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Eddie Huang, the multi-hyphenate writer-restaurateur, is adding a director credit to his growing list of accomplishments. The director’s first feature film, “Boogie,” explores a number of the tensions that exist in the second-generation American experience, such as the all-or-nothing pressure to succeed and make your parents proud, as well as the difficulty of straddling two cultures when you feel like you don’t belong in either. Despite the fact that not all of the pieces of “Boogie” come together perfectly, the film is about a family that does not fit neatly into the mold of the typical inspirational immigrant story. The parents in this film are frequently at odds with one another—dad (Perry Yung) has recently been released from prison, and mom (Pamelyn Chee) can be a ruthless disciplinarian. Their only son, Alfred “Boogie” Chin (Taylor Takahashi), is enraged in the way that young people become enraged when doors are closed in their faces, when they see limited options for their future, and when they are forced to do something they don’t want to do in their lives.
Boogie is a difficult character to get into as a performer. Given his macho exterior, it is difficult for him to display any signs of vulnerability or reflection. He’s been struck by the tone-deaf dating instincts of a young man who has never interacted with a female before in his life. Takahashi’s monotonous delivery of “You have a pretty vagina” to his love interest in the film is one of the most cringe-worthy scenes ever created. Unfortunately, even when the dialogue is less obtuse, his performance remains largely at that flat pitch. Even when he’s having heated arguments with his parents or walking around Flushing, Queens, he’s constantly on the lookout for threats from the outside world. As a person, he is outwardly focused rather than internally focused, and he does not connect with others in the same way that he does not engage with them. Everything appears to be a target, and many of his problems appear to be messes that he has created for himself. It must be exhausting to be such a tough guy, doesn’t it?
Mr. Chin, Boogie’s father, returns home from prison with an impossible plan: to get his son into the National Basketball Association. Somehow, the only way to do so is to defeat a Black player from Brooklyn named Monk, who lives in Queens (Pop Smoke). It introduces an uneasy racial dynamic into the story: Boogie must outperform his Black adversary in order to make his parents proud and advance in life; otherwise, he will fail. The way the characters outside the Chin family home are depicted only serves to aggravate the situation. Monk and Boogie’s crush, Eleanor (Taylour Paige), are both reduced to the status of stock characters, while the dysfunctional family is given room to express their ambitions, doubts, and feelings. As for the villain, Monk, he, of course, has a history with Eleanor, which causes Boogie’s insecure masculinity to come to a head, causing him to lose his cool. Despite the fact that Paige makes the most of a bad situation, her character is pushed into an unrealistic relationship with Boogie after he essentially annoys her to the point where she can no longer ignore him any longer. It’s shocking to see his misogynist rage towards her after it’s revealed. She’s had previous relationships with other men, which should be sufficient grounds for her to never speak to him again. Unfortunately, she and the rest of us are stuck with him.
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Chee, like Paige, makes the most of a limited role as Boogie’s volatile mother by making the most of it. In contrast to Chee’s Mrs. Chin, who is even more prone to rage and openly ambitious for her only son to succeed in life, Boogie and his father appear to be on the same angry wavelength with the outward charisma of immovable stones. It’s a little perplexing that Huang suggests that she might be having an affair with her son’s new manager, Melvin (Mike Moh), who is pushing him towards the Chinese leagues and accidentally bruising a cultural sore spot for Boogie. It’s like adding undue tension to an area where Boogie is already experiencing plenty of discomfort. The implication is that he is unable to succeed in this country and must return to his parents’ home country (which is technically Taiwan, but as his parents joke: it’s complicated) in order to do so. Although Mrs. Chin may have some moral failings, Boogie is always ready to slap him in the face and tell him to get back in line, no matter how bad things are going in his world. Mr. Chin may have concocted the idea of the NBA as a ticket to their son’s success, but Mrs. Chin is the one who is determined to see it through to completion.
Boogie Quiz
It is at its best when it explores the real-life anxieties that come with being labeled and stereotyped. In addition to Boogie’s concerns about what others expect of him, Mrs. Chin is concerned about how a visiting coach will perceive their modest home. One scene in which Boogie and Eleanor discuss the significance of beef and broccoli, and how it represents their shared background, is particularly poignant. These moments of self-discovery make up for some of the script’s denser dialogue, its simplistic rivalry, and the film’s sloppy cinematography and editing of Boogie’s basketball games, which are among the film’s weak points.
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According to Huang, “Boogie” serves as a self-contained redemption story. That story is about an Asian American kid who loves Black culture (the film is filled with catchy hip hop tracks to accompany Boogie’s journey), but who also feels like a misfit, resents the pressure placed on him, and refuses to conform to the stereotype of the model minority. The creators of “Fresh Off The Boat,” the television show based on Huang’s memoir, were famously at odds with him after they changed the show’s tone to make it more family-friendly. “Boogie” is Huang’s attempt to demonstrate that the Asian-American experience is not always one of punchlines and is not always appealing to white audiences. It can also be about learning from your mistakes, charting your own course, and bouncing back from setbacks. However, it can also be about existing outside of racist stereotypes, even if one’s existence is imperfect. Through and through, “Boogie” is a personal project, beginning with a stop at Huang’s now-defunct BaoHaus restaurant on 14th Street and continuing with Boogie’s love of hip hop culture. It may not come together as perfectly as Boogie’s ode to beef and broccoli, but it’s food for thought.
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