This is the story of a Chinese family and the daughter trying to fit into a not-really-that-wrong parody of America. The names of some of the stores were a freaking riot. The AR-15 Food Market got me.
They arrive in the town when Joan is eight years old and on her first day of school someone gives her the slant eyes insult. She has the Chinese lunch her mother packed for her mocked so she dumps it out.
Smash cut to her in high school. She trades lunches with her Desi friend so they're both happy. I'm not sure where mom works and dad works as a house cleaner. They both speak Chinese at home and very limited English where needed. Joan speaks perfect English.
The popular girls at school are the pale blondes. All of them. Even a chubby one. There's a single very popular one who the rest gravitate around. Joan has the longing looks for them and there's a hallway of fame for homecoming kings and queens, all the cleancut American guys and every single girl pale with long blonde hair.
She decides to run for homecoming queen, even with her Desi friend trying to talk her down. Things are going lackluster until her dad gets hurt at work and she has to fill in for cleaning. The popular girls see her and that's the end of her homecoming queen aspirations. She even tries dying her hair blonde herself but it's not a success so she's got a big patch of black roots and orange chunks.
Online she's been using filters that change her to be the white blonde she wants to be. Every time she does she gets a message from the company that makes them that she's a high percentage user, that she's important to them, etc. Then she gets a message that's a one hour limited offer to go to their office and after some debate she does. The storefront is an abandoned barber shop but the logo is on the window and going through the debris of the previous store she ends up in a bright and shiny lobby.
She's offered the chance to become what she wants to be - white. The doctor shows her video of the success stories. In fact he'll give her a freebie permanent hair color change. She walks out with nice blonde hair and the paperwork she needs a parent to sign because she's underage. It states very clearly, and the doctors says it as well, that the change is permanent.
She lies to her mother and says it's a form for a field trip and goes the next day to have the procedure done. The movie skips over any and all science for this process, and that makes it more believable. Joan of pure Chinese descent walks in, Joan of pure white descent walks out. There is now a different actress playing the character.
Her parents have no idea who she is and it takes persuading to get them to realize it is her. They're appalled at what she did and there's some touching dialogue later from her father about how he looked at her and saw his mother, etc. But that's not where this movie goes. They do go back to the clinic and tell the doctor they didn't agree to it and change it back. He points it that it's permanent and shows them the door.
She takes on a new name at the school and starts over. The popular girls take to her and THE popular girl pulls her into her orbit. She's got what she's wanted - she gets white privilege and she fits in. Her Desi friend is also appalled and asks if she thinks she's ugly. Valid question. During this time she's had a few patches of skin flake and peel off.
Her skin starts to sag and show some of her original skin tone. When she goes back to the clinic there's now a huge line and she's told she can see the doctor far out in the future. They give her some cream and tape to deal with the problem until then.
She gets nominated for homecoming queen by the top girl herself, who's going to be too busy shooting a TV show to do it herself. During this time there's more slippage. She runs into the bathroom and is followed by the top girl. Unexpectedly she helps with the tape to hide the damage and tells her that her original face will fight the change for a while. Well then.
She's invited to dinner at the top girl's house to find out both her and her father had the procedure, her mother chose not to and isn't in their lives anymore. The house is completely white and beige, a not very subtle showing for the situation.
When she gets home Joan sees more of her skin slipping and flaking. She starts pulling and digging. There's piles of what are meant to be bloody skin on the makeup table as she looks for her old face. It ends with her holding her hand over her new face and half of her old face showing.
This isn't subtle and it's not meant to be. However it's also poorly written and too long. Others have said it could have been, and should have been, a Twilight Zone episode. I really have to wonder how hard up the studios are for non-comic book movies when I see a lot of what's been on the big screen. The concept here is good. The execution is bad.
The funny thing is I don't see this as ever being shown in my city. This is so not the audience for this movie.
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