(500) Days of Summer’s Chinese Family Scene

chinesefamilyOne of my favorite movies this summer and this year is the romantic comedy & tragedy (500) Days of Summer, following the ups and downs of a relationship between Tom and Summer over 500 days in non-chronological random order. At 87% “fresh”, there are certainly a lot of other films which have larger marketing budgets and are more promoted, but a lot less enjoyable than this film.

But there’s one scene in the movie when both Tom and Summer are playing “house” in an Ikea store in Los Angeles where the two are lying down on a bed and see a family watching them, and Tom makes the observation and comment:

“Honey, I don’t know how to say this, but there’s a Chinese family in our bathroom.”

When I watched that, I thought to myself, “Why does Chinese equal comedy here? ” I wonder how moviegoers would have felt or reacted if the family had been black, Hispanic or Native American? How about just:

“Honey, I don’t know how to say this, but there’s a family in our bathroom.”

Isn’t it funny enough that there would an unknown family in a bathroom while the two were playing house in their supposed Ikea bedroom? Maybe I am being a bit over sensitive, but I thought I’d call this out while still encouraging all those who haven’t seen the film to see it. If you’ve seen the film – what do you think?

Besides the clever execution of the storyline, the soundtrack to the movie is just fantastic and really adds to the mood of the movie, including Sweet Disposition, Vagabond and She’s Got You High.

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About John

I'm a Taiwanese-American and was born & raised in Western Massachusetts, went to college in upstate New York, worked in Connecticut, went to grad school in North Carolina and then moved out to the Bay Area in 1999 and have been living here ever since - love the weather and almost everything about the area (except the high cost of housing...)
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