In the 2o23 film Quiz Lady, Sandra Oh and Awkwafina star together to create a heartfelt touching film. Quiz Lady was initially supposed to be a Netflix project. However, in December 2021, Netflix decided they were no longer going to work on the film. Despite this, the film’s writer Jen D’Angelo was able to find another studio to acquire the film’s rights.
Family comedies tend to fall under the genre of feel-good films. No matter how dysfunctional and traumatic they might seem, the guarantee that the film ends on a note where everyone wins, adds to its overall charm. In Quiz Lady Oh and Awkwafina, take this aged old story of sibling rivalry, breathe life into it and audiences are left with not just a lovely film, but teary eyes at the end.
Quiz Lady Takes A Stab At Complex Sisterhood
Awkwafina is Anne Yum the younger sister of Jenny Yum, who is played by Oh. They are reunited when they discover that their mother has once again run away from her nursing home. Anne takes in Jenny who is living in her car. During her first night in Anne’s house, Jenny discovers that her sister is still addicted to the game show she had loved as a child and this spurs a series of actions that leads to Anne partaking in the game show and winning it.
Anne who is the younger sister of the duo, somehow ends up being the more responsible one. She is the one who is in charge of their mother’s care. For most of the film, it is obvious that Anne has had no one care for her, for most of her life. This causes her to step to the plate to care for her entire family. Her sister on the hand, is flighty and not reliable. Both of these have affected her personal life. The expectation in such situations is Anne, starts to feel resentment- especially as the younger sister. This resentment does rear its head in the film but the sisters manage to have a good relationship. One that is fragile, but manages to still be strong enough to help them find their way back to each other. This complexity of their relationship is the foundation upon which the story is built.
The Polarizing Roles Of The Cast
Sandra Oh has had a very successful career. She is mostly known for her work on Arliss, Grey’s Anatomy and Killing Eve. On Grey’s Anatomy and Killing Eve, Oh plays very serious characters. People at the top of their fields who are excellent at their jobs. On the other hand, iAwkwafina who is known for her work in comedy. The actress had her come up in the world of acting, because of how funny she was. However, in this film, the actresses play characters that are different from the characters they have played in the past.
Aisha Harris of NPR spoke on this when she observed that Quiz Lady was “very much against typecasting”. It also speaks to the wealth of skill that the two actresses have. The ability to play characters antithetical to the roles they have mostly played can only be done by actors who are very serious about their craft and do the work to maintain a certain standard.
Quiz Lady Holds Space for Laughter & Trauma
Quiz Lady is a comedy but in between its laughs, very heavy traumatic events are layered. When the film starts we see that the Yum parents do not have a great marriage. This is what pushes a young Anne to the game show. A show that she held on to even in her adulthood. However, the biggest traumatic event in the film was reported in a story when the sisters talked while in a hospital waiting room. After the death of their father, the Yum girls had gone to stay with extended family. During this time, Anne had been so deeply uncomfortable and felt unwanted by the family that she struggled with pooping. One night she dug a hole in the garden and pooped. It was during a fight with Jenny that it was revealed that their cousins saw the poop in the yard, told their parents and the girls had to go live with their unstable mom.
This very traumatic story is able to find its way into a film that had been interspersed with laughter at many points. However, it is not left as it is, but instead goes full circle and helps close out the story in a spectacularly heartfelt way. Jessica Yu, the film’s director revealed that this story was not initially in the script and it was suggested by Awkwafina.
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