.

We will see you there. And thanks for listening. Thank you for listening. Go see this movie. Yes, please. Bye. Bye. Hey, y'all.

Niminy here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, the Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records.

Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist or wherever you get your podcasts. that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's so much beauty in Mexican culture, like mariachis, delicious cuisine, and even lucha libre. Join us for the new podcast, Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish

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