How Everything Everywhere All At Once Breaks the Tough Chain of Generational Trauma
Photo Courtesy: IMDb
*contains spoilers
Even at face-value, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a handful to take in. From its multiverse concept to its iconic everything bagel motif, the movie does not shy away from maximalism and the bizarre. Underneath the sci-fi extravaganza of it all, however, lies a nuanced exploration of the strained dynamic amongst an immigrant Asian family trying to run a laundry business and pay their taxes.
The relationship between Evelyn Quan Wang (Michelle Yeoh) and her daughter, Joy Wang (Stephanie Hsu) is at the core of what director duo the Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) explore in the film. Constantly wrestling with the fact that she threw away her chance at a successful career to instead marry her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) against her father's approval, Evelyn lives life weighed down by the thought of life being utterly bleak and pointless. Joy is the movie classic ‘rebel daughter’, who is emotionally neglected by a critical mother that refuses to accept her queer identity. Once the movie descends into the multiverse, we discover Joy is in fact the villain threatening the sci-fi multiverse: known as Jobu Tupaki, she hunts down Evelyn throughout numerous universes, seeking revenge for the pain Evelyn has dealt her. The film also reminds us of the importance of gentle, forgiving, nurturing, and goofy parental figures like Waymond in evening out a family dynamic. Waymond, in his truest, default version, comes off as a silly husband, always slightly aloof and ignorant to his wife's labours. We realise, however, that he is doing his own quiet balancing act in the crosshairs of two strong-willed women, too passionate and stubborn for their own good.
As the plot unravels, it is revealed that all Jobu really wants from Evelyn is to be understood. For Jobu, Evelyn is the only other person powerful enough to experience the simultaneous movement of all the different universes through time. But more importantly, for Joy, Evelyn is the only other person who understands the experience of life as someone who just wants to be seen, accepted, and loved by her parents. Hence, whilst Evelyn and Joy/Jobu are on seemingly polar opposite sides, they are much more similar than what meets the eye. Simultaneously, Evelyn fails to see how she passes down the same kind of generational trauma inflicted upon her by her father and in doing so has alienated her own daughter. Everything Everywhere All at Once recognizes and appreciates all the subtleties of generational trauma, which we see through Evelyn's difficulty in unlearning and relearning how to love, Joy's imploding and explosive behaviour, and Waymond's graceful patience and quiet understanding through it all. In a sense, the film also acts as a celebration of all the Waymond's of the world who make life a little more lighthearted and bearable for the rest of us Joy's and Evelyn's—two googly eyes at a time. His positivity and gentle nature provides the strength capable of countering the static, tough habits that pain so many.
Everything Everywhere All at Once serves as a cultural keystone for East Asians in the film industry as well. Although the issues grappled with in the film are not necessarily cultural-specific, they are certainly shared among a great deal of first-generation children and their parents today. The writers have achieved a delicate balance between writing the film specifically for an East Asian cast without feeding into Hollywood stereotypes. For once, the emotions and struggles of Asians are portrayed candidly and sans the usual "martial arts" or "token character" prerequisite. To see people onscreen who look, speak, love and fight in ways so familiar to you onscreen is essential to representing the delicate emotions the film deals with.
So what's the moral of the story? Well, there are two. Firstly, that nothing matters. Both Evelyn and Joy suffer from a certain tragic and nihilistic despair they then inflict on one another. But secondly, as the movie re-emphasises, nothing matters. If Evelyn neglects her family and refuses to waste time on her husband's silly googly eye pranks to instead stress over running a laundromat that makes her doubt the whole purpose of her life anyways, why stress at all? If life were indeed as pointless as she feels it to be, then it would make no sense to throw away little pleasures in sacrifice of something which means nothing anyways. Instead, the film hints at a need for everyone, optimists and nihilists alike, to put more effort into the things and people that really bring us meaning in life. It is love that makes things worthwhile. Nothing matters, and that is both a curse and a blessing.