Although we may have heard about the recent push for diversity in Hollywood casting and opportunities, we know that these roles for people of color still tend to be limited. For Asian American representation, I personally believed that it was rare to find genuine mainstream success when it comes to Asian-centered casts in American movies, since popular Asian-based Hollywood films are few and far in-between. I came into the theater for Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, directed by Daniel “Dan” Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, with little expectation and knowledge of what it was about, so I did not expect the amount of artistry and depth that came out of my film-watching experience. The attention and critical acclaim the movie is currently receiving made me consider how the A24 film contributes to the larger movement of Asian American majority casts progressing Asian representation in Hollywood.
Not only did the Daniels’ film challenge Hollywood ageism and sexism in its casting of a middle-aged woman as an ass-kicking martial arts superhero, it genuinely does show viewers the many faces and possibilities for Asian Americans through the cinematic lens of the multiverse. In the film, Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) becomes every possibility of herself; she jumps from a dimension where she’s a movie star (including a clever cameo of Michelle Yeoh at her Crazy Rich Asians premiere!) to world-famous singer to even variations of her humble life as a mother and laundromat owner. Here, audiences, especially the movie’s Asian and Chinese-American patrons, can see themselves through the unlikely superhero of Evelyn, as holding more potentials and opportunities than we may expect of ourselves despite our age, appearance, or current life circumstances.
At its core, however, Everything, Everywhere, All At Once also stays true to its roots as an Asian American immigrant story throughout all the chaos of multiverses, martial arts and black holes. The film brings into light many facets of the Asian-American experiences of immigrants in the U.S., from cultural pressures of being an older generation immigrant trying to maintain the “American Dream” for your family as seen with the family laundromat, to being a new generation first generation Americans balancing their multicultural roots as seen in Joy. We have the cultural values of Evelyn, a Chinese immigrant bent on the traditional pressures of trying to impress her father (including her stubbornness to address her daughter’s girlfriend as a “friend” to not upset his traditional ideas) and holding her family and laundromat together. Her values challenge those of her estranged, millennial daughter, Joy, who struggles to have her mother understand her, including her tattoos and new girlfriend.
All in all, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), Evelyn’s husband, is the heart of the film, emphasizing that yes, maybe everything means nothing and we can’t always find a middle ground when it comes to the complicated layers of generational trauma, but we can all make it mean something when we realize to not give up, and to love and be kind to each other. The Daniels highlight diversity — in relationships, mental health, familial struggles, and cultural pressures in each universe— but all through the eyes of an Asian family, which is what makes this film a true game-changer for propelling inclusion of immigrant and first-generation narratives in Hollywood.
Although there is a move to include a bigger array of Asian American actors y in Hollywood, we’ve only seen a few major mainstream successes in theaters. There was the Joy Luck Club (1993), which although became a large cultural catalyst for its representation of the Asian immigrant stories of women, is still an example of almost 30 years ago. We can think of some recent placements of Asian-Americans in roles of all film and television genres, such as Eternals and Shang Chi (2021) providing a headlining Asian superhero; the hit Netflix show Never Have I Ever with an Indian-American lead; or Crazy Rich Asians (2018), which is the first film since Joy Luck Club featuring a majority Asian cast 25 years later. There are plenty of Asian American stories told in film and television, but few that actually receive recognition and punch another hole in that glass ceiling.
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once showed me (quite literally, since we’re talking about breaking through different universes) how much more possible it is to break these barriers in giving Asian Americans multifaceted roles that encapsulate a variety of genres, emotional depth, and capabilities all into one story that can reach a demographic of all audiences. One of the leading actors of the film, Ke Huy Quan, was previously known for his childhood roles in 80s cult films, such as Data in The Goonies (1985) and Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). Before Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, Quan previously quit acting after this era due to his disappointment of the lack of Asian-American representation in Hollywood. It wasn’t until he watched Crazy Rich Asians in 2019, and Quan realized the steady growth of Hollywood towards diversifying its narratives, leading to his return to acting.
If it weren’t for this major move towards providing for an inclusive audience, we likely would not have received the same experience watching EEAAO without the push from previous AsianAmerican films. e’ve seen with the cultural and social impacts of Crazy Rich Asians, who knows the effects “Everything Everywhere” may have on Hollywood and the future of independent, low-budget filmmaking.