Where Is My Asian-American Romantic Comedy Starring Ali Wong and Randall Park?
If you haven’t seen Ali Wong’s comedy special Baby Cobra, do yourself a favor and set aside one hour for one of the funniest and nastiest stand-ups you’ll ever see. The comedian addresses everything from being a woman in comedy to the taboos of pregnancy, and then goes another step further. My friends and I won’t stop quoting it at each other, so when the Fresh off the Boat writer revealed in an interview with The New Yorker that she and Randall Park have been talking about a romantic comedy for years that she calls “our version of When Harry Met Sally,” I feel obligated to yell at Hollywood, “this is a golden opportunity! Hurry and pick it up you blind, traditionally white-dominated, whitewashing fools!”
I think the last romantic comedy I saw with two Asian-American leads was The People I’ve Slept With (coincidentally, Randall Park also appears in this one in a supporting role). Rarely do we see two Asian-Americans in a high-budget film, let alone as leads. That’s not to say that there aren’t some great filmmakers making great Asian-American films—there are and have always been talented people telling these stories. Still, the dominant images of de-sexualized Asian men and overly sexualized Asian women persists in most mainstream, big-budget media. While there are examples of this slowly changing, the fact remains that nearly half of Hollywood movies don’t have speaking roles for Asian characters.
A romantic comedy with Ali Wong and Randall Park wouldn’t only be hilarious and entertaining—it would also solidify the fact that Asian characters exist outside of fantastical kung-fu worlds. We fall in love! We find ourselves in wacky situations and misunderstandings! How is this not already in the works?
(via Vulture, image via Netflix)
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