The Hidden Meaning of Everything Everywhere All at Once | Video Essay

Accented Cinema - Episode 87
Here it is! My analysis of the metaphors hidden in Everything Everywhere At at Once. Did you know why Michelle Yeoh put a googly eye on herself? Let's find out!

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[forgived]

I thought the character Joy has the most obvious representation about depression, so i was surprised that many people called Joy pretentious.. Thx for bringing that up in this video

[ikonicshawol]

"I will still choose to do laundry and taxes with you in my next life"
The most romantic line I've never heard Cried in the cinema because of this

[vroomvroom]

To me, Joy's name seems like a double entendre in two separate languages: Its default English meaning, and what it sounds like in Cantonese, 災 (disaster). She embodies the potential for both.

[prashilk]

I think the way the movie decides to answer the self harm aspect is by showing you can't force someone into staying with us.
Rather what you can do, is not give up on them.

Cuz we see Evelyn let her go when Joy really starts resisting. Evelyn realises that you can't force someone into things being fine.
You can't force your child into not being suicidal.

But you can open your arms and show you are there for them. And most importantly, never give up on them.

Exactly how Evelyn did at the end.

What a beautiful film!

[bentonquildon]

My 25 yr old son and I watched this film together. He suffers from depression and anxiety. I've heard him say those words" I'm tired Dad" too many times. Thank you for this.

[meccalovett]

As someone who struggles with depression, I instantly picked up on her depressed state and allusions to self-harm. The line, “I’m tired” is something I say when I’m caving into my intrusive thoughts. It’s easy to get sucked into the bagel. The scene where her family is trying to pull her out of the bagel could represent her support system choosing to help her through her difficult time.

[bowietwombly]

Also important to note I think: When Evelyn a rejects despair and death, she also rejects isolationism. She finds meaning in connections, and when she saves Joy, she is unable to do it alone. It's only through the effort of everyone, the community, that she is literally and metaphorically saved. I think that's an incredibly important point for western audiences especially.

[katswritingcorner]

Her depression was the first thing that stood out to me. I didn't know people were calling her pretentious. I thought it was pretty obvious how bogged down she was ("I'm tired." The whole disappearing into the bagel thing.) Thanks so much for addressing it!

[dolefomo]

The first crying point in the film for me was when they said Jobu Tupaki was star student pushed so hard by Evelyn that she broke. As an Asian American immigrant daughter, it was such a perfect and relatable analogy for how some Asian moms push their kids for "their sake and future" in good faith while destroying their children's mental health, dreams and life. I was also a nihlist, pessimist, depressed and attempted suicide but came to my own positive nihilism like this film did. Nothing matters and everything matters. You give it meaning. Under all the extravagant outfits/designs and the dizzying plot/multiverses, the bones of the story symbolized generational trauma, albeit dramatized.

[sumlem]

I sat there crying with my boyfriend in the theatre, we picked the movie on a whim. Throughout the movie, I called out jokingly how much the main character looks so much like my mom, acts so much like her, dressed like her, and it gave me this dread when I realized her response to Joy being gay. It reminded me of when I came out to my mom. It reminded me of her relationship with my sister and about how busy immigrant families are. Too busy to heal, too busy to acknowledge. There's a lot to dig into, but damn did I cry. Definitely need to rewatch.

[KingSigy]

A colleague of mine was discussing the film with me and said she couldn't quite understand Joy's viewpoint. While it definitely is nihilistic, your analysis is what I came to after watching it. Joy doesn't really believe that everything is meaningless and life is just misery, but more that she's depressed as hell. She wants her mother to accept her and treat her with the respect she believes she deserves.

I've battled with depression for the majority of my life and I immediately understood what Joy's philosophy was. Because she's so caught in her own head and can't see beyond what she perceives, she has lost all meaning in her life. She assumes life is worthless, but it takes her mother finally embracing Joy for who she is to bring her back to the light. It's very beautiful.

[nosedivest]

For people who don’t suffer from severe depression, hearing the utterance, “I’m tired” is taken at face value but for those who are really in it, it’s the most diplomatic, succinct, protective way of say that that they’re dying. To conclude your video in such a manner tying the film’s premise to how society should be was well appreciated.

[friedgengarz]

I felt bad seeing all these people's stories about going to see this movie with their parents and said parents either HATED it or completely misunderstood its message. *( I know that's how my dad would react to this movie. Oof.)* My mom held my hand the entire last half hour and neither of us has stopped telling every person we come across to go see it.

[softmoonangel]

This movie broke me and couldn't have come at a better time, the day before I watched it, I actually attempted suicide but it didn't work. After I watched the film, after breaking down several times in the movie theatre, I called my mum and told her the truth, I told her how broken and hopeless I've been feeling and it lifted a weight from my shoulders, I'm not entirely sure where to go from here but I think that I can do it

[wakamew]

The scene that moved me a lot was a subtle scene when the mom told her daughter's girlfriend that she should grow longer hair. Chinese parents are not good at showing love to their children, instead, blaming and complaining are their ways to say "I love you" to the children. It was the same for the scenes when she said to her daughter that she is fat and she needs to eat healthy. The fact that she was doing the same kind of things to her daughter's girlfriend means that she is accepting her as a part of the family.

[ForgottenCharacter]

I cried several times during this film. When Evelyn told Waymond that she saw her life without him and it was better. When Jobu Tupaki/Joy as stone swore and said she had been holding out hope her mother would have shown her there was another way. When Waymond said in another life he would have loved doing laundry and taxes with her. In the final moments between Evelyn & Joy.

I saw Joy struggling to find meaning. I also think there's something to the noise of being bombarded on all sides of your endless potential, of who you could be, who you should be. And Evelyn as most welling meaning mother's pushing Joy to her breaking point to be all she can be.

There was a line I caught on my third viewing (I saw once by myself in theatre then the second dragging my parents to it thinking my mother would understand, would recognise obaachan in gong gong, and then recently with my aunt at home) where Evelyn tries to explain Jobu and says something to the extend of "Something wrong has taken root and corrupting my Joy" and I think that's truly poignant as that is happening, but not how she says it.

Constantly we see in stolen seconds Evelyn wistfullly looking out, at film romances, at sign spinners, and in her taxes claiming she's a singer, a chef, a teacher, etc--all the things she imagines it would be better to be, lives that would fulfill her in a way her current life doesn't. She isn't satisified, she isn't content. She has lost her joy. And we see from her other lives and her coveting of them, their is something dark rooted in and corrupting her joy--selfishness. The way she so callously tells Waymond how much better her life is without him. The way she treats her daughter to bring herself the most peace with gong gong.

And the solution to her disatisfaction is not to get everything she wants or escape into another life, but instead to open up to others and ultimately learn and become more like them. First with her daughter. And finally with her husband.



I thought this was a beautiful movie, especially in its handling the themes of depression and disatisfaction and empathy & compassion overcoming.

Also, someone somewhere said that with Encanto, Turning Red, Everything Everywhere All at Once--millenials are finally making films of their ultimate fantasy--our elders apologising for inflicting trauma on us.

[spicychashu]

The su*cide symbolism was the thing that I noticed first in this movie after coming out of the theatre. I related heavily to the feeling of just being so tired and burnt out and unhappy with many aspects of life, so when Joy was close to giving in to the bagel and "letting go", I interpreted it as letting go of life and ending it all because the alternative is too much. That brought me to tears because I could feel that pain on a personal level. Anyway! Great movie :)

[shahs]

The one thing I found really surprising was I thought I would identify with Joy more as a young millennial having to live with constant pressure from Asian parents, etc etc, but funny enough I related to Evelyn more in the end (a character archetype I NEVER relate to because they're typically one dimensional and the side character). Her realising and having to confront the reality of endless wasted potential hit me in the chest like a ton of bricks and made me instantly identify with her even when her mannerisms and very typical old world views are far and away from my own. Michelle Yeoh is an absolute powerhouse and should be proud of making Evelyn such an amazing character!

[gsdlmj]

Once I calmed down and caught my breath after the film ended I eventually though, "Man I can't wait for Accented Cinema's take on this."

[SteelersFans]

Stephanie Hsu did a fantastic job in her role. You could see the pain Joy felt from having to hide and deny her love Becky. When she was first fighting Evelyn in the IRS hallway, she did a full stop to rant that even with all the crazy mind-bending shit going on, Evelyn was still more upset that 'she liked girls in this universe'.

Not a movie where I expected an LGBT theme to be presented. But it tied the story together perfectly.