To All the Boys I loved Before

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Lanolin

Lanolin

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Dec 15, 2018
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Ok so nobody really watched Mean Girls on here, fair enough, it's an older movie even though the updated musical version was recent.

Well in the past year I got into a bit more Netflix as happens when you caregiving, sometimes all you can do is watch tv between trips to the toilet..

So when I first saw this movie, I thought huh looks like a fun teen rom com. Also - Asian representation! ( In America) as the main protagonist is...Korean! Actually she's not, the actress is Vietnamese but who can tell? Non-asians probably can't.

It turns out the movie, based on the Jenny Han YA novel series, was a big deal back in the day and very popular when it came out. And I should probably put this in the young adults forum, but well, it's a rom-com, what do the Christian singles think of it?

Ok not to spoil it for those who haven't seen it, but the first was about letters a girl writes to her crushes of how she loves them (but she's too scared to say it to their faces). There are five boys. She doesn't send them because she just wants to write her feelings and lives for romance novels in her imagination but not real life. But thing is somehow those letters do get sent to the boys and that's when the trouble ensues....

The second movie is a bout a love triangle (IKR..original)

And the third is about choosing between a boyfriend and going to college (can you do both at the same time??)

Lets weigh in what happens and how true to life (or not) this rom-com is. There's no real religion in the movies but in the books trilogy, which of course, I have read (slightly different from the movies) apparently they did go to church, as the mother was part of a Presy congregation. Korean churches are actually big in the US (and Korea). But the mother is dead, so that's a moot point.

Does it take you back to your teen years? Is it realistic about how dating for the first time is? Were you Team Kavinsky or Team Ambrose? Do 'promposals' really happen? Can everyone afford to go to university/college across the country? Or take class trips to New York from Portland, Oregon. I dunno!
 
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Jenny Han also wrote the Summer I turned Pretty.
That one was a bit of a shocker really. I did not like the character Belly. I think maybe Jenny Han just named her that to annoy readers lol. It was short for Isabelle, but really, it was just code for Jezebel.
To have men/brothers fighting over you isn't female empowerment, it's just sad.
It was a more recent tv adaptation though and I didn't watch all of it, I read the books. Again, YA. Sure can discuss that one too.
Unless discussion of all movies and books not bible-based is banned from CC?

Well, Jenny named one of the brothers Jeremiah...and she did reference the Jacob and Esau story. Though Jeremiah and Conrad were not twins and they weren't going to be the leaders of any nations. Just whoever has the title to the beachhouse in Cousins where they and Belly go every summer.

btw Mean Girls reference - the guy who played Conrad in the tv series also played Aaron Samuels in the Mean Girls musical version. And he couldn't sing.
So I am not really sure what he was doing in the musical. Perhaps looking pretty?
 
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Lanolin said:
Ok so nobody really watched Mean Girls on here, fair enough, it's an older movie even though the updated musical version was recent.

Well in the past year I got into a bit more Netflix as happens when you caregiving, sometimes all you can do is watch tv between trips to the toilet..

So when I first saw this movie, I thought huh looks like a fun teen rom com. Also - Asian representation! ( In America) as the main protagonist is...Korean! Actually she's not, the actress is Vietnamese but who can tell? Non-asians probably can't.

It turns out the movie, based on the Jenny Han YA novel series, was a big deal back in the day and very popular when it came out. And I should probably put this in the young adults forum, but well, it's a rom-com, what do the Christian singles think of it?

Ok not to spoil it for those who haven't seen it, but the first was about letters a girl writes to her crushes of how she loves them (but she's too scared to say it to their faces). There are five boys. She doesn't send them because she just wants to write her feelings and lives for romance novels in her imagination but not real life. But thing is somehow those letters do get sent to the boys and that's when the trouble ensues....

The second movie is a bout a love triangle (IKR..original)

And the third is about choosing between a boyfriend and going to college (can you do both at the same time??)

Lets weigh in what happens and how true to life (or not) this rom-com is. There's no real religion in the movies but in the books trilogy, which of course, I have read (slightly different from the movies) apparently they did go to church, as the mother was part of a Presy congregation. Korean churches are actually big in the US (and Korea). But the mother is dead, so that's a moot point.

Does it take you back to your teen years? Is it realistic about how dating for the first time is? Were you Team Kavinsky or Team Ambrose? Do 'promposals' really happen? Can everyone afford to go to university/college across the country? Or take class trips to New York from Portland, Oregon. I dunno!
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Wait you’re Asian lanolin lol I never would have guessed
 
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tourist said:
A good-looking Asian woman at that. A real class act and full of charm. Obviously, intelligent too with a certain measure of wisdom.
Click to expand...
I’m sure you’re correct on all elements of your statement , I see why lanolin stays under the radar. Too many suitors would follow.
 
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Lanolin said:
Ok so nobody really watched Mean Girls on here, fair enough, it's an older movie even though the updated musical version was recent.

Well in the past year I got into a bit more Netflix as happens when you caregiving, sometimes all you can do is watch tv between trips to the toilet..

So when I first saw this movie, I thought huh looks like a fun teen rom com. Also - Asian representation! ( In America) as the main protagonist is...Korean! Actually she's not, the actress is Vietnamese but who can tell? Non-asians probably can't.

It turns out the movie, based on the Jenny Han YA novel series, was a big deal back in the day and very popular when it came out. And I should probably put this in the young adults forum, but well, it's a rom-com, what do the Christian singles think of it?

Ok not to spoil it for those who haven't seen it, but the first was about letters a girl writes to her crushes of how she loves them (but she's too scared to say it to their faces). There are five boys. She doesn't send them because she just wants to write her feelings and lives for romance novels in her imagination but not real life. But thing is somehow those letters do get sent to the boys and that's when the trouble ensues....

The second movie is a bout a love triangle (IKR..original)

And the third is about choosing between a boyfriend and going to college (can you do both at the same time??)

Lets weigh in what happens and how true to life (or not) this rom-com is. There's no real religion in the movies but in the books trilogy, which of course, I have read (slightly different from the movies) apparently they did go to church, as the mother was part of a Presy congregation. Korean churches are actually big in the US (and Korea). But the mother is dead, so that's a moot point.

Does it take you back to your teen years? Is it realistic about how dating for the first time is? Were you Team Kavinsky or Team Ambrose? Do 'promposals' really happen? Can everyone afford to go to university/college across the country? Or take class trips to New York from Portland, Oregon. I dunno!
Click to expand...

Now all these movies sound really interesting to watch. Gotta see is if they're on Amazon Prime or TubiTV!


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I think Summer I turned Pretty is on Amazon Prime.
All the Boys I loved Before is on Netflix. The two after that are called P.S. I love you, and Always and Forever, Lara Jean. There was also short doco interviewing the actors. A spin-off series, featuring the youngest sister, is also on Netflix. It's called XO Kitty

The actor who played Peter Kavinsky is Noah Centino, and has been in some other movies, one on Netflix (if it's still there) called The Perfect Date.
Lara Jean is played by Lana Condor.
If you watch closely the author, Jenny Han, has cameos in all three movies.

I have watched it numerous times because its quite charming and funny and the first one had the fake dating trope, which is always entertaining. WE ARE FAKE DATING. Not really dating!!
 
Lanolin said:
I think Summer I turned Pretty is on Amazon Prime.
All the Boys I loved Before is on Netflix. The two after that are called P.S. I love you, and Always and Forever, Lara Jean. There was also short doco interviewing the actors. A spin-off series, featuring the youngest sister, is also on Netflix. It's called XO Kitty

The actor who played Peter Kavinsky is Noah Centino, and has been in some other movies, one on Netflix (if it's still there) called The Perfect Date.
Lara Jean is played by Lana Condor.
If you watch closely the author, Jenny Han, has cameos in all three movies.

I have watched it numerous times because its quite charming and funny and the first one had the fake dating trope, which is always entertaining. WE ARE FAKE DATING. Not really dating!!
Click to expand...

I have Amazon Prime so I'm going to watch The Summer I Turned Pretty soon.

That might make a good thread:

How old were you when you turned attractive? (Or when the opposite sex first noticed and took interest in you?)


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2ndTimeIsTheCharm said:
I have Amazon Prime so I'm going to watch The Summer I Turned Pretty soon.

That might make a good thread:

How old were you when you turned attractive? (Or when the opposite sex first noticed and took interest in you?)


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Was that your idea?
Make it into another thread and see who responds :D
 
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In Summer I turned Pretty you were either Team Jelly or Team Bonrad.

Of course I read the books first so knew what was gonna happen.

Let's talk about the Asian representation in these screen adaptations. Ok in the US, you may notice there are lots of European Americans, which people there call 'white' and African Americans that people there call 'black'

But things are rarely black or white. There are shades of grey. It used to be, according to my reading of the history books (Lord knows I do not live there) that the white people enslaved the black people, and there was a thing called segregation, where the white people kept the black people away from them and only doing the menial jobs.
If a white person married a black person...that was a crime. It was called miscegenation.
It wasn't as bad as apartheid in South Africa, but in many ways it was worse, because if you were born mixed, nobody knew if you were really black or really white.
And you were shunned, ostracised. And maybe your parents got lynched, or shot at (sometimes in church) and you could never date someone outside your own race...because...problems.

I will get to Asia in another post.
 
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Lanolin said:
In Summer I turned Pretty you were either Team Jelly or Team Bonrad.

Of course I read the books first so knew what was gonna happen.

Let's talk about the Asian representation in these screen adaptations. Ok in the US, you may notice there are lots of European Americans, which people there call 'white' and African Americans that people there call 'black'

But things are rarely black or white. There are shades of grey. It used to be, according to my reading of the history books (Lord knows I do not live there) that the white people enslaved the black people, and there was a thing called segregation, where the white people kept the black people away from them and only doing the menial jobs.
If a white person married a black person...that was a crime. It was called miscegenation.
It wasn't as bad as apartheid in South Africa, but in many ways it was worse, because if you were born mixed, nobody knew if you were really black or really white.
And you were shunned, ostracised. And maybe your parents got lynched, or shot at (sometimes in church) and you could never date someone outside your own race...because...problems.

I will get to Asia in another post.
Click to expand...


I used to live in an area were the Civil War was a very direct impact on the town. As a matter of fact, the town train station have most parts of it preserved from the Civil War period: a big chunk of it was bombed so the authorities preserved all that and there is a little exhibit of all the well known people in the area of that period.

The black people there for the most part are sweet. So it's painful to see them believe the insults occasionally flung at them. I mean, you will see sadness and hurt! I once told one of them, "Don't believe any of that. It's not true!"

I remember one of my patients say with disdain on his face, "You're related to the Japanese!" Like as if being Asian is terrible. I laughed! I said, with a bemused look on my face, "I LIKE being related to the Japanese!" He couldn't say anything else.

I like being Asian! And no one can ever make me think differently!


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Lanolin said:
Was that your idea?
Make it into another thread and see who responds :D
Click to expand...

Really? I'm not good at starting new threads like you and @seoulsearch though. I like your opening posts because you guys ask good questions and then write good detailed answers from your own lives to help people share their own personal answers.

I really don’t think I can present the question and thoughful personal examples as good as either one if you would.

Could either one of you start it instead? I'm just not an interesting writer as either one of you, honestly.


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I did see it when it came out on DVD. I wanted to see it and I liked it a lot. It was very funny. I just don't remember any parts of it now. I barely even remember my favorite movies anymore.
 
Trailer - yes the guy that plays Lara Jean's dad is the groom from My Big Fat Greek Wedding

 
zeroturbulence said:
What is that?
Click to expand...
It's when two people pretend to date, but are not really dating.
It's often done to make ex's jealous. Don't ask me why. It don't make a bunch of sense.

Maybe they are just being friends...and are fooling everyone else by pretending to be in love! Oh no. What could happen??

Sounds like the plot of another teen movie - She's All That. In that one, the boy pretends to date the girl for a bet. She also wore glasses, so was automatically ugly because she didn't wear fake eyelashes.
 
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Lanolin said:
It's when two people pretend to date, but are not really dating.
It's often done to make ex's jealous. Don't ask me why. It don't make a bunch of sense.

Maybe they are just being friends...and are fooling everyone else by pretending to be in love! Oh no. What could happen??

Sounds like the plot of another teen movie - She's All That. In that one, the boy pretends to date the girl for a bet. She also wore glasses, so was automatically ugly because she didn't wear fake eyelashes.
Click to expand...
Oh you must be talking about All The Boys Ive Loved Before. Sorry, I only read the first part of your post about how no one really saw Mean Girls. I have to come back and read the rest later.
 
Ok so Peter and Lara Jean pretend to date to make Josh who was dating Lara Jeans sister, jealous and so LJ isn't accused of stealing her sister's boyfriend.
Peter also has an ex gf that he wants to make jealous by pretending to date LJ so that she will want to get back with him because they broke up. Or as a way of getting over her. I don't know, it was confusing.

Even as I am typing this I'm going, hold on...wait a minute...

The inevitable happens.
Ok it's like the plot of Pretty Woman, except LJ is not Julia Roberts prostitute and Peter isn't Richard Gere, tycoon corporate raider. But there are enough similarities...Julia aka Vivien gets to wear an expensive necklace, bought for by Richard Gere aka Edwards ill gotten gains... LJ gets to wear Peter's locket...there is a hot tub/bubble bath scene....um...
 
I said too much. Maybe this movie is too racy for CC

I will try to think of more Christian-based movies to discuss. I just can't think of any right now....

Narnia I never really got into.
I often go for one with 'strong female characters' but as long as those characters aren't witches. And they have to pass the
Bechdel test. Which is some kind of barometer excluding all sappy stories.
 
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