So Yeah What Are You Supposed To Do When You’re At The Age Where Everything You Do Actually Counts

But imagine if Luke’s last name wasn’t actually Patterson, and the Fantom really just looked at that one scene/missing poster a little too hard.

To All the Boys, some personal casting complaints

I read the books before the movie came out because I read that they were adapting the first book into a movie and the main character, even though she was half-white and half-Korean, was going to be played by a Vietnamese actress. I was a bit annoyed since Hollywood has a big problem of casting different ethnicities this way, pushing the assumption that all East and Southeast Asians are interchangeable (when they actually do choose to cast Asians at all).

And then I found out that Kitty was being played by a white actress (I have not found anything that Anna Cathcart is Asian at all, so I was further upset that in Disney’s Descendants, her character’s grandmother was played by an East Asian actress, further driving the idea that she’s part Asian). I was pissed, because that’s the other issue with Hollywood casting Asians, when they choose not to at all and cast white actresses instead.

But I tried to be excited nonetheless because I was/am deprived of Asian leads and Asians as romantic leads in US films, and I’m Viet, so that felt like a bonus.

In the first movie, I didn’t really care as much because of that representation hype and because they never discussed race at all. (Literally the only elements of Korean culture they includes was food) Which I guess I understand, if you’re trying to normalize the idea of an Asian-American lead, just don’t point it out. And the advertising did that work for them. Also, it’s supposed to be solely a love story, so I guess it’s unromantic to talk about race.

But in the sequel, it stuck out a lot more to me that Lana Condor and Anna Cathcart are not Korean to me when they dressed up in hanboks, traditional Korean dresses. And, less so, the scene with Lara Jean and Gen, where she mentions jung, a Korean word that describes the connection between two people that can’t be severed. As nice as that scene was, the whole jung bit felt too thrown in there for my taste because we never meet Lara Jean’s grandma, who introduced the term to her and, more importantly, we never see Lara Jean try to connect to her Korean culture.

It just felt weird to me to see a distinctly Vietnamese face and then a white face use elements from Korean culture, that was more than food, in a movie with zero Korean leads. Personally, I didn’t like that Korean culture was portrayed by non-Koreans as plot point.

That is to say, you can always argue the for the subtle integration of Korean culture in the plot and development of Lara Jean.

If it were up to me, I would have tried to cast Korean actresses, and everyone knows by now that there is no short supply of them. Or adapt to the culture of the lead actor/actress, since they could more accurately portray that culture, in my opinion. (I wouldn’t have done so in this situation because South Korea and Vietnam’s history with the US are very different and not at all interchangeable) (This is coming from the fact that I usually see actors and actresses of one ethnicity play side characters who are of another ethnicity and their culture is never all that important to their character development or plot. It’s more of whoever’s in charge seeing East Asian actors as interchangeable)

That will always be a part of why live-action adaptions are so hard to get right, in my opinion.

Personally, I will always believe the books were better, especially since they had the room to address and highlight Lara Jean’s race and ethnicity in a consistent way. (warning: book spoilers from when I read it around 2 years ago):

Halloween in the first book, Lara Jean said that she usually dressed up as Asian characters (ie. Cho Chang [a ridiculous name btw] instead of Hermione Granger) in order for people to recognize her costume. I think Peter and her decide on a couple’s costume, so that year people actually recognized her even though she didn’t dress-up as an Asian character.

New Years in the second book, Lara Jean and Kitty (and maybe Margot, I don’t really remember) dress-up in Hanboks

ending of the third book, Lara Jean spends the summer before college away from Peter and in South Korea (we don’t get to “read” it and it’s kind of brushed over)

I know it’s not a lot, but I remember feeling so seen and understood when Lara Jean addressed how she was always categorized and reduced to as an Asian. I think it really exemplified the other-ness she felt in small town in Virginia.

But the first movie didn’t address that at all, which I guess I’m okay with because of how irrelevant it is to the main storyline, the love story between Peter and Lara Jean. Especially since they never addressed race at all, it could have felt forced if it wasn’t consistent.

As I mentioned before, it felt so out of place for me to see the two non-Korean actresses dress-up in hanboks.

For the last point, I don’t know how the third movie will portray the ending, my guess is that they either won’t or really push that Lara Jean really hates the idea of the trip because it’ll push her away from Peter. I personally hated that she even disliked the idea of the trip when her dad first told her because I believe in the whole “don’t go to college with a boyfriend” idea.

Feel free to disagree with me, I pretty sure I have a pretty narrow (and selfish) view of how different ethnicities and their cultures should be portrayed in media.

i loved the movie to bits but i really missed this scene, so at the very least here’s my version of it.

what she says: i'm fine

what she means: i still can't believe simon's fucking "friends" abandoned him after he was traumatically outed to the entire school, over something as petty as high school relationships. they didn't even take an "i love you but i'm mad at you" approach, they forced him to face returning to school alone, even sit alone at lunch in total isolation. The hate incident happens in the cafeteria and they don't do ANYTHING. they don't stand up and say anything, they don't support simon, they don't even try to stop it. they just sit silently and watch as simon, and simon ALONE, confronts his attackers in front of everybody. yet somehow the narrative portrays them as The Good Guys, the heroes of the story who have nothing to apologize for.

can't wait to have the cast of a kids' show about ghosts, sad bizaardvark girl and italian rockers with eyeliner as my top spotify artists this year

Maybe finally playing a set of more than one song is their unfinished business? (The sign-up sheet in Finally Free literally says that they have to play 5 songs or for 15 minutes)

okay but can i just say another thing with nick ... he literally shows no interest julie, like pretty much doesn’t know she exists, until she becomes “interesting”. like it isn’t until she performs bright with the band and stuff that he suddenly likes her. like it took her having to have a band and be cool and semi popular for him to have interest in her ... like - doesn’t paint a great narrative there ...

anon you are so right!!!! and okay, i fell asleep thinking about this actually ghfjd because from what we know about nick, he's been dating carrie for a while and has never once shown interest in julie. but the second someone else obviously likes her (ie. you'd have to be blind to not see the way luke looks at her) and she suddenly becomes interesting, with the chance of being popular that he 'finally' realises carrie is not a good person?? hm seems a little sus to me. (not to mention this is all happening after her mum died and we can assume carrie has been making catty comments about that to julie for a year, but he just. didnt have a problem with that before the band??)

plus, at the end of the season when he shows up at julie's house with flowers, after she's told him she's not interested? thats always given me odd vibes. because we know they're not like, friends-friends, and if he just wanted to congratulate her he coulda just sent a text, or waited for school. but instead he shows up at her house uninvited? idk man i just find it a little weird.

AND to add on to this luke has like, lowkey fuckboy vibes from the way he dresses but he's actually very sweet? but i fully believe that nick will actually be a fuckboy, and not really care about who's heart he's breaking

can’t believe there’s going to be a new generation of pjo fans who automatically picture walker scobell when they think of percy jackson and not a hodgepodge of viria and burdge’s fanart. does that make me old

Watching Heartstopper has made me realize that we’re trained to expect that the other shoe will somehow drop in queer media. That something terrible is just going to happen. (Someone gets outed or worse)

And Heartstopper presented us with an opportunity to create queer media without NEEDING for something terrible to happen. Honestly, it was refreshing. I’d like to see more content like this.