Author: Stacy Nguyen
Northwest Asia Weekly
Throughout her career, Sandra Oh tended to play roles that did not completely trap her in a racialized identity. I am not saying that it was her fault. I mean she may audition and confirmed that the role is not written for Asian Americans.
In her career, there have been many times in her role that she didn’t even have a surname. For example, she played a woman named Stephanie in “Sideways”, which was one of her breakthrough roles. In her current most famous role “Kill Eve”, Oh played a character named Eve Polastri. Although I am a big fan of this show, in my mind, I don’t remember Eve’s identity as When except this time she was hunted down and a serial killer had to describe her characteristics to Lando, she was racialized. About Eve’s gorgeous hair and the fact that she is an Asian woman.
I know that some of you might say: Why is this important? More and more Asians appear on TV. It’s ok!
Because the indication on the screen is not enough. We do not have enough API writers. We don’t have enough API showrunner. There are not enough well-known and influential API American filmmakers.
Sandra Oh Rocks in “Chair”, a Netflix comedy with six compact runs (at least in the first season), about a woman (played by Oh), she is the first person of color Female head of the English department of a boring university. All her colleagues are white, except for a young and talented black professor (Nana Mensah), she is often threatened by GTFOing because she is stifled by all the white BS in the school.
Oh’s character, Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim, speaks American English with an American accent, but has a super Korean name, which surprised me, “Finally!” It might be the first five minutes of the show because I was so bored Oh, play a role like “Jane Halvorsen”.
Ji-Yoon also has some legitimate Asian issues in her life. She experienced the pain of growing up with her young daughter. She was an adopted Latino who rebelled and challenged her often absent and busy mother. Ju Ju (daughter, played by Everly Carganilla) punishes her mother by believing that Ji-Yoon does not care enough about Ju Ju’s racial heritage because she is not around.
Ji-Yoon is like, legally hurt and angry, and refute it.
One of Ju Ju’s main caregivers is her grandfather, Ji-Yoon’s father, played by Ji Lee. This guy can speak Korean almost throughout the series, although it is said that he can speak at least some English. But he insisted on speaking Korean, probably because it was more comfortable and easier for him.
He regretted that he could not communicate with his granddaughter and often felt bored by his daughter. So he often criticized her. He fascinated himself, not just a father and grandfather who supported him.
“Chairman” is super racialized-it has subtle differences in how it portrays all these identities in the academic world of the huge and vague white veil and white supremacy culture and white system-and patriarchy -.
“Chairs” are also fun! Oh has always been a great comedian, but I think this situation has decreased in recent years because Oh is busy challenging herself and showing us her drama. However, it is really nice to see her play a more mundane role as a university professor (rather than an MI6 agent who hunts down serial killers). As a university professor, Oh can dig into the humor in daily life.
Reminder: Each episode is only half an hour, and there are only six episodes. Take a moment to look at this. Don’t complete it in three hours like me! I finished it too fast, and then I felt sorry for it. Learn from my mistakes and taste it!
The first season of “The Chair” is now available on Netflix.
Stacy Nguyen’s contact information is stacy@nwasianweekly.com.
