Always Be My Maybe (2019)

Happy birthday to my first middle child!

I am still on my post eye surgery pandemic movie fare of incredibly light romantic comedies, and this fits the bill.  This is a tale of childhood crushes becoming a life partnership.  The young Sasha Tran and Marcus Kim (with their adult selves played by Wong and Park respectively) are next-door neighbors in San Francisco. Often neglected by her parents who work long hours, Sasha seems accustomed to preparing her own dinners—she can make even a can of spam look fancy—and learning the intricate details of Korean cuisine from Marcus’ sweet, sacrificing mom. This portrayal of Asian families opening their home to waifs of all sorts was definitely part of my growing up experience.  My friend whose parents emigrated from China took me in and fed me, teaching me both how to cook and how to eat.  Their Indonesian friends, equally welcoming with feasts, did even more to help my palate expand. With Sasha spending most of her time with Marcus’ family, the two kids grow up as friends, and then by happenstance lose their virginity to each other as teens but then when Marcus’ mother dies , have an awkward falling out in their formative years. 

Cut to 15 years later, and Sasha is now among America’s hottest celebrity chefs in Los Angeles.  The two get back together in awkward and hesitant ways, he calling her inauthentic and she calling him a coward.  The whole thing is less cringeworthy than it sounds and I very much enjoyed this.