John, you probably know how much I enjoy your stories and writing.

On this one, I'll differ a bit.

First I'll say, regarding the movie, I didn't relate.

But one of the reasons it won was its overwhelming popularity within the Chinese diaspora and in China itself.

In other words, the movie really wasn't meant to entertain you or me. It was meant to entertain the billion or so Chinese who watched it and related to things like how Evelyn speaks to Joy in Mandarin and English, while Joy responds in English and, according to other reviews I've read, bad Chinese (I wouldn't catch this, obviously, since I don't know Mandarin or Cantonese). It's about intergenerational Chinese families and their struggles in western society (which, whether President Xi want to admit it or not, has affected China greatly) and with each other.

They don't even speak the same dialect to one another sometimes.

Everything, everywhere all at once is how many Chinese probably feel life comes at them. It's not even really a complaint, I don't think (I'm not Chinese so you'll need to check with someone who is). It's just the craziness of balancing family, kids who have become distant from your traditional values, the difficulties of starting a business, etc., etc. Everything. All at once. It's a brilliant title.

The absurdity of Joy's multiverse converging on the IRS as represented by Jamie Lee Curtis was awesome, and when I look back on the movie I realize there were a lot of moments that sort of whooshed past me that I appreciate more now.

My view is that the filmmakers are saying, "hey, look, our life is an absurdist comedy! "It feels ridiculous to us westerners because it is. But trust me, it feels ridiculous to them, too.

I was really glad to see Michelle Yeoh win an oscar if only because she was the only real redeeming quality of Star Trek: Discovery, aside from the first captain, but I thought she was quite good in this, too.

Overall, I wasn't crazy about the movie. But it really wasn't made for me. Its Rotten Tomatoes score suggests it will be treated just fine by history, and its award will be cherished by those involved in its making.

So, yeah, I can understand people not liking the movie, but I'm pretty sure its target audience loved it.