In this episode, we dive into *Didi*, a coming-of-age film that hit close to home for all of us—not just for Alex, who relates to its Asian/Filipino themes, but for anyone who’s ever felt like an outsider. We talk about the film’s raw honesty, its nostalgic nods to early internet days, and how it captures the awkward, lo-fi magic of growing up in the late 90s/early 2000s. Listen now and check out more at neverseenitpodcast.com.
Episode Title: Never Seen It – Didi (2024)
In this episode of The Never Seen It Podcast, we’re diving deep into Didi, a coming-of-age film that hit us all right in the feels. On the surface, it’s a story about a teenage boy navigating identity, family, and growing pains—but underneath, it’s a beautifully layered film packed with cultural nuance, millennial nostalgia, and that bittersweet ache of growing up.
We talk about how Didi felt painfully real—not just for Alex, who shares a similar Asian/Filipino background and found so many personal moments reflected on screen—but for all of us who remember what it felt like to be outsiders trying to figure ourselves out. Adrian opens up about those awkward teen years, and how much he related to Didi’s quiet frustrations and social missteps.
Of course, we also go full nostalgia mode: remember MySpace bulletins? Early YouTube skate videos? Lo-fi miniDV cam aesthetics? We wax poetic about that strange, transitional time—the late 90s/early 00s—when the internet was still finding itself and so were we.
This one’s heartfelt, reflective, and full of laughs. Whether or not you’ve seen Didi, we think you’ll find something to connect with here.
🎧 Listen now and check out more at neverseenitpodcast.com
And don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and share the pod with a friend who still remembers their MySpace top 8.
Welcome to the Never Seen It Podcast.
The only podcast called Never Seen It Podcast.
That's worth listening to.
Why is that?
Because we have the gang.
I'm not talking about Vesa.enezuelan gangs, mind you.
I'm talking the gang, the only gang that matters
Mr. Arney, the one-man party, aka.
Arnold Coleo, Mr. Justin Oen, aka.
Shibbs, the Zombie.
Of course, Mr. Alex Calo, aka.
Filipino Grigio, aka.
Daily Dares.
And Donnie's off tonight, but he'll be back.
Nay, you will be back.
He's literally behind the doors behind him.
Yeah.
But he's got other things going on.
He's gallanting.
He's around the world.
He's making some meth.
Yeah.
Tell him the FedEx overnight me some.
Arnoldld.
Sorry.
Just to wake me up.
Let's not do that again.
It won't catch it if you put just a little tiny rock in an envelope.
Yeah, a little tiny one.
They'll be like, whoa, who's putting sand in our man?
It's just pop rocks.
It's just pop rocks.
The never snorted
What are we talking about tonight?
podcast.
We're talking about the 2024 film, DD, directed by Sean Wang.
In 2008, during the last month of summer before
high school begins, an impressionable 13 year
old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can't teach him
how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom.
This film stars Isaac Wang, Joan Chen, Shirley Chen,
Mahala Park.
I'm probably saying that wrong.
A lot of actors who are not famous,
but man, did they give a really good performance in this movie movie?
And I just want to say, if anyone plans to watch this movie by
renting it, don't rent it on YouTube because you will not, for some reason, you will not get the Mandarin subtitles.
I don't know why.
I had to put it in.
It was literally everytit except Mandarin.
I had to put it in Spanish so that I could know what the mom was saying in Mandarin.
So imagine me.
Like, I speak English and Spanish and I have to read Spanish subtitles
from a Mandarin translation.
So that was great.
I thought it was I was telling Alex this.
I thought it was a creative choice.
Like, man, they don't want to be or to know what the mom is saying.
It's all through the context of her son.
But that doesn't make sense because she has entire scenes where she's speaking a lot.
And I'm like, wait a minute.
Something's going on here.
And I know I'm not crazy because someone
else commented on the movie on YouTube that,
hey, did anyone else miss the Mandarin subtitles?
But that's the movie.
So I'm going to ask.
So
who chose this and why did you choose it?
That would be me.
I chose this movie.
I chose because it.
I don't know.
It was something that resonated with it for me, like even just watching
the trailer, you know, for the movie.
This comingof age kind of style story.
I love these kinds of stories, but it was also
in the perspective of an Asian American, you know,
an Americanborn Asian American, right?
And I went
to go see it in the theaters and I was floored.
Even before I went to go see it in theaters, I knew that it had like one bunch of awards.
I was reading up on it and I said, like, it was nominated
for 36 awards and it won 21 of them.
So that's awesome.
That's really cool. 36 awards?
Yeah, I was nominated for 36 awards.
Shout out to Wu-Tang 36 Chambers.
Till those W's up, right?
How's it?
I don't know.
Zoltan.
Like that.
All right calm down, Napoleon.
Let's see.
Yeah, I don't know.
It was just something that I resonated me.
I actually ended up watching it, like in the theater like four times.
But also at the time, I had the AMC like VIP.
So I was like, oh, I'm not make use of it, you know, and there was no other good movies out there.
But that's not to say that it was a bad movie or it was just okay.
It was a great movie.
And I every time I watched it, I like cried, you know?
part of it is like has to do like I
really connected and resonated with the character, you know.
You know, we'll
get into it more and more like in theaters, but in the discussion.
But yeah, that's why it shows it.
Well, that's great.
I mean, honestly, like, this movie unlocked
so many memoriesries from that era for me.
One small detail that I'm
sure you guys noticed in the beginning is that they're watching,
this is a coming-o-age movie where they're watching superstar bad, which is
a comingofage movie.
And I thought, oh, wait a minute, is this a mistake?
Because I know this takes place in 2008 and I had to look it up and Superbad came out in 2007.
So it would make sense that they would be watching Superbad in 2008.
I thought it was such an interesting little detail.
They were watching a movie on Justin's life.
Yeah.
You know, I'm glad you brought that up
because Let's get into that. oddly enough, I
actually related so hard to this movie.
Now, in 2008 was around the time that
I actually got expelled from high school
because I had really bad
grades and along with the bad grades, I got into a lot of fights.
So they're like, I don't you know you were expelled from high school.
That'sed.
I never, I never got a high school diploma, but I did get my GED.
You good enough degree?
You're good enough to diploma?
Well, I'm very proud of it because it's allowed me to
get a lot of things that I don't think most people who
got high school diplomas even got.
So let's just say the benefit of the GED
is it turned my life around at a point where it was its lowest
I mean, it gets pretty low, but it
was at a pretty low point in my life.
And I'm pretty happy with that.
But going back, a lot of this happened in 2008 and,
you know, I'm like, I'm not, I'm out of school.
And these are actually the kind of things I was like watching and doing.
So surprisingly enough, I related pretty hard on
everything in this movie, like, uh, especially like
the scenes with like MySpace and things like that. or not, yeah, MySpace.
Yeah.
It was crazy how like not too
long ago, um we were building like
our own pages using, you know, HTML
coding and stuff like that.
And, uh, I resonated with that, you know, going
on someone's profile and just kind of like lurking their profiles.
Who's their top eight?
Yeah.
Who's the top eight, top five, top 10, whatever it was.
You're able to get a code to increase it to like top 20 or whatever.
I remember that I didn't know that.
I love that.
The Matrix dropped down like graphics
coming from the top and bottom of your profile.
Yeah, just like a bunch of insane stuff.
I think the only thing that
I didn't really relate to is like
the running away stuff.
I would say that was like, I didn't run away because
I was like, when I was growing up, I was helping my mom,
even though I couldn't get a job and whatever, it was, I was helping my mom with my brother
mostly.
So I think that was a little bit of a difference, but it was a single mom type of deal.
And I didn't have a grandma, you know, necessarily all the time to take care of us.
Like we'd go visit her on every other weekend after church
and then we'd spend the weekend with grandma, but, uh, it wasn't like
as close- knitted as they were in this movie, though.
But, uh, yeah, a lot of the 2008 things caught me by surprise.
I'm like, wow, you know, I actually have a very vivid memory
of that growing up in that time, even though I wasn't as
young as those kids, I still saw and did mostly
the same things, even as someone like ending getting to the end stage of high school.
Yeah.
What's the age difference between those kids and you?
So, uh,
didn't they like talk about?
They were just entering high school.
They were just like, like, yeah, they're like, they're like freshmen.
So, well, in California, they're considered freshmen because once you go to sixth grade,
that's freshmanman year, but fifth grade
is the ending of middle school, at least in California.
So, So I would say they're like 14, 15, right?
Didn't they Hold on, Wait, wait, no.
Wait.
Is it?
No one.
Because it's a 12th grade, right?
The 12th grade.
junior high is..
Well, he's 13 in the movie.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying..
Yeah, so they're they're like, yeah, they're...
Oh, that's right.
I'm totally confused.
Yeah, ninth grade.
You're right.
is freshman, right?
Yeah.
So he was 14.
Well, let's not get lost to the weens.
Anyway.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Anyway, were you in 2008?
I was like, I was like just turning
uh.
Eight.
No, 2008.
Well, I was 22, and how many years older than you, am I?
Let's see.
I was born in 88, so that would have been 20. 20 years old.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you were that's off.
I'm not too far off, but I would say there's a five-year gap between me and these kids.
Yeah.
Well, even though there's an age gap,
I, I think the thing I related to the most was Deei was constantly getting kicked down, man.
Like, couldn't catch a break.
Once he thought he was going to catch a break, he then they went the other way.
And it was like, I could totally relate to that the most.
It's just sort of the idea of like
feeling ostracized from like,
your peers and kind of like doing
things and saying the wrong things at the wrong times and like, you know, kind of getting kicked down for that.
I think that's what makes it such a relatable,
almost universal story in a way.
I feel like almost everybody can relate to like
you know, those types of feelings at some point in their life, especially as kids.
But, man, I felt so bad for him throughout the whole freaking movie.
I was waiting for like for him to catch a break.
And then like when he started working with those skater
kids and filming their stuff, I thought, okay, this is going to be the moment in the story
where he's going to make these cool videos.
He's going to upload them to you YouTube because they focused on YouTube a lot in this movie.
Have you guys noticed?
So I thought, oh, in my head, I thought, okay, he's going to make these videos are going to go viral
you know, viral.
Remember that?
And he's going to experience the early internet age of going viral and stuff.
He's going to be considered cool and people are going to know.
But no, they didn't, they didn't do that.
That's a very first draft idea.
Instead, what happened was the exact opposite.
He ended up being ostracized by the very kids that he was
doing the videos for.
And because he was mean to his mom in front of them.
And I thought that was another, such a grounded thing,
like kids trying to act cool and trying to like be
cool in front of their friends by being a dick to their parents.
And I'm like, as a parent, I'm like, oh, God, if
if that ever happens to me, I don't know how I'm going to handle it because the mom had them a lot better than I think I'll handle it.
So yeah.
I think that if you, if you, for that scene, that particular scene
I think there's like that whole kind of sea change in that culture,
you know, where like kids are starting to respect their parents more.
They understand what's going on this.
At least certain
ages, they understand the
trials that a lot of parents are going through, right?
Like either they're single parents or like the situation that DD's in.
So they understand, but like,
the difference, there's like a kind of also this difference between,
um immigrant families and
what they go through and what American born, just like, like,
people who have been here for generations have much
longer than a lot of like other immigrants.
It's sort of like they seem to understand a little bit.
You don't talk to your mom that way.
She's the one that raises.
God.
You know?
But then like.
You catch five across the list you talk to your mom that way.
Yeah.
But like, as as an Asian kid, uh, first
generation is it, is that what it is when you're like the first one born
Yeah, the first one's born.
So first generation, Filipino American, I was like that.
You know, I didn't I didn't, you know, I was trying to find my place
in society and within my peers.
But be accepted.
And I was trying hard to be accepted.
I was doing things that weren't authentically me,
you know, but I thought they were cool.
I thought they were like
you know, and I didn't, you know, I don't know about Arnold
when we were being raised, but, like, I for
a time, I pushed away from like how DDD did
from my own culture.
Like Isn't that?
You're so Filipino.
You're so Asian.
Oh, right.
That whole thing.
Isn't that interesting how you can grow up in the same household as
any other sibling, but you guys can have completely different experiences?
Oh, yeah.
I thought about that a lot lately, just like.
I feel like.
I don't know.
I feel like
and I had had like completely different experiences too.
Right.
And that's what I mean.
Like, that's so interesting how, you know, it just proves all different.
You can really be at the end of the day, from your siblings.
even though you were raised by the same parents.
And, you know, when I was watching this, Alex, I I really appreciated that.
It's like they showed in a very grounded way what it's
like to be in a multigenerational immigrant household.
You know, you have the grandma, you have the mom
and you have Dee and his sister.
And I don't know how much she was college age, right?
Because she went off to college at the end or I did I confuse that?
That's why she leaves.
The older sister?
Yeah, she went off to college.
Yeah, she went to college.
Yeah, yeah.
And it kind of made me think like, man, it's
almost like a lot of us had the same upbringing regardless of
race, ethnicity, whatever.
You know, when you grow up in a multi-generational household
like that, I didn't grow up in a multi-generation,
not necessarily, but my grandparents lived very close to where I grew up.
So I was always around my grandparents, my aunts, my uncles.
So I still like saw a lot of that.
And when I saw that in this movie, I was like, that's so funny how like,
we' we're so alike in so many ways, despite all of our other differences.
And I really appreciated that aspect of
this film. as well as many other things.
But yeah, Arnold, have
you watched this movie before and what stood out to you the most, Arnold
No, I have never seen this movie.
I remember scrolling
through, you know, one of those nights when you're like, oh, what do you want to watch?
And I remember seeing this and I was like, oh, this looks really good.
I want to watch it sometime.
But then after I had scrolling for 45 minutes
then then I was like, you know, I don't feel like watching a movie anymore.
So then I just didn't watch watch a movie.
It just probably watched, I don't know, a
food show or Sports Center or something.
But Finally, so I'm like, I'm glad that that that
you picked this movie, Alex, because I was wanting to watch it.
And I did relate a lot to it
back to what we were talking about.
The struggles as
a teenager growing up and trying to fit in,
trying to be accepted.
I feel like, you did what you, you know,
you went the route that you did and
I went the route that I went and I feel like it
was it was almost like I, I had to, I don't know.
I felt like I needed to
do that to feel accepted by friends
and people that that I wanted
to be friends with, people that I wanted to, who I thought were cool.
And it was, you know, the stupid things that
that you would do as a teenager
to be accepted, to feel cool.
And
so, you know, it led me to a lot of different things, but you learn
part of growing up.
But definitely relate to a lot of the stuff.
I grew up.
When did my did MySpace start?
That was like 2003, now?
I was going to say 2003 was when MySpace started getting off the ground.
Quick question, because I'm glad you bring that up.
But did MySpace have relationships down back then?
I don't remember that.
Yeah, I did.
Yes, I did.
Absolutely.
I didn't know that.
I noticed that.
Yeah.
You could put like single married,
and then there was like complicated worst.
It's complicated, yeah.
Okay, another question.
And this is all very, you know, but, but were
people still using AI in 2008?
Yeah.
On, it was starting to dwindle off, though, I think.
At that point, they had reached its peak and people were kind of more messaging on
on MySpace.
Yeah, because MySpace ended up having instant messenger on there, too.
I thought it was so wild back in the day, on MySpacepace,
you could just go to people's pages and view their wall.
And then the things that people post on
there and write on there is like, hey, you want to go to the mall
or I think that's what they one of the things that they
posted on there, hey, want to hang out at the mall?
Like, you can see like other people's business.
Like, like, and you know that.
And so then in the back back of your mind, it's almost like for show.
Yeah.
It's like, oh, I know where you're going to be in about an hour
Yeah.
Did you guys find
it interesting that this was was sort of like Dee was like, that's
like the first generation where his social life started being shaped by social
media with YouTube and MySpace still being
a thing and aim still apparently being a thing?
Did you guys find that kind of interesting how like, like that, that's like the first sort of generation
that, uh, came up with social media.
Yeah, it's, it's kind of funny you mentioned that
because, um, like, I think it even goes back to when like
you, Sam, and Tim were doing like YouTube videos.
I think of that because, I mean, I did the same thing when
I, um, was going to a job court.
I lived on campus.
So there's nothing better to do than to like record some stupid videos
on our phones. because my friend, he had a nice phone
that actually had like a camera, a video camera feature on it.
So we just made like stupid like videos because you can
also pause the recording and then resume recording.
It was like super like advanced technology for
his time and we made like a bunch of dumb videos and put it to YouTube
And so I can, I can relate
how it was like, it was kind of almost a
need to have social media at that point in
time to connect with your friends.
And that was the first time in ages I was
able to connect with people that I haven't seen since like even elementary school.
I'll find their profile by typing their name and
oh, they have a MySpace page and then I'll just see.
And I'll be like, hmm, am I still going to talk to them or not based on like their pictures and their
their music and stuff like that?
Nah, I'm not going to message him.
I'm not going to friend them.
And that was before like anybody can like see that you viewed their page or whatever.
So it was, it was an interesting
point in time that kind of revolutionized
how we use our computers to this day.
Yeah.
Yeah, for me, imagine imagine for me that, okay, go ahead, Arnold.
Oh, so for them, it was an interesting time
for a teenager
or a high schooler.
Interesting time for..
We could do it at a point.
We'll do it.
Yeah, yeah, no worries.
Hold on.
No, it's okay.
Do an edit point.
That's fine.
Arnold, where's the baby?
Bringing the baby.
He's right here.
He's trying to get some of these...
He's looking at the fried green beans and the sweet potato fries.
Yeah, I won't.
No.
You can't have none.
Sorry.
I'm just going to say this right now.
What a perfect time for that to happen because it's similar to what we're talking about.
Exactly.
That was planned.
That was planned.
It was all planned.
Yeah, I texted mom and said, just for her to open the door and just start talking.
Thanks.
Yeah.
I even told her
I told her that our recording.
That's hilariousous.
And just to be clear, your guys's mom
was born and raised in the Philippines, right?
Yeah.
Well, so she's now lived
in the U.S. way longer than she ever was.
I'd Let me ask you this.
Right, right.
Right.
What's the biggest relatable thing?
Watching this movie and with your own
like, you know, with your own parents and stuff, like, like with your mom?
Like, did you see a lot of that?
Did you see a lot of you and yourself sort of while watching this movie?
Is that why this movie is like so relatable?
For me, it was like, it was definitely,
there were certain aspects that were similar
right?
Like that situation there, there
was like, you know, the the kind of like,
I see it now, like, like having time passed and like going through like
you know, figuring out the
way, you know, love language and stuff like that, right?
For me, I had this
idea of love languages being like, oh, like how you saw
on TV, like American sitcoms, you know, things like that.
And that's what was kind of embedded in what I found as the norm for me
You know, I wanted to be also being told they' proud of me, right?
But I, to be honest, like, never heard it once.
Still haven't, you know, to this day.
Like, I don't, can't recall a moment.
I know they were proud of me.
I know they were proud of me.
But they would do it in certain ways now.
I understand now after having, you know,
gone through like a lot of therapy and gone through like
reading like stuff like that, you know, they showed
that they cared, but it was just this sort of like, like how
in the movie, a lot of nagging, right?
A lot of nagging.
Oh, don't don't do this.
Don't do that.
Make sure you, like, just
dumb stuff, like like it just feels
so annoying as a kid and
I it's like I wish you would like tell me you were proud of me or like that
you know, that just straight up, like,
rather than just like, it felt like criticism all the time, right?
That's what it's felt like all the time.
Yeah.
And
Listen, it wouldn't be an immigrant family if there was no criticism.
If you grew up in an immigrant family
without criticism, your family was dead the whole time.
Yeah.
Believe me.
But the biggest difference, the biggest difference between,
I saw that between my mom and Deeee's mom
I think it has a lot to do with her
Dee's mom being an artist, like, being open
to like culture and Dude, society.
It broke my heart.
Yeah.
That scene where she lost, where she didn't get into the art competition, where she gets that letter
Oh, yeah.
That broke my heart.
I felt so bad for her.
Yeah.
You know, I felt so bad.
But let me ask you really quick, and I don't mean to interrupt Alex, I'm sorry, but what
was the deal between her and the grandma?
First of all, was that her mother or was that her husband?
No, that's her husband's mom.
So that's her mother-in-law.
Okay.
And what was the, I didn't go back and rewatch those parts of the captions.
What was the conflict there?
So here's the thing.
There's
a concept in an Asian community called the Tiger Mom.
And the Tiger mom is it
shows up more in like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
It shows up in Filipino culture as well, but not so rigid
but it's still kind of rigid where like
the expectations of to do well in school, to
be like, you know, even and
do piano lessons or exccel in sports or, you know, things like that.
And it's almost like we're doing it for you,
not for ourselves, right?
Like, I loved playing a piano, but
my mom was kind of forceful.
I was like, I'm paying all this money.
You need to practice.
And it took away all the joy out of it, you know?
Like, I wanted to learn how to play piano.
I loved music, but then it that whole like
sort of forceful pushing into that sort of thing made me not want to do it.
Like,
that's how I always was when I was a kid.
It's like, don't force me.
Like I want to enjoy this thing.
Like, but when you make me.
I think that's why I stuck with kung Fu for so long
because I enjoyed it and they weren't pushing me.
It was something I wanted to do, right?
And it was also really cool to spend
time with like Arnold and like all my cousins and stuff like that.
But and also, like some of my my misfit friends that
I went to school, like also started going to Kungu with me.
Yeah, see, that's how I was with baseball.
My parents forced me to play baseball in elementary school, and I hated that shit.
I hated it.
Dude, I almost got a heat stroke one time..
That's not funny.
No, no, it is funny now on retro
I remember I remember going to my grandmapa's house and
after the game and I just lying on his couch and
just passing out because I was so like just being in the sun all day.
And, you know, nobody had water bottles.
Kids didn't take water bottles back then. sprink
Yeah.
We were We were raw dogging life in the 90s, guys.
There was a time when we were taking
piano lessons and our piano teacher, Miss Santiago.
I'm going to call you out, Miss Santiago.
I
was playing piano and I wasn't getting it right.
And she hit my fingers with a pencil.
I was like, that, that moment,
that turned me off from watching to play piano.
Right.
Now, going back to the whole tiger mom thing, who were you going to say
as the tiger mom, the mom or the grandmom in that scene?
What was mom was mom.
Why was was grandma getting pissy with her daughter-in-law?
She thinks that
in that scene, especially in the kitchen, scene,
she was like trying
to like the grandmother was trying to
horn her way into like, saying that she's there to help, right?
But like, but the mom is like, you always just get in the way.
You just let me do it.
Like, I know how to do this.
Like, you think I don't know how to take care of my kids.
You don't, you think I don't know how to
raise them.
I know you think I'm a bad person.
You think I don't know to take care of them, but she does.
She's been the one there since day one, since like
her husband is all the way in Taiwan.
She even takes care of the grandmother and she just doesn't realize
it or doesn't want to see it because like, I think that's one
of the things with also the older generation
I, I think it's also with a lot of older generations in
general, not just Asians or any immigrants, but a
lot of them like have this, like, no, I'm independent.
Like, I know how to do this better than you know how to do it.
But the reality is like, we're all,
like, all parents are going into this blind
and they're learning on the job, all the time, constantly.
You know, nobody has the answers and because every kid is different, you know?
Yeah, not only that, but I mean, grandma
probably was born and raised and lived most of her life in Taiwan.
Mom is here in the U.S. now raising American kids.
It's not going to be the same.
It's funny.
In so many ways.
That whole scene where he comes back after getting hit
in the eye and the grandmother's like, kids should be playing by at the creek with crickets.
He's's like, what?
That's a completely different world.
Like, kids don't do that here in American.
Going down to the creek where the creek
playing with creek kids, you know?
Well, kids don't go outside anymore unsupervised.
That doesn't.
But even then, even back then, the kids were still doing that going outside and unvised.
Yeah.
But it's so funny.
It's so funny watching this and knowing it takes place
in that era, knowing that was probably the last generation that could do that.
Just be out and about uncivilized, you know,
doing whatever.
You can't do that now.
Yeah.
Well, no, an interesting thing.
I just thought about it.
Like, yeah, that was the first generation of
kids in, you know, middle school during that age.
At that time
I was already. over 21.
I was already like
in the club scene. in the party scene.
So we were also, it was also interesting being
the first group of people
to live through MySpace age
at that age as well.
Yeah.
Now, Arnold, would you say that
you relate to DD in that sense?
Because I noticed there was a lot of him hanging out with his friend and stuff.
First, the A group and then
the B group, the B group being the skater dudes.
Would you say you did that a lot and you could relate to that a lot?
Because that's kind of how your
social circle was when you were young?
Kind of?
So I was, I I was a little bit different.
I was kind of like a chameleon, like, uh, I was cool with the cholos.
I was cool with the, you know, the blacks.
But my core group of friends
there was some black people.
There were some white people.
There was a lot of Filipinos, like all my cousins and everything.
Some white dudes.
Have you ever felt, this goes to the room.
Have you guys ever felt like you guys kind of have always lived your life on
the margins a little bit just to like a little bit?
Like you've always been kind of like the outsider dude.
Yeah.
And you respect your social groups.
I I've always felt that way. especially in
high school, my, I had three friends,
the guy friends anyways, that they were, we were all
nerds and dorks and we didn't do we didn't party.
We didn't go anywhere.
We did kung fu.
You know, we practiced kung fu
played music sometimes.
The only other kids I hung out with were like Christina,
the kids in the Asian club.
And that was kind of like me.
At that moment in high school, when I like discovered
that club, that's when I started connecting with my Asian-ess, you know,
because like I saw other kids really being proud of it.
Right.
And so that's when that was like, I
discovered that club maybe around, uh, I graduated in 96.
Probably in like 94.
I discovered that in my sophomore year.
And that's
when I really started connecting with a lot of other Asians, right?
And I I didn't feel so weird about it, right?
And I even more so
embraced it and wanted my, my friends
who were like the dark who did kung fu with me.
You know, we we would go,
they would come to Asian club meetings because, you know, hey, it's open to everybody.
But we wanted to embrace everybody
And so well, I didn't really think Asian
being Asian was cool until like 99.
Like I I always felt it was like cool to be Asian.
I always like certain Asian, but I knew that it was still on the margins.
I didn't see it as really cool and
this like kind of niche underground, like, oh, you
know, something I cheap on my should or something until 999 when I
discovered giantot magazine that where they had this sort of
they showed it that like Asian culture was really cool.
Like, you're pissing out if you don't understand this.
Yeah, see, you came up during a time before
being nerdy was cool in mainstream.
Now it's totally mainstream and it's like,
oh, it's cool to be into whatever, Harry Potter, Star Wars, whatever the fuck.
Back then, not as much.
It wasn't as cool to be a nerd back then.
you know, because we didn't have the internet to validate how
cool it can be to be a nerd or whatever.
Yeah, people would make fun of you by it.
You know.
You know, like a lot of that happened to
me where it was like, it was uncool to like certain shows.
I like had like a closeted thing
for a little bit where I was like, I really like these shows, but if
I had told any of my friends about it, I'd get
criticized and made fun of because I was already going
through like a lot of bullying issues too.
Yeah.
And it was like, yeah, it was like, yeah, I like Sailor Moon.
Yeah, I like Power Puff Girls.
Yeah, I like my Chemical Romance.
I, I hid the fact that I liked my chemical romance
for so long.
You put put a target on your back.
Oh, no, for real.
I was like, I was like, man, yeah, MCR.
Hey.
yeah, I like hid a bunch of things like
that because I didn't want to get criticized, but now it's like, I don't care.
Yeah, I like that stuff.
I don't care what anybody else thinks.
That's the thing about being a kid is that you don't realize this kind of shit until way later on.
And I don't know how.
I guess I guess now it's probably easier than back then.
How do you normalize with your children?
How do you make it normal for them to know that like, oh, you
don't have to be afraid to show your interests, your hobbies.
How do you normalize being yourself?
Well, I think it's a great question.
That's a great, great question.
I think it came, for me, it came from
seeing others come together.
And that's why like the culture of going to comic book conventions.
Like, it started with going to shows, seeing other
people who were like into the same weird stuff that I was into, you know?
But then I felt like when I went to Comic Con, San Diego Comic Con
was where like, it really hit me.
It was like, to be into like a lot of niche
things, weird things, like and see other people into it.
It's like, man, that is, that is such a,
like a cool thing to
you know, be connected to, like find these connections.
And I'm super grateful for that kind of community.
Like, not just like, especially like when I discover,
I discovered giant Robot magazine at
Comic Con, San Diego Comic Con.
And then I kind of like started to have this sort of,
um, not, I don't want to say a friendship because they we
were just more acquaintances, but like, um, Eric Nakamura, um
from giant Robot, I'd always have conversations
with him at San Diego Comic Con, you know?
I don't know if he ever remembered me
the whole, like every single time, but it's like, like
I, I appreciated the conversations with him so much that like whenever I would
talk to, you know, talk to him, it just felt like connecting with somebody who understood me.
And then like, and with that magazine,
this, it was like this extension of like this
other community that also got me, right?
Like there were all these other Asians who got me.
And not just the Asians in that Mexine.
They represented cool art
There was like Mexicans being representeded in there.
There was like white people, black people being represented.
They were just part of this whole kind of cool art culture,
music culture thing that like also
appreciated Asian the Asian community.
And that's like how
kind of like how Deeee in the movie
finds his, at the very end, finds his
tribe, so to speak, within the visual visual arts club, you know?
And I thought that was such a cool moment.
He's like, he's
finding that, you know?
He's finding himself truly now.
That's the other thing I related to.
I was totally the AV club nerd in school as well.
So when he he joined like the AV club, I was like, God, that was me in high school.
Like, that's so
you know, that's so relatable.
But dude, there was like a lot of, there was
some Mean Girls moments in this movie, too, when he's, when he's, when
he's hanging out with the two chicks and the guy and he he awkward.
I forget.
What does he say?
He calls her like something, but like in a very deadpan way because he doesn't know
you know, his own.
He calls him a dumb bitch.
Dumb bitch?
She's like, what?
What?
You thought that was my nickname?
I can't believe you just said that.
This guy's whack.
This guy's whack.
Right in front of him.
I'm like, bro, okay.
Yeah.
And that's that kind of moment resonated
me with me like so deeply because I've had things like that happen to me in my own life.
You caught someone a dumb bitch?
I'm kidding.
I'm kidding I'm.
Not to the face.
But it was in elementary school, right?
And I used to borrow my brother's clothes, like
because at the time I like was, we were almost the same size.
It was the clothes were still tight on me
like wearing my older brother's clothes, but I I thought they were cool
because they were skate clothes, right?
But I didn't realize it had a toothpaste stain on it on a shirt, right?
I just wore it cool.
And I remember like going to lunch and then getting sitting down.
I And it was sad.
You know, like I look back and I don't think I really had any
friends in elementary school.
I had.
kind of these friends, but they were all also these
misfits who were kind of mean, kind of like outcasts as well.
They always, they were always getting like,
like put in detention or like, they were just like, like the bad crowd, right?
And
I wasn't a bad kid.
I just was like, I didn't know my place.
I didn't know how to talk to kids.
Well, that's the thing.
Neither is Deeee.
Yeah.
And so what happened was does some dumb things, but he's not a bad kid.
You know?
But what happened was I was sitting at the lunch table, right?
And there's these two kids.
I I thought they were cool and I thought that we were friends
but then they said, I remember they said something.
And there's the other kid who was kind of like this misfit.
He was like kind of like, I thought they were talking about him because
he had been known to be like eating.
Like, I think he was homeless.
Like he would grab at the end of the lunch session,
he'd grab leftover food out of the lunch and eat right out of it.
I'd see him do that.
But he was sitting next to me and they were talking about me.
They were like, look at him.
He's like, no wonder how he has no friends.
Like, like, I thought they were talking about him.
He's like, look at his shirt.
And he's like, what a slob.
And then I realized, they're talking about you.
I realized, and I was like, it
like made me like, like tear up.
I finished my food and I ran to the bathroom.
I was just crying.
Yeah.
How old were you?
Damn.
It was like fifth grade.
I never told anybody about this.
I was like, I didn't tell my mom because I didn't think she'd understand, you know?
It was like one of those things.
Right.
Yeah.
Kids can be the biggest assholes in the world.
Oh, yeah.
Because they don't, they don't know how to temper the asshole is, right?
They still, they're still learning.
And, you know, they are therapists once said, there's no such thing as bad kids.
There's only bad behavior.
But if you don't change that behavior as
they grow older and stuff, then they become, they can become bad people people, I think.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You really got to think about that, but, yeah.
I'm so glad because I can, like,
my stepdaughters, uh, I'm, the
youngest one I've known since she was in, um,
uh, like elementary school.
And she was a she was the opposite.
Like she was known for like, um
you know, you know, you know,
situations like that, like she would she wouldn't she
would you know, like speak up for them.
Like, uh
oh, you know, if someone was,
you know, maybe homeless, you know, you could suspect that or something or or like struggle.
Like maybe their family was struggling.
But she would also do it like in a quiet way, like she would tell, I know she would tell Carla
And then, and then not like
it like where, you know, everybody notices, but like, oh,
hey, you want to come over and then like feed them and then like, in a way, like take care of them.
And like, it just made me
think like, damn, you know, you see kids like who are
who would make fun of, think they're
making fun of fun of you or joking around and stuff.
But they're just being mean.
But then, you know, there's like other stories where like
that I can think of, like my stepdaughter and
I don't remember the exact like details, but I
remember like several instances, like, at least when they're growing up,
it seemed to attract people that they needed to help.
And, and it wasn't
like, but they would do it like quietly, you know.
That's a very mature thing for a kid to be able to understand that sort of nuance, you know?
Yeah.
There was something else I was thinking about like about the movie.
I've had an incident kind of similar in a way.
I guess my own version of that.
It was like, uh
I've actually had a couple of incidences where where it was like I got made fun
of because um like a single mom
household, my mom wasn't making like a lot of money and she was raising two
kids on her own, like paying for her own apartment and stuff like that
And, uh, yeah, there are times where
it's like my mom just couldn't afford new clothes for us for a long time.
So like I'd get me fun of, for the clothes I was wearing because
I had holes in it or whatever.
Uh, or like I had I'll have a stain on it that I didn't notice and then they'll
uh, they'll make fun of me and say
it's like a cum stain or whatever, you know, that is
like, yeah, it's pretty messed up.
I think there was the one in particular that sticks out in my mind and it wasn't like a
okay, I guess it was sort of a physical appearance
thing, but it was like me and this kid just
started like hating each other for some reason.
I'll never, to this day, remember why.
But
like he he would like get at me for like a lot of things.
He'd be super annoying and he'd approach
me during like, PE or in
passing and whatever, just all the time, just like saying some crazy shit about me.
And one time
he came up
behind me while I was walking during passing period and
he slaps the back of my neck and
he turns around and he goes, ha, look, it's a redneck.
And although it's really funny
now, and it was just like, it was like things like that
that like I went through getting bullied all the time.
Funny enough, years and years later,
like, we ended up becoming really good friends, though.
We squashed our differences.
I actually, we squashed our differences so much that
like after I pressed them
up against a fence in a chokehold, we became fast friends not too long after.
No, I literally,
I did one of those, like, I was so mad at him this one time because he was just harassing me.
I like grabbed him by his throat and I fucking
one arm threw him into the fence.
And it was, and that's when he we both became friends.
And after that.
That kid now has a cabinet position, by the way.
Yeah, absolutely.. were
saying like, oh, that he was coming up behind you, I was like, oh, no, don't say that.
Don't tell me that he pantsed you.
Oh, I remember.
Well, that's the funny thing because he did pants me.
He has pants me in during gym one time.
We were in the gym.
We were all like practicing like how to wrestle and stuff like that.
And then there were girls there too.
So it would be boys versus boys, girls versus girls, whatever.
And right in front of the girls
they straight up pantsed me.
Luckily, they didn't grab my fucking boxers
off because I wore those like, yeah, they just grabbed
my PE pants, luckily, because they were they were
also known to be ruthless in pantsing kids to the point that their underwear comes off, too.
So luckily, my undies didn't come off there.
So thank you
you know, through the loom.
But I remember being terrified about
that because it happened to so many of my friends,
so many people that that I know, where they would pants like
with their with the underwear.
And so out of paranoia, I remember Did they with their teeth
where like, I still have had tighty whities, but
then I was like, oh, mom, we wear boxers now.
Can I get boxers?
so that I would wear the tighty whities and then the boxers, you know, as like a as a
social projection.
Oh, you wear the boxers over the PE pants.
Arnold, I feel a bit
out of all of us, you were probably the most popular kid
out of all of us.
Did you say that?
Yeah, going back to that, you know, I was going to say, like,
I I don't exactly relate personally, but I saw a lot of that.
I wasn't one who actually like, I was never really a bully or anything.
But
sounds like a I wasn't boy would say.
Well, I
remember there was one time in elementary school where like,
I think some kids there, well, yeah, I remember Lalo.
He was going to try to bully me, like in the bathroom.
But then
it was probably like second or
third grade, but but then already, you know, I think around that time, when did I start watching Rocky?
Like around that age too?
And that's when I started like, even as an elementary student, I'll started working out and stuff.
I remember you taping it from KTLA.
Yeah.
He didn't realize how strong I was.
And then I think I like I like
he tried to do something but then like I blocked it and I
blocked just the block was like really hard for him.
And I socked him really hard
And then and then like, he started to cry a little bit.
And then and then they never never did anything.
And then like all his friends, they're like changed
their perception about me.
But
I never.
Yeah, I mean, I never, I never
really was a bully or anything, but like
still had the struggle of wanting to fit in
to be with like with the popular crowd.
And I did so kind of by whether
academically, you know, being the top of the class or like, when we were talking about piano
I actually did like piano, but I quit
because I did because I was afraid
that I was going to look like a nerd or like, uh, kids make fun of me.
And I thought it wasn't the cool thing because now like I
um I look back,
I'm like, man, I wish I stuck with it because I
would have been so cool to, like even now when I hear
music, like my fingers, they just automatically go like to the melody.
Um, I do that without music.
I'm constantly just, you know, tapping and wrapping.
I'm constipated.
Also that.
I know, me too.
Like sometimes it's like too cold, and so I like tap on it and make me go down.
That Speaking of bowling.
I actually,
when I was in elementary school, I knew this kid named Paul.
He was like a popular kid, and that none of those kids ever
gave me like the time of day at any point in time until
the one time we had a forced party partner science project
And they placed Paul with me to
dissect like an owl pellet or something like that.
Something stupid.
And, you know, like I was kind of like nervous.
I was like, oh man, this kid fucking just doesn't like me.
And he's like popular with everybody
And I know that like this is going to be probably the worst day of my life.
And I was actually pretty wrong because
we were while we were dissecting the owl pellet,
I was like cracking like jokes about what was in the owll pellet.
And I don't know.
I think it was like some stupid poop joke.
So whatever an elementary school kid would talk about.
And I think the most, the proudest moment I've
ever been while being in school was
that one right there when he was like, you know what, Justin, you are pretty cool.
And then that confirmation
where I was like, I was like, oh man, man, like, like
the coolest kid in this school, at least what I assumed was
the coolest kid in school, um, actually said something positive about me.
I mean, dude, uh men are so deprived
of compliments and shit that like even little things like that will totally
make, you'll remember for the rest of the world.
And I still remember.
And that was fifth.
Exactly.
That was fifth grade.
Shout out Paul
And I still have my elementary school like yearbook
and I can like, let's look them up.
Yeah, look Paul up.
Yeah.
Hey, Paul, remember when you said I was cool?
Our social media media team will share that later.
Just kind of Paul Paul.
You might Paul in the swimming Paul.
Yeah.
For me, I was,
I don't think I ever had.
I kind of like shrank myself a lot.
You know, I
just so I wouldn't be made fun of, you know?
After like elementary school and like having
all that stuff happen, I didn't
take up a lot of space, you know?
I wanted to.
I wanted to, like..
I wanted to be
take up more space.
I wanted to show who I was.
But there was like an amount of like guilt and shame
for being who I was
that because I didn't
get the the support and
love that I wanted from that I felt I needed from my parents
in the way that I wanted it.
I feel like that's. why I shrank myself.
It's like, I don't want to like, you
know, take up anybody's time.
I don't want them to think that I'm trying to be better or anything like that.
But at the same time, I wanted people to connect with me for who I was.
Like, I wanted people like, oh, I'm a
kung Fu movie nerd.
I love comic books.
I love music, you know?
You know, I love the whole that that stuff.
And I wanted to be in bands and I wanted to like, luckily later on in life I, I did.
I ended up like joining bands, but I was such a late bloomer, you know?
Right.
And, yeah, it was all just because of my own initiative.
Like, I needed to do it, you know?
Right.
Because of my friends, like, like Justin, like my friends,
they encouraged me, you know, like in the Asian club,
you know, they were like, you know, like,
we, you know, we, I find, that's why
like friendships are so important to me, you know, like,
I, I feel so encouraged
by just being around people
who care about me, who who aren't in my actual bloodline, you know?
Like, that's why I'm like, you know, like when things happen with my
family, like people who just kind of like,
like, don't really pay much attention to me.
It's like, oh, I have, I have my friends, you know?
They care, you know?
Childhood is such an interesting journey, isn't it, of trying to figure shit out?
And then sometimes you, even into adulthood, you still don't have
certain things figured out.
And you see DD go through that.
You see him go from his core group of friends, sort
of being rejecteded and then ending up with these other, the cooler kids.
And you see him trying to impress him, but what does he do?
He swallows the roach or something, which it really made me think of Arnold.
We were talking about roaches.
I don't know how many episodes ago.
And I'm like, oh, God, he's trying so hard to break in.
And it's like, it's so desperate, but he, you know, he's a kid.
He doesn't see that.
And then like, and then, and then like, like I said,
the, the kids come over to watch the raw footage.
And I, as a professional, former professional video editter, I was getting some anxiety from now.
Like he's going through the cliff
He's like trying to find the right one and then he plays it and he didn't get the shot.
And I was like, oh, no.
Oh yeah.
And they were like, oh.
I'm a security guard.
I'm not a professional videographer or nothing, but
you didn't get the shot, bro.
And I was like, oh.
And then the mom comes in and she's like, oh, hello.
And he's like, I'll get the fuck out.
And they're like, this kid's whack.
You should have talked to your mom like that.
And again, insulting him
to his face.
And I was like, Jesus, this kid, this poor kid,
mind you, I was on his side the whole time, even when he fucked up and he fucked up a lot.
But anyway, yeah.
So it's just, it's it's so interesting being a kid.
And then, you know, as a parent, you're seeing your own kid or
kids go through it in real time and you're like, oh, it's going to be hard when they get into middle school.
It's going to be hard when they start getting into girls.
It's going to be hard when they, you know, friendships and all that.
Like it's, you know, but
that's just part of life, right?
Like, facing adversity is just part of life.
I mean, that's it.
So anyway.
You know what I thought was a
really, like, really beautiful moment, though.
At the very end was,
you know, after he goes through all that sort of stuff with
the, you know, getting in that fight, you know?
And you see this sort of like
realization.
Like, he's learning that he needs to
ask himself the hard questions, right?
He and that he needs to
ask the heart questions.
Like, a friend of mine told me he's like, open mouths, don't get fed
And that goes for so many things, you know?
you know, if you want to like get
what you need, you have to open your mouth.
You have to say something.
That's right.
And what happened was like, I think when he runs away
and he he goes and he sleeps in the park and everything.
And I think one of those things he realizes in that moment
is like he needs to ask the hard questions.
And so he goes home and he asks his mom, he's like, are you ashamed of me?
You know?
And that's one of those things that like when that moment when I noticed the
the difference between my parents and Deeee's mom, right?
Like, she was willing to open up.
Like, that whole artist's side of her goes, opens
up and's like, no, this is like her speaking your heart, you know?
And you just have to ask their questions.
Like, I think people are ashamed and embarrassed to do that.
And I think that's a lesson that he learns at the very end is like, just say, ask them.
Ask the hard.
I probably would only ask a question like that to mom or dad
if Steve Urkel or, or somebody in a TV show.
I also did that.
I still did it.
Because I would
I watched those shows so much that
like I thought that's how you're supposed to be..
Those 90s sitcoms.
To give more context to him running away
at the end, he runs away because his mom and him have an argument after he
he hit one of his one of the students that he goes to
school, he hit him with a skateboard because he was he made some crack about it.
I don't know what the joke was.
He made some crack about something.
He was He was making fun of him for not like kissing the girl that he liked
That's right.
And then calls calls him the FAG.
Yeah, that's right.
And the tor And he hits that kid in the back of the head with the skateboard.
And then afterwards there's a meeting with the parents and the mom comes
back into the car and she basically says, I can't believe you did that.
Like, you do you realize how embarrrassing this is for me.
And that also made me think, and I don't know if this is necessarily an
imm immigrant thing or just in general, but like parents
not wanting to be embarrassed by their kids.
Like, I I feel like I screw up seeing that a lot.
Like, just the thing about the
The thing about the tiger mom is that they see their children as trophies.
Right.
They don't see them as actual children to
raise and to be like actual like functioning
members of society with like
relationships and like loving relationships with their
parents, their trophies to be like nurtured into these things that they could be proud of.
Where they.
They should just be proud of your kids for being born.
Yeah.
For existing.
And, you know, Deeee says some pretty harsh things to
his mom in the car, which I could tell you, growing up in a Mexican household.
You ever talk to your parents like that?
You you catch five across the teeth, boy?
You never talk to your mom the way he talked about.
He almost did.
He almost did that.
He almost did.
Yeah, she almost did him.
What did he say?
He said something like, dad earns all the money while
Yeah.
you just do your dumb paintings and there was something else.
He said, I'm ashamed of you.
I'm ashamed of you.
You're just a failed artist.
Oh, that's that's that's.
That's what it was.
I was like, no.
He went there.
He actually went there.
Yeah, that was such a visceral scene, I thought.
And then, and then him running away.
And then him coming home the next morning,
and he's like, you don't even, you didn't even go out and look for me.
And then they have that heart to heart
And what does she tell him at one point in that conversation?
She says, you know, I've thought about a life where I never had kids where I never had you.
But then I sort of made peace with it and realized
that, you know, you guys are my ultimate form of art, you know?
Yeah.
She says, she says that she's, she, she's proud of like
like, like seeing you grow up and make friends
and learning things that I could never teach you.
That's what was like such a cool thing
to say to your child because, you know, you admit to yourself that
there are things that I can't ever teach you that you're
learning without me, you know?
And you, you're doing beyond my scope.
That was was such a beautiful moment.
when she said that to him, she was being honest.
It seemed a little harsh, but it was just honest and heartfelt.
And I thought that, yeah, like that, that is a great scene.
And, what happened that?
Ultimately she tell, she tells him that she's proud of him.
And that's what it was, I think
you know, to me, like one
of the reasons like I really like this movie too is it's almost like
wish fulfillment, you know?
Like seeing that moment These are the things your parents would have said to you growing up.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
And it's like
You get that.
you know, I, that's why it's one of my favorite movies.
It's like, I wish that would happen to me.
No, I Same, dude.
I mean, you know, you love your parents, obviously, but,
but yeah, like you think about things like, you know, I could have used more of that unless of this.
I could have used more of that, you.
And, yeah, it's interesting. how
you see that in this movie and you see her being honest and you're like, okay,
yeah, uh, where was that, where was that energy when I was a kid?
Yeah, yeah.
But I thought it was interesting how he at the end, what does he do?
He goes to, he goes to the girl that he liked and you think
it's going to be that Hollywood moment where he like pours his heart out
to her and she's like, yeah, like totally's's be friends.
Let's be cool.
And she's like, no, you hit my friend in the back of the head with the skateboard
And then she walks away.
And he doesn't get the girl in the end.
Like it kept it pretty grounded in that sense.
What did you guys think about that scene?
He at least he addressed it versus like,
where for for me or I probably
would have just like never talked to that girl ever and I just leave it at that.
Like,
who knows what?
And maybe like 20 years later,
like now, then run into each other and
then finally talk about it and then like probably not even remembering it.
30 years later, she has like 10 kids.
No, I'm not kidding.
I'm kidding.
But, I mean, that was a pretty
that was a pretty stand-up moment. moment that he even.
I appreciated that she turned him down, right?
Like, I appreciated that they didn't go for the Hollywood
ending, you know?
She's just like, no, you hit my friend.
Yeah.
And that's it.
And then, and then she fucks off.
And he's like,
yeah, fair.
At least I interpreted it.
I interpreted as him.
Maybe he didn't think that, but the way I read it, I was like, okay.
He's like, yeah, fair.
He did that sort of a face like
yeah, yeah.
He just stood there and thought about it and was like, yeah.
Bitch ain't lying.
Bitch ain't lying.
I mean Girl ain't lying.
Girl Girl line, yeah.
We'll edit that for our foreign audiences.
But what happened?
I think that's pretty much the end of the story.
I feel like he grew a lot in the span of this is a very short movie.
It was 90 minutes.
I feel like he grew a lot in the span of those 90 minutes
And I think anyone that watches this movie will be able to relate
in a lot of ways, more ways in one, I think.
Like I said, there's a lot of universal themes in about family, about generational
trauma, about fitting in and about living in the margins of society and about
definitely feeling ostracized throughout your childhood sometimes.
So, yeah,, that's pretty much my final thoughts.
What about the sister?
We didn't really talk too much about, about a sister.
Yeah, well, she wasn't in it that much either.
And they kind of
they have a very hostile relationship.
Yeah, I'm glad you propped that up, though, Arnold,
because it was such a pivotal thing to
go through because, you know, she
was, there was such a contentious relationship between the two, right?
Oh, my gosh, she pissed in her lotion.
Yeah.
And then, and then there was that moment
when after she he gets
her, like, feels completely embarrassed and
ashamed of like not scoring with Maddie, right?
Comes home and tells her, like, I can't wait for you to go move away.
Like, you know, he she at that moment she realizes that like,
he really needs a sister.
Like, she's been messing up.
And a little bit, it was like almost a little too little too long late
because like he'd already started going down this path and
she was trying to connect with him again.
Like after like that moment in the kitchen where the grandmother and
the mom are arguing and she like offers to take him, drive
him to the business park to meet up with those kids, like
she's trying to connect with him, but she just doesn't know how, but she
like the way she does it is trying to be kind to him
trying to be understanding.
And then that moment when she, like she finally, it's moving day
for her to go to college and she leaves
the sweater with them and then they have that moment in the garage where they hug,
you know, it's like, she's like, oh, I'll see you later. bye.
And it was like an actual, like, you could see that they actually cared about each other
because they, they they realized what they were losing at that moment.
And it was kind of a
touching moment and like a sad moment where like the sweater
that was so contentious at the very beginning, she gets staying on it because she threw the chopsticks at him.
she leaves the sweater for him and it's like gives
it to him and like, you see him sitting in his in her room.
And at first she was doing it.
He was at the very beginning of the movie, he was being annoying.
He was going in her room to be annoying, to snoop on her, to like play with her things.
But now that she's gone and like, there's nothing in her room of that sweater and her old bed
he realizes too, is like, how much he needed her, how he needs her.
And you see it sink in with him.
And it was like, and I think that's like one of those things where
I don't think I ever really had like a very contentious relationship with any of my siblings, like
like Arle correctly if I'm wrong.
But at least at least
before Donny, our older brother Donny had moved out out
to college, Arnold and I did have somewhat of a contentious relationship.
Like he would do things
to get me mad and then he'd
run and hide either behind my mom or he'd hide behind Donnie.
And then Donnie and I would get in fights or my mom would get mad at me.
And it was like, I didn't do anything.
Arnold was provoking me.
But then after after Donnie had moved away
like we had more each other.
I realized like, oh, damn.
He's not here to protect me.
I got All right, I got to do something.
I got to watch Rocky IV and start pumping iron.
Uh-oh.
I was watching
John Claude Van Damme.
But to be honest, like that was the
moment that Arnold and I, our relationship got better.
We became like closer.
Like I feel closer to Arnold now
than I do with my older brother.
Like, not to say that I don't have a closer relationship, but I know so much more about Arnold.
He knows so much more about me.
We're so close
Well, that shows maturity on your part, right?
Because a lot of people don't mature ever with their siblings even.
You know?
I had a boss one time, the quick anecdote, since this has become
the anecdote hour, I had a boss one time when I started working there.
You know, this is a 65-year old man.
And I, you know, it was making small talk.
Like, oh, do you have family?
Do you have siblings?
She's like, he's like, yeah, he's like, yeah, I have, I have one brother.
I'm like, okay.
Like, did you talk to him?
He's like, oh, I don't know.
Like, what does he do?
I haven't, I haven't talked to him in decades
At
what point do you go like, no, I don't have a brother.
And you just avoid that whole awkward situation.
No, I don't have a brother.
I hope that. that never happens between the brothers Colgo.
I don't think it will.
I think I don't think it will.
I think you guys are a lot closer than even you realize.
You know what I mean?
If I was in that situation and then I was talking to
yeah, I asked your boss that, I would have been like, have you ever seen Home Alone?
Because in the movie, he hasn't talked to his son in forever.
And you know, you't talk to him.
Oh, maybe you're get the older guy with the shovel?
Yeah.
A little inspiration.
The little inspiration, yeah.
Anyway, I agree with Alex, though.
I feel like the brother and the sister had a nice moment of reconciliation at the end.
And I thought that was very sweet and
also very, like the rest of the movie, very, very grounded in reality.
But yeah, that's Deeee in a nutshell.
Very real.
Very real.
Any other thoughts?
Any other quick thoughts before we wrap her up tonight, guys?
Surprisingly, no.
I mean, I guess I'll talk about a couple of things during
my review, but like No, go ahead.
A very, okay, I'll go ahead then.
And I guess I'll just conclude it with my review of the movie, too.
So, you know,, like the funny thing about DeeDee
is that like we spent this entire episode not really talking much
about the movie, but I think that shows
the importance of this movie. in general because
we're sharing past things, which means that we all relate to
this movie in some shape or form.
And I think that what they were going for is exactly that.
It's a time piece
where we're familiar with all of it.
We've had those experiences.
And although we have, you know, our different time
frames of what we were doing during this time,
you know, we can all relate to
this kid,
you know, in our own, way.
Because there's things in this movie that like I'll never experience.
And then there's other things where I'm like, yeah, I've totally
experienced this whole thing, especially when it comes to the
relationship with the, the parents and siblings, because I have a little brother.
A lot of, a lot of interesting
things that I was reminded of.
And there was like a moment in time where like he
was saying something to the girl that he was trying to..
Oh, it was, it was that moment with the cell phone where
they were like, um, oh, hey, you know, I
got, I can I can get her for you in this one sentence.
And then your friend steals her phone and then says some crazy shit to them.
That.
And it's like, it's like I've been in that situation before, uh, maybe not
on text because I couldn't afford a phone at
the time, but it was more like an person type of thing.
Yeah, whereas like there's this girl that me,
and I don't mean to share like another story, but I'll wrap it
up in a nice bow and stop after that.
But
me and her like started talking
to each other through a message, like a little letter in the desk.
She had the period before me.
I had the period after her or whatever point in time
and day I had that specific class.
I always sat in that same desk and I always exchanged letters with this girl
Um, and it got to the point where it was like, we exchanged letters so much.
And so often, um, that she me
and her wanted to like meet up finally.
And
I finally, we both finally built up the courage to meet because we didn't know what each other looked like.
And it' it's.
Well, this was like middle school for sure.
This was like seventh grade, whatever.
My repeat seventh grade.
And
what ends up happening is like we decided to meet up at a certain place in school.
We wrote in the letter and we're like, meet up at this time during lunch.
We're like, cool.
And I thought she was going to be like really cute.
And to my surprise, she was very cute.
I was like, oh, wow.
And she thought I was cute too
And it was like a wonderful moment.
But then my my friend, Eric
French, came in.
Goddamn Eric French.
And by the way, I want to point out that, yes, she was a very beautiful black girl.
Anyway,
and it does come into effect because it becomes absolutely terrible.
So Eric French comes in and
sees her and sees her as I see her at the same time.
And you know what he does?
He's like, he's like, oh my God, she has a beluga head
and fucking ruins it.
She cries.
She ends up cry crying, running away
to her girls in the girls' restroom.
And I look at my friend like, he's the biggest piece of shit of all time.
And but here's the thing.
Here's the thing.
I Because I was so socially awkward, I didn't
know how to handle that situation.
So I fucking let him say and do what he wanted.
And that was the end of that.
And even though, and the most awkward
thing about that, and that wasn't the only awkward thing.
The most awkward thing about that is when I got into
freshman year of high school, guess who's in my math class sitting next to me?
Well, look ahead.
But here's the thing.
She had a glow up since mid middle school, and
she was fucking hot, dude, for high school.
She was tall
She was..
What you should have said was, I'll have you know belugas or supposed. smartest whales.
Yeah.
So that was that was a key moment in my time.
And DD, this movie, DeeDee, really brings up those really
pivotal moments in life. listens, learned.
And, and I think,
you know, even though we didn't talk a whole lot about this movie,
I think we, in return,
we did talk about it by sharing our own experiences as children
growing up similarly to these kids.
And for that, I want to give
this movie a four and a half stars out of five.
I definitely recommend it.
And I'll say one last thing about like the entire
of how this movie was filmed.
I actually have filmed that I can't unfortunately
get out of a little video cassette tape because I have to have a camera specifically.
It's a high eight, and it has my experience
filmed for a certain certain portion of time
between middle school and the beginning of high school.
And I'm like, this movie
like has everything that I've lived through
and it's like filming things, just random things.
Yeah, it may not have been skate videos or anything,
but if I were to bring those videos back, I'd be like,
man, you know, I like did the same shit as this kid too.
You should find one of those taped to digital
services here.
Yeah, I need to.
Or even online.
I need to do that or get the camcorder myself, which might be a few hundred dollars.
So you essentially need to take the tape that's
in that cassette and transfer it to another one?
I need a high eight video camcorder.
He needs a camera to use as a tape deck.
I can't.
Unfortunately, they don't make for whatever fucking reason, they don't make
converter VHS is for
those digital cameras because there are such a specific
videotape type.
This is not a lab before time situation, Arnold.
I can call the homie Hans.
Arnold had a really good job at transporting.
Arnold's high school yearbook was a stone tablet, right, Arnold?
All right, Moses.
No, Justin, thank you for that.
That was a great story.
Oh, yeah.
And you can find me on my socials.
Oh, yes.
Shibbs the Zombie.
Find me on Instagram.
You can click the link of my profile.
It sends you to all the other stuff I do.
So Shibbs the Zombie.
Again, four out of four and a half out of five, yeah.
Awesome.
All right, Alex, let's go to you next.
P.
I know this movie means a lot to you.
So what are, what are your final thoughts on?
I had like I had, in her,
I had a lot, had a lot of notes.
I think I had more notes on this movie
Or at least just a lot to say, and I'll never get them out.
I probably will try to write an essay about this film for our blog.
So you should look out for that.
Do it up on the website.
Yeah.
But I do have some like quick notes.
The first scene
rem reminds me of when Donnie,
Donnie Applesed, we were out and about,
Armo was there and we were being little fuckabouts
and doing dumb shit.
And we went to one of his enemy's houses and he like
like hit a mailbox with
a golf a putting club and
it sounded like somebody shot a shotgun at us.
And it like freaked me out.
So I ran back to my car.
But like and everybody thought that same thing.
But it was he just destroyed this mailbox This
just remind me of that moment
in our history.
Man.
Let's see.
Especially around Halloween.
Gosh.
It was like, we were It's time to cause trouble.
Arnold, Were you dressed as the Rzzler?
There was one year that I dressed up as Bruce Lee.
I had a kungu suit.
I remember if you had the
blood stains from Enter the Dragon?
Yeah, put blood.
Yeah It was a black kungu suit and people were like,
where are you?
Are you supposed to be some sort of ninja or something?
I was like, no, I'm Bruce Lee.
They're like, did you get stung by?
You don't give it.
You can't tell that I'm Asian and this is a kung fu suit?
Come on.
Sorry, I didn't buying a costume at Kmart.
Yeah.
This was for my company. the real gi.
Are they called geese and karate or is is that just for Gu?
I can't remember what they they thought.
I just Kung Fu.
That's what we'd always call them.
Kung fu suits.
I use gu to cook with.
Is that the one?
No, no.
No.
No.
Oh.
What?
Anyway.
Anyway, uh, so
early YouTube tutorials look like clinical,
like, very clinical sometimes.
Like that whole, like
How to K. It looks so like some,
like some lab came up with it, you know, it was like, how
to kiss your partner.
I was like, man, it just reminded me of like going
into work and being taught how to use like a Xerox machine
and how to exchange up the ink or something like that.
It was That's all kissing in It's so clinical copies of yourself.
And then, yeah, that's pretty much it right now.
Like I said, I have a lot.
This era, the MySpace
era, reminds me of that specific time.
It was a very pivotal time in my life
of, you know, how you guys talked about how
you used MySpace to meet people or anything.
For me, that was an era where like 2007, 2008 was
the emergence of the Ghost Channel.
When we started doing shows, Johnny and
I, I remember that was another moment too, that I thought thought was so cool.
Like I remember reading the first band on MySpace
that had ever just, they actually reached out to me.
This band called No Paws and the Lions.
And I think they're, to be honest, like for me, like I still listened
to the album, their first album to this day.
They're no longer together
but they reached out to me because they saw, they saw that I started
following them. and I like, I don't know if I. I can't remember.
You could like posts, right on MySpace or could you comment?
I can't remember.
Today?
No, back then, back then.
No, back then, yeah, you' were able to like posts and actually dislike posts too.
So there are people that could dislike and then face.
But they could see that you started ref following them.
Yeah. absolutely.
You see, oh, they were they had to proven.
Yeah.
Right.
They would be approved friends, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They looked at my profile page and
they like saw that I was going to San Diego I would go to San Diego Comic Con.
And they connected with me on that, right?
I thought was really cool
And that's how like I started meeting
other bands because, you know, I realized
that they're just like me too, you know?
And just like that moment where like DeeD meets
those skater kids, like he into skating, like he is.
they were into like the music and the comic books and the movies that I was into.
And so that kind of showed
me a pathway to like being able to do shows that
I could meet all these people and I shouldn't be afraid to talk to these people.
And like, I was because of that, I was able to
like turn on a switch just to be able to like meet people
you know?
And that era
kind of changed my life, you know?
I owe a lot to that just
also just that era, also just being able to become more confident
with who I was.
You know, like I still my confidence still wavers to this day because
like, you go through the shit and it's like, knocks
you down a few pegs, especially like you go through hard times, you know?
But then you realize when you become your authentic self, like how Dee
finally realizes that about himself at the end of the movie, you know?
that's a lesson that you learn in life,
however late or early, it's an important lesson you need to learn.
like authenticity is key.
Being who you are, being
appreciating who you are and appreciating the people.
Like, you can't change. like one of the things I learned too
recently was like love languages, you'll like most, most often you'll never get it
like, what you need from other people,
like in the love language that you respond to most.
You know?
But you have to accept that.
And like, you know, like, that's where you have to learn
okay, but this is how they show their love.
And this is, you know, and as hard as it is to
accept if
you want to to be able to move forward, like how Deei did.
He saw how his mom cared.
Like at the very end, when she's picking him up
from school and she's like, he's telling him like, oh, how is your day?
She's asking him, how was your day?
And like, oh, I signed up for her visual arts.
He's like, oh, that's great.
And she says, rather than like, like, you know, I love you or anything like that.
She says, are you hungry?
That's like a thing that like Asians do all the time, you know?
Are you hungry?
My dad does that.
Yeah
And that's that's a love language because they' start trying to show you they care.
And when they go home and they're sitting at the dinner table and then
she's he's just eating away and then she's like sitting there appreciating it.
And that was such a beautiful moment, I thought.
Like,
it was just.. that
unsaid thing, man, between the two of them, you know?
What I would give, because I had that happen before, where my mom, I was just like, what are you doing?
Watching me or whatever?
What I would give for like my mom to just come over and just
do that, you know, again.
Yeah.
You know, and I in the sad thing is, it's
like, I don't, I don't ever see that happening ever again, you know?
It's kind of a weird feeling.
Yeah, it's hard to realize that like,
those moments are few and far between sometimes, you know?
But we have to appreciate them for when what they are.
Like we have to appreciate
those momentsents and things like that because,
you know, we have to, like, we never know when, if or when we'll ever get them.
And you know, I imagine
having kids and then thinking, oh, God, I hope they don't grow up to
resent me as much as I resent my parents for certain.
Yeah.
Fingers crossed, guys.
Fingers crossed.
But yeah.
I feel like you're doing good job, Adrian.
I think so too.
Adrian.
I appreciate that.
It''sieve me, it's not always sunshine and rainbows, but I try to do my best.
What does that you, you piece of shit?
But
you can tell you to you because in the pictures that we
post, like, like he's smiling like,
and almost like he like, it's
that unsaid thing, like with Didi and his mom.
He loves to make both of us laugh.
His mom and me.
He's a little jokester.
He really is a jokester, so I appreciate that a lot.
As someone who did stand up many, many, many, many years ago, I appreciate that a lot.
But yeah, overall, Mike, you guys know I love this movie.
I like that's why I was
pushing so hard to like, I really want to show you guys this movie.
I think you would appreciate it on so many levels.
This movie is just
layers upon layers, upon layers.
You could talk about it on the surface level of like like the culture that was going on.
You could tell.
And what I thought was cool about it, you know I didn't intend
it to happen this way, but we're watching it in
during the month of Asian American and Pacific Islander History Month.
And it's one of the movies that's
been on so many lists
for Asian American Pacific Islander history for
like films to watch during this month.
And it's like in so many, like it's
and it's up there with like a lot of really cool, like Asian
films, like everything Everywhere All at Once.
a lot of the Wankar
Y films, obviously, Chunking Express.
Crazy Rich Asians into the Dragon.
Actually, it is.
That's of them That's one of them, yeah.
Int the dragon?
So yeah, it's.
What's that?
Enter the Dragon?
Probably.
I would.
No, Crazy Rich, I think.
C rich Asians.
But I'm sure Enter the Dragon is on the list, too.
Better Good luck tomorrow.
Oh, yeah, it is.
Better luck tomorrow's on there, too.
Shout out to what, like episode eight of Samurai?
Ghost dog.
I
mean, Tom Cruise totally passes as Asian, right?
Kung Fu the TV series.
Wait,
anyways, yeah, for me, uh four and a half, I strongly recommend it.
If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it's it''s relatable for so many people.
You don't have to be Asian to appreciate this film.
It's a good coming of age film
a very good coming of age film.
And it's one of the like, you know, I was watching this
YouTube channel, the Fung Bros they were talking about, like how, is
this the last good like coming of age film,
especially for Asian, like in the Asian diaspora?
Like,
I like, how can, like anybody top this as
like a coming of age film, you know?
I'm sure good ones will come out, but like.
you know, it's it's..
I don't know.
You know, it's a.
It resonates with the.
It hits really home.
It's like.
I love it so much.
And I'm glad you guys loved it as well.
you can find me on Daily Dares on Instagram and
over there you can find all the stuff I'm involved in.
Go follow me on Dop.
a collectible galaxy.
Unfortunately, Justin, you I know you're
my Chemical romance and I should have told you that I was selling it.
I have my Chemical Romance t-shirt and it just sold like a Monday.
I was like, oh, shit.
That's all good.
One day.
Yeah.
But I got a good amount of money.
I paid like, I sold it for like 40 bucks.
Wow.
Not bad.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right, Alex.
Well, thank you for that.
Arnold, and give us your final thoughts and where can people find you.
Yeah, Alex, you mentioned that the
there's so many different levels of like
that we can talk about this movie.
For my review, I'm going to talk about it,
you know, just relating to the age that they were
in that movie.
Because, you know, there's, you know, we
talked a lot about like how he's struggling to find his place and
trying to fit into, you know, and all that.
And some people, they
have a good feel younger,
some, like right around that age, some don't even. doesn't happen until after high school.
Some people don't even until they die, you know?
But, I mean, everyone, so, you know, everyone's different, but like
um, that that time,
you know, going into high school,
I. Things didn't
really happen, you know, like that, but I did see a lot of that.
And the way things happened for me, was a little bit different.
But because, you know, I
did see a lot of, and so I, I can relate a little bit in that, in that sense
Being Asian and also
kind of having a little bit of similar kind of
I mean, my parents wasn't exactly like
that, but but a few things like culture-wise
in terms of like,
oh, you needed the
expectations on do good in school,
so you can go to college that way you have a good life and that way
you have a good job and you can make good money and then you'll be happy, you know.
There was a lot of pressure for us to like kind of follow in the footsteps
of our older brother, Donnie, too.
Oh, yeah.
Being like the first, I think, like in
of all our, not just our immediate family, but like a lot of our relatives.
Of our whole family.
Of our whole family, he was the first to go to college and graduate.
He graduated from college
And so that was that was like, you know.
And then here I am in high school,
get get caught with weed and suspended and then for me,
my, my, I guess like I just, what was
I just accepted it.
Like that was, that was like, oh, that was my identity,
but it wasn't really because I was like at school,
I was a big old pothead and everyone like knew that about me.
Um, but then
on the weekends.
Were?
Yeah, yeah.
But then on the weekends, you know,
here I am. going to church
and maybe being dragged to church,
but like, I never didn't really put up a fight about it or anything.
Maybe I made up excuses and stuff like, oh, I got homework
and stuff, but like, it was still very, I kind of felt like I lived two lives
Um, It wasn't my, uh, myself.
And I remember when it, uh, like
some of my cousins who were like, who would get girls and stuff.
And then, you know,
how, how how Didi had his friend talk
or text the girl and, you know, like, oh, you're all set.
He's got a date now or whatever.
I wanted that to happen to me.
But then like, I remember
my friends, there would be like, dude, just be yourself, man.
Just be yourself.
I'm like, man, how did, how did you do that?
I can't do that.
Like, can you do it for me?
But then you think about it, like, that's so lame.
Like, no, you got to have your own game
And then, and so I feel like I didn't really have
that, that game, in high school.
And so.
Oh, I just wanted to touch about like the, yeah, there was a lot of duality
for our who we were because like it
was our our family was very
religious.
My parents are, you know, we're very religious.
So we had this sort of kind of duality of
we're trying to be these good kids, but then like there was something
within us that wanted to be come out and be like,
show who we are, show like what we cared about, our passions and everything.
And I think that's the same thing with you, Arnold, right?
Yeah, and it turned out to be the biggest pothead.
That's a character building mom in Arnold.
Don't judge yourself too harshly.
But for me, where I really, as a person
came out was when I got a job because you,
it's like you'reced, you're thrown into a fire and
depending on the type of work that you have, if my
first job was a front desk.
I can't believe that that I got a front desk job at the courtyard Marri at.
But my mom talked to, she knew somebody there and
they got me the job.
But that was a time that I kind of just blossomed
as an individual.
Didn't she always kind of get in trouble there too?
Like
Did some stuff happen there?
Yeah, yeah.
So, you know, like Deeee calling that girl that, what did he say?
Oh, oh, you dumb bitch.
I took it to the next level.
Well, also, okay, so that me and that girl,
we kind of had a thing going on, like, you know, coworkers and stuff.
This is like two, you know, I was single then.
Single, ready to mingle, was mingling.
And, um, and, uh, like,
like, I just, I just, didn't control myself.
Like she slammed the door on my face,
the refrigerator door, and I was like, oh, what the hell?
And I just went,
And I didn't even realize that I was like, oh,
damn, was I had I had a, because I was working in the kitchen that day.
And then, you know, I had a latex glove on.
And I was like, whoa, it sounded extra extra loud.
And then, and then, yeah,
that was kind of, and they really liked me there at work.
And so they wouldn't really, didn't want to fire me.
So they made me resign.
and, um Yeah.
Not sure.
I wouldn't get in trouble for talking about that, would I?
I think that, yeah, the time for that has passed.
Yeah, I don't think there's a statue of limitations on fucking around in a resort town.
Oh, yeah.
I asked some phase about that, but I'm not going to get into that tonight.
Yeah, yeah.
But yeah, so
I really love this movie.
There's a lot more different parts that I can mention and laugh about
But I thought it was it was a really, really good movie.
The day that
I watched it, he saw me earlier holding that little baby.
That night we were asked to babysit her
And so while they went to
go, while her parents, I stepped outaughter, when they, they went to go watch the movie.
And so we had her until like 930 or 945.
And then I'd started watching the movie like at 10
and then I was like, I'm like tired, but didn't
fall asleep at all.
So zero rating, zero.
And
my overall letterbox rating, I give it
a 4.20.
Oh, I give it a four.
I give it a four.
A very solid four.
You can find me on all the socials, Arnie
Kgo, and that's my rating.
That was my Che man impression, but I don't think you guys liked it.
That's okay, though.
I forgive you.
That's okay.
True friendship friendship is forgiving the
ones that don't laugh at your dumb imp impressions.
That's what you.
Hey, what is this shit, man?
It's Doberman.
No, thank you for that, Arnold.
I appreciate your thoughts and your anics.
I appreciate all you guys' stories.
I guess I have many of my own.
What's that?
I want to hear your thoughts, Adrian.
Well, best for last.
No, no, no.
No, my thoughts are pretty straightforward.
I really enjoyed this movie on many levels, as
you guys mentioned, there's a lot of layers to it.
Relatability as far as, you know, teenage
angst, growing up, friendship, social circles
social media, and, you know, the coming of age of
social media, especially, you know, multi-generational
households and multiculturalural, not even multi- Well, actually, yeah, multicultural.
I mean, DD had a lot of multicultural friends from what I saw.
And, you know,
I don't even know.
Where did this movie take place?
Was it California?
Do we know?
Fremont, Northern California.
I don't know.
Oh, yeah. closer to California.
You know why California is a supreme state?
Because California has a tapestry of culture.
I don't care what anybody says.
California is the.
It's not only a tapestry of culture, but it's like the epicenter of culture as well.
Whether you want to accept that or not.
I mean, 38 million people, right, from all over the world.
And I can''t be wrong.
Yeah, you know, you can't you
grow up in California at almost any part of California.
And you're going to have a similar
racial makeup that you saw in this movie, which I think I really appreciate it.
So to me, it's the most grounded comingof age story
that I've seen in a long time, probably the most grounded coming to H story.
And like I said, just the relatability factor alone is
you know, is, is a lot, there's a lot to appreciate there.
So I'm going to give this movie four stars out of five.
I think this movie has a huge rewatchability
score as well just because there's
just a lot to take in, you know, and there's a lot of nuance that
you might not catch the first time, you know?
And in my case, I had to re-watch the scenes with the mom to know what the hell she was saying.
So that was interesting.
But yeah, four stars out of five.
You can find me on on the interwe at Boots Too big, and you can find the show.
Never seen a Podcast.
Neverseenitpodcast.com or we upload all
of our episodes as they come in.
You can follow us on Instagram Instagram, Blue Sky Threads, Facebook, TikTok, and X
Check out our website.
Send us an email, podcast on neverseen at gmail.com.
We'd love to hear from you.
Subscribe to our show on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube,
or wherever you get your podcasts from.
And if you like our show,, please share it with your friends, your family, your coworkers.
Don't do that.
If you haven't, leave us a review.
We appreciate it.
I want to thank Kyle Mapson for our intro now Tre music.
Kyle Mapson and Burn cycle for our music. and you can follow Kyle.
Selfies underscore underscore and underscore pets.
Thanks to everyone for listening.
And by the way, this episode was sponsored by Habit Burger.
Habit Burger.
When you're here
it's because the line at In-Nut is too long.
There it is.
There you go.
Any Any final words from the gentlemen?
Just to give Kyle a shout out and some
promotion, he's got some new music coming out.
Ooh, there you go.
Oh, yeah.
Ooh, check that out