DISCUSSION: my (complicated) thoughts on the TATBILB movie

I'm sure if you're involved in the YA world or book twitter, you know that Jenny Han's To All the Boys I've Loved Before was adapted to a film that recently premiered on Netflix. I'd had some conflicting feelings about this movie for reasons I'll explain later, but overall, I enjoyed it and thought it was cute! However, I did have some issues that I'll outline, and I promise they're not petty "this was in the book but not in the movie!" complaints. I do want to explicitly say that these are my opinions and that I do support the movie and what it represents as a step in the right direction. This post is not meant to be unsupportive criticism, but rather discourse that I hope people will acknowledge without only focusing on the negative things. To balance it out, I'll talk about some things I liked about the movie as well!

**major spoilers for the TATBILB movie as well as all three books below**

First, I'll give you some backstory on my conflicting thoughts. If you've seen the movie but haven't read the books, you might not have gotten that the Song/Covey sisters are half-Korean (which, more on that later). I was on Twitter when the casting leaked, but I, along with some other people, believed it to be rumors. Unfortunately, they were not: the casting was confirmed a few days later (days before they finished filming, which was a little weird to me). And thus, the mess began.

The main issue: Lana Condor, who plays Lara Jean, is Vietnamese-American. Again, LJ is biracial Korean. And no, they are not that similar (which I can tell you based on personal knowledge) other than the fact that they are both countries in Asia. The cultures and traditions are very different. Vietnam has been heavily influenced by Chinese and French colonialism, which did not really occur in Korea. But I'm getting off topic.

I did a whole thread about it last year when the casting came out which you can read here. I'll summarize it because this was before I got 280 characters so it's a little ramble-y.

At least 2/3 of the Song sisters are not Korean (not sure about the actress who plays Kitty, but I know she's part-Asian), which is kind of devastating to people seeking that representation and harmful to Asian Americans. Why? Because East Asian countries are always interchanged here in the US. (Side note: Vietnam is part of Southeast Asia, which I see people bring up, but culturally and, in some people's cases, ethnically, it's somewhat similar to China, so because I don't want to just say Asia, as we're primarily talking about East Asia, I'm just going to sidestep that for a second.) Casting a Vietnamese and a half-Chinese actresses (Lana and Janel Parrish, respectively) in roles that were meant to be Korean just furthers the thought that "all of [East] Asia is the same." I need to move on, so I won't get into how much this hurt me as a Vietnamese American that an actress of a similar background took this role, but you can read a little about it in my thread, linked above.

The real mess started when readers, me included, began to express our disappointment about this issue. Then a lot of YA authors began firing back that "at least they casted Asians" (because that's the bar right now. literally on the floor), that "we should just show our support because this movie will do so much for us" (as if we said we weren't going to support the movie). Personally, I think that a lot of these authors are friends with Jenny and wanted to back her up 100%, which I get! But it turned really nasty and frankly revealed some things to me about certain authors. Short story: things got heated and lines got crossed, especially, for example, when an author with a large following quote-tweeted a TEEN reader, who did not tag ANYONE in her tweet, with an uncalled-for, condescending remark. This is one of many recent examples of authors abusing their power over the YA community, one that, in my opinion, we don't really talk about.

This is a lot of backstory, you're probably thinking, but I wanted to establish why I didn't really go into the movie with an open heart. After this whole mess, I associated fairly bad feelings with the movie, ones that I couldn't shake. Any time I would see anything involving the movie, I would immediately flashback to that week. Even now after watching the movie, I still think about it, which you can probably tell by how long this is getting. So yeah, take my opinions, especially the ones I have about the actors, with a grain of salt, but also keep this in mind when you're hyping this up as THE Asian-American teen rom-com.

**again, major spoilers for the movie and all three books below**

I'll get the trivial things that bothered me out of the way:

MARGOT GOT INTO BED WITH HER SHOES ON (WHY TF WAS SHE WEARING SHOES IN THE HOUSE ANYWAY!!) AND THEN PULLED THE BLANKET. OVER HER FEET. This is such a minor issue, but generally Asian-American households a) don't wear shoes in the house, b) would not get into bed with them on at all, and c) don't wear shoes in the house, much less upstairs in a bedroom. Why is this so upsetting to me, you ask? Because it's another example that the Korean culture is barely brought up in the movie, but more on that later. (Note: I did just read this interview with Jenny Han about how she asked them to take off Lana's shoes in one scene, but how did we miss this one??)

I'm a little sad we didn't get the Halloween scene with Peter in his Spider-Man suit :( That was such a cute scene later with him chasing Lara Jean too.

I also wish we weren't shown Kitty sending out the letters at the beginning. I mean, that's just my personal opinion. I just felt like it would have added to the movie if that had been revealed at the end, like in the book.

Onto bigger things:

I didn't find Margot or Kitty particularly well-written? They have such strong characterizations in the novel that, to me, just weren't included in the movie. Margot, to me, felt alternately like a nagging mom and a visiting aunt and a best friend; I mean, I guess you could have a relationship with your sister like that, but it never fully feels like they have a sister relationship. Also, Kitty is 9 years old in the book, but she's aged up to 6th grade which would make her 10 or 11. Yet? I felt like they wrote her like she was much younger. I don't know, it was just a little weird to me, which leads into more issues that I found a little upsetting.

In that interview I linked to, Jenny talks about how she asked them to include little things that would hint at the sisters' Asian-American heritage. There was a rice cooker in the kitchen and a portrait of their mom hung up. What I loved about the book so much was the subtle inclusion of their Asian-American background, but I did not really get those vibes from the movie. There was the "Korean yogurt" scene (which! Peter driving across town to get those for Lara Jean! killed me honestly, that was so cute) but other than that, all we got was that scene at the beginning where the dad was making Korean food.

Kitty complains about it being too dry, and Margot tells her that no matter what it tastes like, just to smile and chew. That's it. Writing this now, I realize how trivial this seems, but in the book Lara Jean maintains that their dad makes Korean food to keep them connected to their Korean culture. I feel like in the movie, they just didn't care that their dad was making them Korean food, and not in a "oh he makes Korean food all the time" way. Maybe that's just me though? But I felt like it fed into the fact that their heritage isn't really brought up. Although I don't know how I could have handled watching non-Korean actresses pretend to be Korean, but whatever. (I know everyone's hyping up Lana as the "perfect" Lara Jean, but can we please remember that she takes a lot of roles that aren't Vietnamese . . . in the Marvel movie everyone keeps bringing up, she plays a Chinese character but go off I guess.)

Also, why do they call themselves the Covey sisters? Maybe they didn't want to explain how their mom called herself a "Song girl for life," but I felt like this change was a slight step away from a big part of the Song sisters in the novel. It's still included in their names because Kitty introduces herself to Peter as "Katherine Song Covey," but I don't believe they bring it up any other time.

Moving onto the other crucial part of the book that I felt like we didn't really get: the sister relationship. We got maybe two scenes with the three of them? And one was at the beginning that was more of an intro and the other was towards the end. Yes, I know that there isn't time to show everything in the book, but couldn't we have gotten more of the three of them? Kitty and Lara Jean have scenes together, of course, but I feel like we really missed the strong relationship the three of them have in the book.

Now some things that just plain bothered me:

Did anyone else think it was weird that Lara Jean talked to Josh of all people as a confidant? Why? What was the point? I know they probably wanted to establish them as just friends but it felt so weird for him to give him advice when he was a) her sister's ex-boyfriend, b) also got a letter, and c) used to be Lara Jean's crush. This could have been a scene with Margot, which meant we could've seen more of Lara Jean and Margot's relationship. Do you see what I was saying earlier? There were just so many missed opportunities to me that would have strengthened the movie.

There were a few scenes in particular that characterized Lara Jean very differently that I did not like. One in particular was when her dad dropped her off for the ski trip and he gives her that sex kit. Now, I don't know about you, but I personally think the book Lara Jean would not have snarked back to her dad about condoms. She would have just taken them and run away because she was so embarrassed. I also thought it was a little weird that she would talk back to Gen. Not that that's a bad thing, but the book Lara Jean didn't really retaliate at her comments. This kinda furthered the girl hate in the movie, in my opinion.

But we'll move onto the positive things:

Peter moving the bowl of popcorn before pillow-fighting Kitty! Such a small thing, but I fell in love at the point. I mean, I already was in love, but that detail just added a lot. Apparently that was Noah's addition, which makes me like him more tbh.

Jenny Han's cameo! I actually saw it without being told lol. I'm so happy she got to be a part of her movie!

I really liked the change in the first kiss scene. I understand why they changed it, and they totally nailed the same intensity with them kissing on the track! It also added some more humor to the scene that I thought was a nice touch.

The filmography of the whole movie! Ugh, the art hoe in me jumped out. I loved the colors and the shots (see: the track scene above). The hot tub scene is also another great example.

Lana and Noah Centineo have such good chemistry! I was a little scared before the movie came out because you couldn't really tell how good it was in the trailer, but I wasn't disappointed in that regard. Their scenes were so cute, just like the book.

Noah was such a good Peter!! I've been a Peter K stan from day one, so I had some high expectations and he totally exceeded them. I thought he really captured Peter's charm and heart and sincerity. Honestly, I found him the most sincere actor in the whole movie. Can't wait to see him in Sierra Burgess is a Loser! (EDITED because I, um, no longer have this sentiment.)

And of course, I loved that we got an Asian-American lead in this rom-com. I'm honestly astonished by how far the movie has spread. I don't really talk about books with my friends, so it's a little weird seeing people I know talk about this movie that's based on a book that I've been obsessed with since 2014.

There are more little scenes that I liked that were taken from the book but I don't want to overload this post lol.

Overall, I'm not sure where the things I just genuinely dislike and where my bad memories from the casting overlap. I did feel like some of the actors just didn't feel . . . right to me? But I couldn't tell if it was the casting or the writing or my expectations.

And I know I was so picky about some of these things but TATBILB is one of my favorite books ever. I've loved this series for so long and so much that I desperately wanted a good adaption. When the casting came out and the mess that followed, I was really hurt and my feelings of unease never really left. There were also a lot of aspects that made the books so good to me were just written out of the movie, like the strong sister relationship and the Asian-American representation, yet could have been so easily included.

I did like the movie and think it was cute. There definitely is a talk to be had about separating a book and its adaption (looking at you, Percy Jackson movies) but for me, I couldn't do it. Again, let me reiterate that this whole post includes my personal opinions based on my own personal experiences. I know that people will disagree with some points and agree with others, but I hope that this can open a healthy discourse where people can express some things they didn't like and others won't take that as an attack on the movie as a whole, like the whole casting mess last year.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before was a cute and sweet film! This is definitely a step in the right direction, showing that films with diverse leads, especially ones for a younger audience, are necessary and can be successful. Unfortunately, as an adaption, I found this movie to be lacking in certain regards. But that's okay. Because nothing is perfect, and you can like something and still have issues with it. This movie is an example of that thought for me, and I hope others can see that.