An American Girl Story - Ivy & Julie 1976: A Happy Balance

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Audience Member ***SPOILER ALERT!!!*** LOVE this movie. As a Chinese-American I really related to the character of Ivy Ling a lot. Also, even though the setting is supposed to be San Francisco in the 1970's (the movie came out in 2017), thank God it didn't have the stereotype and racist undertones of Chinese people (and Asians in general) that are popular among American movies and TV shows - where the accent is absurdly exaggerated, or Asians (especially the females) are made to look more Westernized, or a kungfu movie - ex. Fresh Off the Boat, The World of Suzie Wong, every Jackie Chan movie ever made... also, I Iove that the young actress who played Ivy Ling actually looks like an Asian girl without any Westernized features. Most importantly, this dealt with what most (if not all) Chinese-American girls must have felt at some point in their young life, I know I definitely did. Ivy is a typical Chinese-American girl, whose best friend is a white girl named Julie. She lives in the SF Chinatown neighborhood, and the family is celebrating the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday, which is the most important holiday in the Chinese culture. However, Ivy as an American seems reluctant and even embarrassed to embrace her Chinese culture, complaining about having to go to Chinese school on Saturdays, saying, "Why do I need to learn a language I'm never going to use?!" Her mother explains to her the importance of keeping their cultural identity even as Americans too; saying that their neighbors the Woo family, are so concerned about being seen as "Americans" that their children can't even speak or understand Chinese. After Ivy goes to her grandparents' restaurant and have a talk with them, learning of their immigration story, Ivy realizes that her feelings of being different from others were the same things that her mom and grandmother also felt too. The movie ends with the whole extended family all gathered to watch Ivy at her gymnastic competition and then later celebrating the Chinese New Year dinner at the Ling's home afterwards; with Ivy embracing herself as an American and as Chinese too. The family speaks Cantonese (I know because I understood what they were saying when there were bits of Chinese dialogues used). I love that they had the kids going to Chinese school on Saturdays (I definitely did, and I was born in the 1980's era!) Also, the movie centers around the Chinese New Year holiday, which really shows the culture. I thought that was great to show non-Chinese viewers a little bit about the culture and the significance of its importance. Anyway, I highly recommend this movie. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Why is it typing in all caps? Anyway the synopsis at rottentomatoes SAYS it all: a Chinese girl wants to be like her real American friend, but she doesn't want to stop being Chinese. She wants to see magazines that have Chinese girls, but she doesn't want to go to China WHERE all the magazines have Chinese people in them. Her grandmother tells her that they chose America because it's better than China, but then they want to make America into China and ruin it so other people can't benefit like they have. THE seLF-INDULGENT title of the movie, which is 3 boring TITLES stuck together into 1 extra-long, extra-boring title, tells us that there is no happy balance here. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews

An American Girl Story - Ivy & Julie 1976: A Happy Balance

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