Slight mention spoiler for the movie and tw: Mention of abuse, sexism, sexual assault, suicide, and generational trauma.
My personal hot take is that Celine is one of the best characters from the movie, purely from a cultural standpoint. I don’t think I have ever seen a more accurate scene of an asian mom reacting to a mental breakdown. If she truly is a bad person, she would have never felt the need to take Rumi in and raise her.
Celine doesn’t deserve the hate she gets. She’s just simply a realistic asian mom. I don’t think most people understand just how much trauma asian people, especially the older generation silently carries with them.
Asia has some of the highest suicide rates in the world cause it’s a culture that actively focuses on getting results; feelings come second to duty. Whether that be work, school, or family, people rarely put themselves first.
Rumi reminds me so much of myself in the argument scene, as I had a similar mental breakdown once, and my mother reacted the same way. I didn’t get unconditional love, I got ‘you’re young, you still have an entire life before you’, ‘I won’t tell our extended family if that helps’ while she hugged me. She didn’t give me the affection and acceptance i desperately needed. She went into ‘protective, productive, practical mom mode’ cause that’s what love and care look like to her.
My mom never abused me, but knew so little about actual parenting i didn’t get candy until i was like 8 cause she never realized children were supposed to have candy.
She got beaten with a stick as a child until she had bruises, she use to destroy her shoes just to get new stuff every year, her entire life my uncle got favored over her cause boys were seen as more important in china back then, got SA and when she told grandma the woman asked what she did for a man to lust after her and fainted during my birth.
She’s like 90% of the reason I’m so insecure, but she also gave her everything to keep me alive. She gave me everything she had, but sometimes someone’s everything isn’t enough. Sometimes your happiness isn’t with ‘family’, sometimes it’s doing better than those before you, and that includes distancing yourself from them.
Celine isn’t evil. She’s an asian mom, a woman filled with trauma she most likely doesn’t even realise she has, and gave her everything for rumi.
Love doesn’t make up for incompetence.
thoughts should be free 