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Love Alarm: K-dramas

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  I really enjoyed Love Alarm for my first ever Korean drama. The main plot was intriguing, and the characters were entertaining. There were some areas of the show that felt new and somewhat uncomfortable, but was never enough to push me away from watching the rest of the show. I was sucked into this story because it felt somewhat familiar and grounded in reality. It was still fun, and obviously dramatic,  but usually a romance story line would not intrigue me as much as this show did.  I was also interested in the character's personal stories. The main girl is forced to fend for herself after the death of her parents, and seeing the little details in her life was very interesting in contrast to the main love interests wealth. Each character felt like they had their own lives outside of looking for love. The love alarm app is just one of many intricate pieces to this K-drama. I wasn't sure if I would like K-dramas, but I did fully enjoy this one. I think I will most likel...
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Bling Empire: Reality TV and Asian American Identity

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  I am not a fan of reality television, but I do understand the appeal, and this show used the success of popular Asian culture. The popularity of Crazy Rich Asians or even the Kpop idols. The popular entertainment of wealthy voyeurism drove the creation of this show.  I think the creation of this show does fall into a niche of popular Asian culture, but it does ignore many of the other aspects of Asian culture. It's hard to relate to these extremely wealthy individuals, and it's easy to overlook the hardships of Asian identity with shows like this.  I didn't feel like this show was any different from other reality shows. The format was the same, and the individuals and conflicts just reminded me of the Kardashians or Real House Wives. I've only seen bits and pieces of these shows, but the energy and format felt familiar.  I'm still not a fan of reality television, and this show didn't change my mind, but it is interesting to see this small part of Asian cultur...
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Asian American Documentary

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PBS's new five-part documentary on the history of Asians in the United States. Each episode focuses on a particular time in Asian American history, also focusing on one main family each episode. This format is more engaging for the reader, but it also leaves out the stories of so many others. Other than the limitations of the format, the documentary itself was very intriguing. It focused on the hardships of those who traveled to US and how that has affected Asian Americans today. The establishment of the model minority stereotype is explained through the aftermath of the Chinese Exclusion Act. There was also a discussion about nationalism and the choice in loyalty towards either your native country or your new adopted country.  The documentary itself is mostly heartbreaking, displaying the hardships that were faced. It was sad, and almost defeating, but I think if they had made this a lighthearted documentary, then it would defeat the whole point of the documentary. 
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Asian American Youth Culture

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  In the past decade, Asian culture has slowly seeped onto a global stage. Gangnam Style Psy was one of the first memes that comes to mind when I think back. It was so overplayed that I couldn't stand it for a while. I also think that I didn't know it was Korean when it came out. It was just another new internet meme to me.  Today, the rise in popular Asian musicians and idols has skyrocketed. Sometimes, it's impossible to scroll through Twitter without seeing some edit about a Korean idol. It's impossible to ignore the popularity of these groups. The music videos that were chosen this week also showed that some of these groups, like BTS and BLACKPINK, have popular US musicians in their songs as well. The fanbase for these groups has exploded, creating more possibilities for mixing different cultures in music or film. 
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PEN15: Asian American Coming of Age

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  PEN15 is a middle school era show that stars Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle. The show itself explores the difficulties of being an awkward pre-teen. The inclusion of an Asian character also explores ideas of assimilation and intersectionality.  Maya's character explores the extra difficulty of being Asian in a majority white area. In the first episode, Maya is targeted by her class and labeled 'U.G.I.S.' or 'the ugliest girl in school'. Although her Asian identity isn't put to the forefront of the conflict, it still plays a large part in Maya's identity.  The only times we see Maya's Asian identity is when she interacts with her family. An early episode shows her family praying at a shrine for Maya's grandfather. In the same episode, Maya's family is eating a typical American dinner with chopsticks. This is a perfect example of the assimilation that their family is going through in this suburban community. It would have been nice to look further ...
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Margaret Cho: Comedy by and for Asian Americans

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  Margaret Cho's comedy special, PsyCHO,  offered insight into how comedy affects the Asian American experience. Although some of Cho's jokes are uncomfortable or even offensive, most of this act gave insight into the life of Margaret Cho. Some of the jokes are rude or disgusting, but a lot of the jokes are relatable and hilarious.  When the majority of people in class said that they didn't like the special, I was kind of shocked. I do think that Cho did cross a line a few times, but I also was impressed with Cho's ability to laugh at the trauma of being a minority. I'm not sure if laughing at trauma is an Asian American thing or a queer thing, but I didn't feel as though the special was any worse that other comedy specials.  Obviously, I wasn't the target audience for certain jokes, and I am very aware of that, but I don't think the special was bad in any capacity. The queer jokes are what stuck out to me the most because I could relate to them, but the...
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Better Luck Tomorrow

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  I absolutely love when a movie can change my perspective on certain genres, and Better Luck Tomorrow accomplished this. I do not like films that center high schoolers. I think they usually have surface level plots and unremarkable characters. This film changed my perspective on movies that focus on high schoolers. I forgot at certain moments that the characters were even in high school, but that might be because the actors were in their thirties.  The incredible part of this film is that the director plays with the Asian-American identity, flipping the role of model minority on its head. Although these characters may show the model minority stereotype to their parents and teachers, but the audience gets the closest look as to what these characters are really like, without their model minority mask.  The director is taking this idea of 'Asian and Nerdy', and they deconstruct how the audience may perceive the character versus how the characters actually act throughout the...
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