Hulu’s new comedy starring Awkwafina and Sandra Oh has people talking about its uproarious humor, but the film is also resonating for a deeper reason.
“Quiz Lady,” released on Friday, wields comedy to illustrate complicated, often uncomfortable immigrant family dynamics, film experts say. From an absentee mom who runs off to Macau on a gambling bender, to reunited estranged siblings whose chaotic dynamic belies a deeper connection, the film allows Asian Americans and those from immigrant communities the rare opportunity to laugh at their traumas.
“Because we have really ‘big’ comedy, you can actually name the trauma a bit more. It’s so horrible that you can laugh about it, and take away the power of the trauma,” Nancy Wang Yuen, author of the 2016 book “Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism,” told NBC News.
In the film, Anne Yum, a socially anxious, game show-obsessed millennial played by Awkwafina, and her untamed, dysfunctional sister Jenny, played by Oh, are tasked with settling their mother’s gambling debts. Stakes become particularly high after Anne’s dog, Linguini, gets kidnapped and held for ransom, prompting the sisters to set off across the country in an attempt to get Anne on her favorite trivia show, “Can’t Stop the Quiz.” They hope a win can earn them the money to get Anne’s dog back.
But behind the plot points of the film are some very real aspects of the immigrant experience. An early scene flashes back to a young Anne, glued to the television, watching the game show. While Anne’s eyes remain fixated on host Terry McTeer, a fight erupts between her parents upstairs and her father can be heard demanding a divorce before storming out. Other scenes briefly illustrate the consequences of their mother’s gambling addiction.
The family tensions, experts say, are not unlike those that immigrant families often contend with due immense pressures to make it in America. And, Yuen noted, the characters’ wildly…
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