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Feminist Movie Friday - Tuesday Edition: Romeo Must Die · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: And Samantha.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: And welcome to Stuff Mom Never Told You, a production
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: And welcome to another Feminist Movie Tuesday. Yes, y'all, we
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: are crazy busy at this point in time.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: A little more so than usual. Not only because.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Labor Day was later than usual, like on a different day.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: That pushed us back a little bit. But we're also
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: prepping to be gone for a couple of weeks, including
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: a voyage, which if you haven't heard about it, you
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: should go look it up. Virginvoyages.com slash stuff. Because, yeah,
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: you can get more information. Anyway, but because of that,
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: our schedule is kind of hectic and a little different.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: So bear with us because we're trying to get all
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: these fresh new episodes out still at the same time
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: as we are planning ahead.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: So, yeah.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: A little bump in the road. We're all about flexibility.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: And even more flexible about how we're looking at movies.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: And I will say, before anything, that for those of
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: you who saw the title, you probably already know, we
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: are putting it in our feminist movie series.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't call this a feminist movie. But more of
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: one that's, like, nostalgic. Nostalgic.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Because I love it. And for some reason, I needed
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: Annie to see some of these movies that just gave
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: me joy in my young years. So we are talking
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: about the 2000 hit Romeo Must Die, an action movie
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: that was very, very, very loosely based on Romeo and Juliet. However,
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: in this tale, we have Jet Li, yes, playing Romeo,
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Romeo-ish character, I guess, Han Han. And then we have
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: the R & B legend Aaliyah playing the Juliet character
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Trish O'Day. There is a lot to be said about
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: this movie, both good and bad. Also, I was already
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: saying this. I don't think this would pass the Bechdel test.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: It might, just because Aaliyah's character talks to a co-worker
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: who is a woman, and they seem to be friends.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: And they show off their dance moves.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: It's a very brief moment, but it is indeed a moment.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: So it kind of passes. And then that's about it.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so the movie has a pretty interesting cast, including
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Delroy Lindo from Sinners and so many more. Isaac O'Day,
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: the father or the leader. Controversial actor Isaiah Washington as Mac.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: DMX as club owner Silk.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: And when I'm talking about DMX, I'm talking about Rough Rider, rapper.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: DMX. Anyway, but he was in the.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Movie as club owner Silk, Henry Oh as Choo Sing,
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: my crush from back in the day, I've talked about
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: him many a times actually, Russell Wong as Kai, and
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: Anthony Anderson, yes, Anthony Anderson, as Maurice. He was kind
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: of the comedic character of it all. Though the critics,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: they were not a fan of this movie. They were like, no,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: I think Robert and Ebert put it at 1.5 out
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: of 5.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Of course.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: It was very low.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: The movie did pretty well in the box office, coming
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: out as number two on its debut behind Erin Brockovich.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: That was that era.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: And made $ 91 million worldwide. And the album, well, the
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: album is amazing. It has tracks like A Try Again
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: and others by Aaliyah, which remains as one of my faves.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: As in fact, I've been trying to find a Zumba
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: choreography to that one. I'll get it there. I'm almost there.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: The movie was Aaliyah's debut. She would come out and
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: do Queen of the Damned, but actually died before the
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: production finished. And I believe they had to kind of
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: like rearrange some things because of her untimely death.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: This was Jet Li's second U.S. movie. The first one
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: was being the villain in Lethal Weapon 4. Yeah, yeah.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: So this was his like starring role. And this is
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: all at the same time as like Rush Hour Commit.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: So we know Jackie Chan was really big already. And
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: Jet Li was making his debut in the U.S. as
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: the lead.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: He actually didn't know English, which is kind of noticeable.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: He had some interesting line deliveries, I have to say.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: They helped.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: They, like, they did a good job in helping him
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: with the enunciations and, like, you need to emphasize.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: This, so.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Impressive.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: So let's talk about plot.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: We open the scene very similar to the all-out brawl
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: in Romeo and Juliet, but this time it's in a club,
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: and it's the African-Americans versus Asian-American gangs, essentially. Apparently, there's
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: a gang war for waterfront properties. We have the son
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: of Chinese leader Poe, who is lavishly living it up
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: in this Black-owned club, causing a stir, is told to leave,
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: causing big problems. And enter his father's number one henchman, Kai,
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: who quickly shows off his martial arts skill.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: A lot of acrobatics.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: They really try to translate, like, the Crouching Tiger, that
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: kind of cinematics, into this movie. I don't know if
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: it translated really well, but.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: I loved it. Look, I loved it. I was okay
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: with it.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: But he shows off some moves and his skills. And
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: then enter DMX as Silk with his epic line, Guns
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: don't kill people.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: People kill people.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: As he's holding a machine gun, and then tells the
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Asian people to get out. So that's, I love that line.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: I will never forget that line. It's an amazing delivery.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: After the disruption, we cut to the following morning to
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: see Poe had been killed.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: And from there, the plot begins.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: A war has been going on between the two gangs
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: over land and money. The two main families are working
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: on getting waterfront properties for the rich white people to
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: buy a new NFL franchise and build up a stadium.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: So they're going to make a lot of money in
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: doing this.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: As things heat up, there is unknown accusations about possible
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: foul play in the death of the son, Poe, who
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: did this.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Or was it the black gang who did this?
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: We soon find out that there is a second son, Han,
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: who is the oldest, who had been in prison in
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: Hong Kong for crimes his father had committed. And after
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: learning the news of his brother's death, he escapes.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Even more martial arts, the first X-ray test. Yes. Scene,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: which Annie, you loved. I know you loved.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: And by the way, apparently this was a Jet Li suggestion.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: And I want to say it was Joe Silver who
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: was like, oh, yes. Oh, yes.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: I will get the money for you. We will get
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: this in there. He was very excited.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Well, to the listeners who don't know.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: You don't know. You need to stop and go watch
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: it right now. Yeah.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: It's where, like, say a kick just lands so solidly,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: it will become, the visual will become an x-ray of
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the person who has been kicked. And it will show
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: how it's, like, impacting their skeletal structure.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: So in that first scene, Jet Li breaks the dude's
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: arm by going underneath and breaking his forearm.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: And you can see the break because of the x-ray vision.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Yes. Yes. It might have been ahead of its time.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: I know a couple of movies did this later.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: I think it was.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: This was a gently, it was like, we're going to
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: do this. And was very excited by this. And so
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: with all of that, he escapes to come to the U.S.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: By the way, again, first role, film in English. So
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: having a lot of help. So we see him very stoic.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: And that's why we see him a lot more stoic.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: I think they didn't want to push him too far
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: with the dialogue.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: But he did a good job.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: We soon meet Trish, who is the daughter of O'Day
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: and has made sure to show her being someone who
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: disapproved of her father's business. Her brother actually was a
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: part of that business, working with the father, even though
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: she didn't like it. But she's very protective and loves
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: her brother. And was trying to be like, I'm just
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: worried about you.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: He's like, I know.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: Because of the current friction between the rival gangs, Trish
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: is given the security detail. enter Maurice again played by
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: Anthony Anderson and is the comic relief of it all
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: even calls her Aaliyah in one of the scenes.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Certain things you just can't take too seriously but I
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: was like this guy should have been fired ages ago
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: he's completely incompetent.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Well she does call him moron instead of Maurice quite
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: often it really gets under his skin you could tell
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: um Soon, we have Han and Trish crossing paths and
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: having an interesting meet-cute involving Han stealing a taxi cab.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: And picking Trish up.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: Actually, Trish jumps into the cab trying to run away
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: from Maurice. And they have a whole thing back and
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: forth and a lot of little flirting happening. At one point,
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: he's like, are you scared? And she's like, I've known
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: scarier guys than you.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Real cute, like real cute.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: And then we see her saying, you know, I don't
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: want you to call me.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: I don't want you to call me because you drive
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: like s * * *.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: With a cute little wink. Her little wink is real
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: flirty there.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: After all this, we actually witness the death of her brother,
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: as well as the girlfriend, which they never mention again.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. That's true.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: I always thought that was like, poor girl. Which now
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: brings Trish and Han together to figure out what exactly
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: is happening. All the while, the deal with the NFL
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: is going down. There seems to be a lot of
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: violence happening around the area, interestingly. We soon discover Isaac,
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: Trish's father, has bigger plans to become quote-unquote legitimate and
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: wanting to be a part of the ownership of the
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: NFL team. But uh-oh, it turns out his number one, Mac,
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: is no good and has actually been the one attacking
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: the Black community as well as the one who killed
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: his son.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Boom, boom, boom. After, um, He kidnaps Trish and Han.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: The whole thing goes down.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: A little cute little dance scene that happens with Trish
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: and Han, where Han is very uncomfortable and just standing
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: there staring, and Aaliyah's trying to get him to boogie. Literally,
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: that's the epitome of boogie to me.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Him just, like, arms going back and forth.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Yep, she was doing a lot of the work there,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: for sure.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: I mean, obviously, between the two of them, who's going
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: to be dancing? It's going to be him.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: We also have our, I did not mention the fight scene,
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: which actually became kind of one of the, I think.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: They were the first to honestly do it.
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: I could be wrong, where he has a woman fight
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: for him, but he uses her as the weapon to
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: fight a woman because he couldn't hit a woman.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, Aaliyah is great at that. If somebody
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: tried to do that with my body... It would be
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: a disaster for everyone involved.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: I'll just be crumbling. Me too. Me too.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: I will say they did take that and put it
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: in the Try Again video.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Very cute video. I love that video.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: One of my favorite songs of the whole forever.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Anyway, so all of that goes down.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: And during that point, they get kidnapped by Mac and
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: his crew because he comes and.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Kills Silk to get the property. Yeah.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: At this point, he brings him back to confront Isaac
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: and to tell him he wants his money.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: He doesn't want a part of the NFL. He wants money.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: We see Maurice and crew try to get rid of Han,
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: but of course, he doesn't. And Han gets away and
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: comes to help Trish and Isaac and chases down Mac,
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: who says the line, I'm sorry, Romeo, but you gotta die.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: But into Trish, who shoots him himself. So during this
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: whole confrontation, we found out that he has killed his son,
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: all these things. At the same time, when he asked
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: about Han confronted Mac, saying, why did you kill my brother?
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: He's like, that was all in-house. We didn't do that.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: Uh-oh. Soon we have a confrontation between Kai and Han,
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: who had been friends, or at least really, like, close,
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: because they had trained together. And they go into a
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: very excellent fight scene with the final X-ray scene, as
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: well as the fire circle that they are in.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: You gotta have that fire circle.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Hello.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Give me some skin. That was one of the lines
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: in there that I was like, why? That has to
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: be a line, but okay.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: And of course, Kai loses the fight. Han then goes
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: to confront his father for killing his own son, who
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: takes his own life, rather than having to confront police.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Or having to be arrested, I guess.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: Then we get the end scene of Trish and Han
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: holding hands, with his burnt hands, by the way, which
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: I was very confused by.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: The entire time, and walking away. They're coming to check
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: in on him. Very cute.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: So for this movie, again, I'm going to do it
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: a bit differently since I wouldn't say this movie is
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: really a feminist take on anything. Maybe I'm wrong. Y'all
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: can come tell me. And there are themes here, of course,
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: of family, of loyalty, classism. I guess since there was
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: a scene with Trish, again, with a worker there, again,
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: passing the Bechdel test.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: But I want to talk.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: About why I love this movie as well as why
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: there's some problems with this movie. And I did find
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: some really good articles talking about what this type of
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: movie kind of represented in that era. And then we're
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: going to have a quote at that at the end.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: But before I get into that, Annie, I need your review.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: I need your review on A Childhood Love of Mine,
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: one of my old school favorites.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: What were your thoughts? Oh, my.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Well, I had loosely heard of this movie and I
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: thought I did think it was going to be like
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: violence between two different families like Romeo and Juliet I
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: thought it was going to be much more serious I
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: thought it was going to be like super serious and
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: violent and that's why you almost got so many texts
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: from me that were just quotes out of context they're
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: playing football.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Now I would have known I would have known.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I think you would have it was fun I thought
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: it was really fun and I think I think when
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about some of this stuff, but
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: some of it I was like really intrigued by. Some
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: of the like themes of like gentrification and like getting people,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: especially people of marginalized communities to sell properties. Like there
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: were some themes I was like, you know, this is 2000,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: but this still feels pretty relevant. But yeah, mostly I
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: thought it was pretty fun. And I did think it
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: was interesting too that like, I guess, traitors like Kai
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and Mac. Although I bet people view Mac differently now.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Because his whole thing was like, you can't trust these
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: white guys, man. I just want the money. And it's
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: sort of like, he was sort of right. But he
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: was also a complete asshole who was forcing other... Because
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: a lot of the Black owners you see, they didn't
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: want to leave.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: And he was going to kill you. Right. That was it.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: So I think it was interesting in terms of that.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: It was kind of a fascinating turn of the millennium
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: movie that had some things that felt so... Like the
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: x-ray thing. It felt kind of like, oh, this was
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: of a very specific time. And then some things that
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: felt like, oh, this is still pretty relevant, actually. Yeah.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: So.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: Getting outside of that, when you start trying to dissect
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: the movie, it gets kind of like, ugh, fishy.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: But some of the things that I did.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: Really love, and I think the reason I love it, again,
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: it's kind of not the same, but similar to my
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: love for the Brandy Cinderella movie, that it had.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: Representation, whether it was good or bad.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: It was still a type of representation where an Asian
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: character was the lead, which was so rare. Again, though,
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: like it comes back to like, of course, if it's
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: a martial arts, kung fu, whatever movie, of course, typically,
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: you would expect it to be Asian lead, but that
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: wasn't happening all the time.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: And a lot of the Asian movies, if.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: It was, had white heroes. So this was one of
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: those moments that it didn't have that. And I was like, oh,
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: that's kind of a relief in this. Like it just
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: was as is. And just like you said, it was
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: not serious. Like it's It's absolutely, like, some of the
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: themes can be serious, but it was very glossed over,
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: which could be also a failure, and we can talk about,
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: we're going to talk about that in a minute, but, like,
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: it gave you just enough to understand things were happening
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: without being over the top. I will say, surprisingly, okay,
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: with the fact, we'll come back to the fact that
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: this was written by white men, this was directed by
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: white men, this was produced typically by white men, but
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: they didn't had a little more respectful in dialogue. They
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: didn't try to use hard N, hard N-R.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: Like, in their movie. And I was actually, like, I
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: didn't have ever noticed that.
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, they still say, like, you know, terms to
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: themselves and, like, the Black community would use today, but
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: not to that effect, that you would hear, like, especially
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: if you think of, like, Quentin Tarantino really liberally using
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: it and excitedly using this type of term. I'm like,
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: at least they didn't do that.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, you know what? Okay. Okay. Did they
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: say things that felt a little racist? For sure. Not
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: a little.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Very racist? Yes. Yes.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: Like the Asian dude talking about Blacks, and I was like, oh,
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: I do not need you to say it like that.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Stop that. Stop that.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: So there's definitely like a level of like, still makes
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: me uncomfortable, but at least they didn't have them saying
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: these terms that feels like for so many of the
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: white writer's use it as a go, as a pass,
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: to be able to.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: So, like, I was relieved of that.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: I also loved that it did show Aaliyah in a
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: way of being vulnerable and not too sexualized. Like, they
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: didn't have her overtly being, like, you know, passed around
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: or any of that. Like, she was very strong and
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: steadfast and was an independent woman with a lot of
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: understanding and beliefs. And then you have a father, the
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: actual father, her father being... you know, not a great guy,
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: but trying his best and really trying to, you know,
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: be something for his family.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: That was nice to see. Like so many of.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: The, again, white writers really want to play on things
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: that you're like, you should not be talking about this.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Stop this. So like all of that to say, it's like,
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: it is nice. It is nice to see in that.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: I think that's why, again, I liked it because it was,
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: there was still good guys, bad guys. But the good guys,
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: bad guys weren't your typical good guys, bad guys.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean? And I really, I really.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: Appreciated that level. I really appreciated seeing coupling. So there
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: was a big debate about the fact. that apparently they
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: did test to see, audience test, to see Aaliyah's character
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: and Jet Li's character kiss, and it apparently did not
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: go well. And then one was like a hugging scene,
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: and it did not go well.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: So, but like.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: The same article we read about, we read a little
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: quote from, it's a Vulture article from 2021 talking about
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: this movie, that it was because it was written by
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: white men in a perspective that they themselves couldn't see
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: that happening. They themselves didn't understand that happening, whether it's
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: because they were emasculating an Asian man or so like
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: an emasculated Asian man with a sexualized black woman, you know,
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: which is their stereotype and understanding.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Then it wasn't going to fit well.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: But I still, I think I did love the wholesomeness
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: of their relationship still.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: I think it made it even better for me.
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: And I think a part of that is because there
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: was a huge age difference between them.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: And I was like, Aaliyah's been through enough. I knew
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Aaliyah's background.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: And for those of y'all who don't know, Aaliyah became
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: a star at 14. The people knew who she was. R.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: Kelly took advantage of that and actually married her. with
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: the permission of her parents, and then they got divorced
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: when she, I think, came of age. And there were
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: some indications and understanding that that was real off, obviously.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: We know where R.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: Kelly is today. And so that was real off. Something
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: was really shady and really gross in that. And so
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: seeing him, who was 15 years older, I did not
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: need to see that between them two.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: It was already kind of a stretch to me with
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: their age difference to put them together.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: I was like, mm-hmm. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Because maybe because.
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: Aaliyah was a year older than me and then I
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: knew his age, I was like, there's no way in
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: hell I would kiss him.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Because of the age difference. It's shady.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: And we know Hollywood does that a lot, but I
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: just really respected that level that you can think that
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: they may be together.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: But maybe they're just really good friends. Let them be
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: good friends.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: But their wholesomeness and just like their flirting, their innocence
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: in that flirting, like it was really, It was nice
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: to me. I thought this was a better way to go,
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: but I digress in that level. Again, this whole thing
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: is cheesy. And I love the cheesy.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: I think that's why I.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: Love the old school Asian, not old school, but movies
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: like Crouching Tiger and then Hero. Hero was one of
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: my favorite movies because it's so gorgeous and it's so
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: wonderfully laid out.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: However, it is propaganda. It's coming as propaganda. I figured
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: that out later. I was like, oh, oh, my bad.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: But it's so gorgeous. I really did love it.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: But I loved Jet Li, and I think this movie
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: was what made me love Jet Li and his characters
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: in this. Again, I loved Aaliyah on her own. So
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: having her, I probably would have loved her in everything.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: Has she been able to continue in her career? Because
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: I love her. Like, she was up there with me
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: with Brandy. For some reason, these were people that I loved.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: So all of those things were so wonderful.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Again, the music. When I hear that music, I see
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: the scenes. I can't help it.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: You know, in those movies, you hear it, you're like, oh,
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: there it is. And you start like, uh-huh, I need
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: to go back and watch it.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: That's the first thing.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: I have downloaded a lot of the songs. So I
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: love all of that. These were the things that I loved. Again,
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: a multiracial couple, the idea that it was okay and normal,
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: like nicely done. To me, not okay, normal, but, like,
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: it's not so unheard of here. The fact they had, again,
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: a story, not the greatest story that was centered on
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: non-white people.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: And also the white people were the villains here. Oh, yeah.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: And pretty obviously, pretty immediately.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: Like, the way he said cheddar.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: What did they say?
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Cheddar.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, no. No, no, no, no.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: He needs to go. Well, just to have, like, a meeting...
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: On a golf course about buying waterfront property for NFL, like,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: red flags abound.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: And I bet it happens that way.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'm sure it does.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: More often than not.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: I am sure it does. But I have to tell you,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: it was very clear from the get-go, these are not
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: the guys you want to be working with.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: Don't trust these people. Never trust those, especially in white
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: polo shirts. Come on.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, they cast them well. They had to look.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they definitely did. They looked a little sleazy. No offense.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Then there are things that were problematic. Like, coming back
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: and looking at them, I'm like, oh, yeah, okay.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: This was written by, directed by, produced by white men
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: because it was for their entertainment. I will say Joel
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: Silver was quoted in saying that he was tired of
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: the regular action movies at the time. They thought he
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: was just all overdone and he wanted something completely different.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: And he wanted to see people of color. He really
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: did say that being a part of the action movies. Again,
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: Rush Hour had been a huge hit, so this kind
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: of made sense. I think as they started bringing more
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: and more martial arts into it, you started seeing more
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: and more Asian people being a part of it. Of course, again,
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: they were all either villainized or they were over-sexualized. Definitely
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: just there for the martial arts, it seems.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: But nonetheless... It was coming.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: And I will say, I think he produced other movies
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: that starred Jet Li in DMX.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: Cradle to the Grave. I remember watching this. I don't
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: know anything about it.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, haven't seen that one.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: It's been a minute.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: Because again, I loved Jet Li so much that I
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: watched all his stuff.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: I watched one with him and Jason Statham. I don't
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: recommend it.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Noted.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: Okay. Moving on.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: But like he, Joel Silver really did do this in
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: a perspective of like, we need change. So, you know,
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: give him credit to at least bringing it about. But again,
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: when you have one point of view and you don't
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: bring the people of color into this conversation that you're
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: trying to create, whether it's for good intentions or not,
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: you're going to have some problems.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: And it was very, again, it.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: Was very obvious whether we're talking about literally all Asians
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: know martial arts, right? That was, That was a joke
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: they put in there. But at the same time, apparently
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: they do.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Pretty well.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: As we saw it. As we saw it.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: The Black men are violent and use guns. That was
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: so over the top. The bad idea of being hip-hop.
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: I will cringe forever. The first time I saw it
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: to today about that scene where Aaliyah stops So I'm
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: going to say it with that. Trish stops Han to
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: be like, oh, we can't go into this black club
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: with you looking like that.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: And bro was wearing like a jacket, tucked in.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: Polos, belted, like dad khakis, like not even like, yeah.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Just dad khakis and a hat.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: And so her fixing him was turning the hat backwards,
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: giving him some gum.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: And he kind of pulls the pants down. Not really.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: I'm like, at least untuck your shirt, bro.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Nope.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: So that being the idea of hip-hop, I also, this
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: wasn't the bad part, but I did love the fact
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: that she was dancing to her own song.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: That made me laugh, too.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: In the club. That made me laugh, too. It's a hit, though.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: So if you can, if she, if she's making hits
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: like that, she deserves to dance like that.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Or tries to get that one Asian dude in the
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: middle of the floor to try.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: To dance like that. She was doing her best.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: And he was not moving.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: He was just smiling.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: I will say, I felt like his smiles were genuine
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: because he doesn't typically smile. And he was having the
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: time of his life. Some of the things that I've
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: read about that, it was that she had the best time.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: She loved Russell Wong and she loved Jet Li. She
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: had such a good chemistry with all of them that
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: it was obvious. And every single one of them, even
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: before she had died, was saying she was going to
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: be huge. Like, her acting abilities are only going to grow.
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: And they really talked about how she blew it out
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: the water in getting these things done and just really
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: being excited for her. And this was even before all
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: of that. So it was really sad to see a
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: talent diminish that way, her dying so young. So all
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: that to say, but you can see Jet Li's cheesing
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: in the movie, and I think that's genuine.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: Genuinely done.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: And I love everything about that. But again, you know,
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: having him putting on a backwards hat, trying to kind
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: of sag his pants, which, by the way, no one
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: else seemed to be doing, but whatever. Like, it seemed
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: kind of interesting in that route. We have the emasculating, again,
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: of Asian men, a part of the problem. Like, they
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: didn't really necessarily emasculate him, but they made sure to
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: keep him in his, like, you do martial arts.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: End of story. You're the action portion, and we're going
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: to move you on. He did, again, he did have
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: some good lines. During the football scene.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Oh, the football.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Having the, y'all. Do you want to describe the football scene?
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: When I was watching this.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to blend the martial arts to this.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: I thought, this is where Twilight got the idea. That
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: was one of my first thoughts.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: You might not be wrong.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: So at this point, Trish and Han have struck up
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: kind of a flirty relationship. We haven't talked about this yet,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: but Mac has been being kind of forcefully flirty with Yeah.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: With Trish and pretty much implying, like, I'm going to
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: have all the power and you're going to be with me.
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: So, Mac sees Han sitting on a bench with her
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: and he's with his crew and they're playing football. And
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: he comes up to Han and is like, listen, we
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: need another player. It's going to be so easy. We're
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: going to go so easy on you. It's going to
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: be great. And, you know, Han is kind of like, oh,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: I've never played this game. I don't know this game.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: And they're like, no, no, no. And of course, they
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: basically don't tell him what's going to happen and just
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: kind of dive over him. And I think twice that happens.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: And then one of them says, I think it's Maurice,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: it's like, well, you're the one with the ball. That's
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: why you're always getting hit. And so Han's like, okay,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: let's go again. And he throws the ball to each
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: of them and then uses that as an excuse to
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: use his martial arts skills. to take them down, like
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: the whole 11 people on the team. And very triumphant,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: you know? He gets to the other end, spins the ball,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: and it was like, great game, love it.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: Literally, because the entire time they call each other brother,
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: he's like, brother!
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: And all the kids that Trish was hanging out with,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: genuinely she's with the younger kids because she kind of
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: has an after-school personality. mentoring vibe kind of thing that's
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: the coolest thing we've ever seen but he just bust
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: out martial arts in the middle of like football let's talk.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: About the fact that they're playing flag football in the
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: first place this mean tough game which maybe they do
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: my thought is like why aren't they playing basketball because
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: of the opening scene which by the way doesn't make
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: sense and we have like they the younger version of
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: Han and Po when they lived in China their children
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: are in the sea or water and apparently almost drowned,
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: they remain floating on a deflated basketball in China. Mm-hmm.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: And then come back.
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: And then when he comes back for Poe's funeral and
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: all that, he finds the deflated basketball.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Makes no sense whatsoever.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: It makes no sense whatsoever. That you're like, what? Wait, what?
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: Maybe.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Because I don't even think basketball is popular.
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: as popular as other sports like baseball and soccer.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: So, like, it just kind of doesn't.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Quite hit.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: Who knows? Maybe people in Hong Kong.
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: Maybe if you've been, I don't know, Annie, you kind
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: of know Chinese culture.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: I love Hong Kong. And you've been to Hong Kong.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: Was there a lot of basketball?
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Not that I witnessed. And I guess this came out
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: in 2000, so things.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: Yes, you were a baby. Don't start with me.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: I was in Hong Kong in 2008, I think. I
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: didn't notice it. I know that baseball kind of got
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: a hold in Japan.
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: It implies that they were in a small area in
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: Hong Kong for some reason. Maybe I just made that
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: up in my head. I.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: For some reason, maybe I've seen too many dramas about this,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: but I thought that they were like immigrants and they
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: were like floating on the, this was how they were
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: surviving to make it to Hong Kong. I was very
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: confused by the whole thing also.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: Maybe, I may have missed something. I don't think so.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: No, I don't think you did. I think I was
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: trying to make it, I was trying to make sense
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: of it.
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, this level of like things that it doesn't,
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: like just kind of placed, and again, this is kind
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: of that unseriousness, but like they took a serious scene
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: and put something in there that doesn't make a lot
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: of sense that you start questioning why other than We're
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: going to correlate sports so that we can talk about
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: the Black community crossing.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: Honestly, I'm trying.
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: I'm really reaching here for that one. But there was
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: kind of an understanding of like, why is this happening?
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Why did we think this was the way? With that.
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: I think like we do have the, again, the masculinity
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: of men outside of the, you know, karate, but you're
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: not really, you know, a sexual. And then over-sexualizing black men,
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: like both Mac and Maurice are so over the top
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: and flirting with all the women. Yeah.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: That felt like a ridiculous stereotype that needed, that didn't
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: need to happen. It was just like, do we need that?
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Maurice has like a scene where he tries to
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: remove a woman's headphones. Yeah.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: I would, Well, that woman was ready to fight, too.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: She was ready to fight. Rightfully so.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: She was like, what are you doing?
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: But it was a little over the top. It seemed
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: like the way they made sure, the way they wrote.
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: Maybe it's because they're the bad guys in this. In
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: order to know that they're the bad guys, you also
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: need to know, yes, they are going to. One of
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: the women's biggest fears is being.
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: Sexually harassed and sexually molested and sexually raped. So maybe
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: they were playing on that. I don't know, but it
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: seemed unnecessary.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because especially in, like, Maurice's case, it was very comedic.
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Unnecessary. Yeah, like, Mac was a little scary.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: And Maurice's is too, but it was played as more comedic.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It was seen for more comedic and an escape.
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: Like, it was part of the escape, but, like, again, like,
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: doing something that's a harassment that's like over the crossing
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: boundaries so i felt like that was definitely written in
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: like white perspective of black villains um again it's a
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: bad writing for the for the black actors the african-american
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: actors i was like why are they doing this i
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: feel like they're doing it so over the top and
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: it was just random times because when you have the
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: conversations like with the father and with um the sun
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: it was just a very back and forth about business
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: and then i'll hold up now hold up though like
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: that kind of like overly like dramatic use of uh
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: ave that was like did they even i feel like
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: maybe it's dated and that's why it feels so clunky
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: but it just i think even back then i was
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: like who wrote this again the dmx line was so
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: ridiculous i was like what is happening I think a
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: little conversation, like making sure that we knew it was
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: Black-on-Black crime. Like, sure, they did have the white man
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: pulling the strings, but showing that Black people were really violent,
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: and it was Black-on-Black crime and Asian-on-Asian crime, and they.
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: Were the actual bad guys.
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: They were actual, like, violent ones, not the white people. Yes,
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: white people didn't tell them, but they controlled the money,
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: but they weren't.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: The violent ones.
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: It kind of felt that way to me. That was, like,
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: unsettling and unnecessary in that route, too.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it was definitely touches on a conversation we've
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: had a lot about kind of white supremacy pitting marginalized
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: communities against each other.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: And it kind of like played into that, except, oh, no,
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: the turn is it's not, it's themselves. So still taking
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: that blame away from white people, but also white people
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: controlling it.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: They kind of just like lost the deeds and flew away. Yeah.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: their helicopter.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: So I hope Ani and Isaac actually kept the team.
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: So that's what I really hope is happening. We didn't
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: get that far, but I'm just saying. I did find
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: it funny, the Asian supervillain, the father, and Kai laughing, literally,
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: like rubbing their hands together. I was like, bro, while
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: they were killing off other members of the gang, I
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: was like, really?
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: And the bad jokes.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Yes. Yes, there were many.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: Yes, there were so many.
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I feel like I love in this context,
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: but when you have to break it down, unfortunately, you
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: have to acknowledge all these things, as well as the
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: fact that, yes, there's only allowed one woman in this
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: whole conversation. I mean, except for the woman biker who
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: ends up dying.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. I mean, we talked about her already, but... Yeah. Yeah,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: she was the woman that Trish.
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: Has to fight.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: Has to fight because Jet Li Han won't fight a woman. Yeah, exactly.
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: But in the end, I think the movie was in
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: itself a nice break from reality. It is one of
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: those that you separate kind of because it's not.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: On that serious level. It's not as.
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: Deep as Romeo and Juliet and everybody's like falling apart.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: And you're like, oh no, everything is kind of righted
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: in the end.
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: With Isaac and with Han and with, you know, Trish.
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: I thought this was an interesting article. Again, I've referenced
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: it before. It was a Vulture.com article and Beatrice Loeza,
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: and I'm hoping I said that right. If I didn't,
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: and y'all know, tell me. But she writes this about
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: the movie. So many of the films of this era
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: are riddled with cultural inaccuracies, racial biases, and the over-representation
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: of white creatives above and below the line. Yet in
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: a contemporary landscape that repeatedly approaches cultural diversity and in
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: a cinematic storytelling by exploiting the traumas of people of
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: color or by meeting superficial markers of representations, there's something
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: about the intrepid and unhinged silliness of a movie like
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: Romeo Must Die, a movie that didn't care to impart
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: a profound industry-approved sociopolitical message that feels lacking today. So yeah,
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: it definitely came to a moment of like, oh, okay,
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: this is just a movie and you can watch some
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: actions and watch Aaliyah and listen to a great soundtrack.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: Like that's, kind of what it comes down to.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: And I will say, 2000, as things were already getting rough,
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: it was before September 11th, but it's not the same temperature,
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: political and social and racial temperature as it is today.
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: I think it's hard to, I think it would be
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: hard to do today, to be honest, without it being
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: a little exploitive. especially when you have an all-white, again,
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: as she was talking about, behind-the-scenes people with no representation
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: in it. So that's the thing. But I still, yeah,
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: I enjoy the movie for its silliness. And if you
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: have time, watch it again. Watch it with, like, understanding
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: this is a ridiculous movie, but amazing.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fun.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: It's a fun one.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you suggested it. I'm loving going through your
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: old repertoire and finding out.
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: Oh, so we're going to do Center Stage one day.
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: We're also going to have to do Legend. And this
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: is in honor of Tim Curry. It might be impossible
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: to find because this was, again, Tom Cruise's very first movie.
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: But why I've always been scared of Tim Curry.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: That should be a whole episode. We love you, but
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: here's why you scared us. I'll start with Fern Gully, which,
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: by the way, I rewatched and it's not scary at all.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: But as a kid.
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: You're not the only one.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: It was terrifying.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: You're not the only one.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: Well, this was fun. I look forward to future Samantha pics.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: But for now, listeners, if you have any thoughts about
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: this or any suggestions, we would love to hear from you.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: You can email us at hello at stuffwe'renevertoldyou.com. You can
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: find us on BlueSkype, MomStuffPodcast, We're on Instagram and TikTok
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: at Stuff I Never Told You. We're also on YouTube.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: We have some merchandise at Cotton Bureau, and we have
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: a book you can get wherever you get your books.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Thanks as always to our super producer, Rima, and our
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: executive producer, Maya.
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: And thanks to you for listening. Stuff I Never Told
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: You is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: you can check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.