My assigned chore last week was to finish watching the first two movies in the To All the Boys trilogy. I first heard about this trilogy while reading an article in TIME magazine (“Constance Wu and Jenny Han on the Power of Inclusive Storytelling”). The fact that the movie was mentioned in the same sentence as Crazy Rich Asians in an article about AAPI representation made me interested.
When I mentioned To All the Boys to my dad, I was surprised to hear that he had already watched the first two films in the trilogy. In fact, I had caught him at a good time; had I been a day late, he would’ve watched the third film as well.
Being the accommodating parent he is, my dad agreed to hold off on watching To All the Boys: Always and Forever until I had the chance to catch up. That was in May.
However, patience does have its limits. Last week, he asked me to report my progress. When I sheepishly mentioned that I had not even started, he set a hard limit of August 20th for finishing the first two films.
I watched To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before on Tuesday and To All the Boys: PS I Still Love You on Thursday. On Saturday, I watched the third and final film with my dad.
The series is a little cheesy at times, but overall it’s a fun rom-com. The first film definitely works better than the second and third. However, the movies don’t really do justice to Asian-American representation in film. The main character Lara Jean could’ve been played by a girl of any race. Her Korean heritage is given brief shoutouts (i.e. having the family go on a spring vacation to Seoul or playing random K-pop songs in the background), but it doesn’t affect the plot in any way shape or form.
