Everything Everywhere All At Once - 媽的多重宇宙

Everything Everywhere All at Once (媽的多重宇宙) is an 2022 film. The movie stars Michelle Yeoh. The supporting cast include Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Harry Shum Jr., James Hong, and Jamie Lee Curtis. The movie is directed by the Daniels, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. The movie has had a great awards season run of late and making headlines. I wanted to get this post out before the results of the Oscars.

Michelle Yeoh plas Evelyn, who is married to Waymond, played by Ke Huy Quan, the mother of Joy, played by Stephanie Hsu, and the daughter of Gong Gong, played by James Hong. Evelyn is full of responsibility as she is running a cleaning store that is attached to a laundry mat. The IRS has taken a keen interest in their tax fillings and has a meeting with an IRS agent, played by Jamie Lee Curtis , to discuss our submissions. While there, Evelyn finds out about her multiverse selves and has to decide is she can help those that contacted her to save it. There is an evil being trying to kill these other universes off. The first universe to fight back, Alphaverse, has contacted her to join the battle. Can Evelyn understand the alpha universes' cause and join in the fight to save them all?

This movie was well made and it kept my attention for most of the movie. There were moments where I had to decide if I wanted to press the forward button. But I did not and immediately felt like I would have rewound. The movie is a play on the multiverse concept that is in comics and the current MCU storyline. The concept of multiple versions of yourself being out there that can be better is a concept older than time. In Asian culture, the concept of the next life is a play on this very concept, abet a little different.

Michelle Yeoh does a great job in this movie in playing all the various versions of Evelyn. Ke does so as well in the role of Waymond. Stephanie has many versions, but they are essentially only two versions. The movie goes a round about way to get to the ending concept of Kindness. The family dynamic of Gong Gong, Evelyn, and Joy plays out dramatically here. Waymond’s struggle is of a son-in-law and husband looking for renewed longings.

I think this is a great American made Asian lead film that moves the needle. I’ll be looking to pick up the 4K Blu-ray someday to support the continued rise of Asian representation in American entertainment. I did not watch this movie in the theaters, but through streaming.

As for the Oscars, I do not have any respect for the awards that they give out, but my opinion doesn’t matter. When introducing things in the future, an instant way to give credibility to a movie or performer is to note how many Oscar noms or awards they got. Doesn’t matter if you care about the Oscars, it’s a standard that’s still used these days. Unavoidable, so I hope ETEWAAO can haul in the Oscars to give itself a standard that generally isn’t disputed.