Be recklessly kind
I once consoled my flawed self-esteem by writing the sentence, ‘People who live life in a difficult way do so not because they don’t know how to live easily.’ An acquaintance once said that to live in a world gone crazy, you have no choice but to become a crazy person. It was not uncommon to meet others who lived by that proposition as their motto. In a world where it is as sane to live sanely as it is to live sanely, I have often failed to trust myself to believe in the power of kindness. Rather, the most selfish person may be myself, who tries to rely on floating metaphysics such as love or tenderness. I guess I wanted to distinguish myself from others by calling myself a ‘rarely kind person in this world’. Anyone who repeats even trivial words and actions like a habit has probably wondered whether it is really worth believing in kindness.
however
Three Act Structure and Laundromat
The three acts in the film are each subtitled ‘Everything’, ‘Everywhere’, and ‘All at Once’. As each act begins, Evelyn (Yang Ja-kyung) is repeatedly placed in the same situation: preparing for a tax audit for the laundromat she runs. The act of organizing and settling her receipt payment details is a metaphor for the main narrative of the film, which rewinds Evelyn’s life and the life that could have been possible due to the choices she missed. The line of Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis), who appears as an IRS administrator, “You can see your life by looking at your receipts” is not unrelated to this main narrative.
In Act 1, Evelyn fails the tax audit. The reason for the rejection was that the store’s payment details were inaccurate, and the problem became that the purchase of a karaoke machine was discovered in the laundromat’s spending details. Here, Evelyn’s husband, Waymond Wang (Ki Hoi Kwan), defends Evelyn’s accounting mistakes, saying it’s because she ‘doesn’t properly distinguish between her business and her hobbies.’ She notes that at this time, Evelyn dreamed of becoming a singer. When she did the Jump Verse where she was able to confirm that she was living a different life in another universe, she also revealed that ‘Singer Evelyn’ existed. Evelyn could not become a singer because she chose to live as a laundromat owner, and her unfulfilled dream can be seen as evidenced by her ‘karaoke machine purchase details’ as a hobby. However, the National Tax Service is taking issue with the details themselves, which is no different from denying Evelyn’s life as a laundromat owner and defining it as a less-recognized life.
In addition, the complaints of the laundromat customers in the first sequence of Act 1 give a hint about Evelyn’s life – the $20 that is not returned because of a broken machine, and the laundry that is lost because it is not properly delivered are respectively deserved compensation compared to the effort Evelyn put in. It is responding to a life without life and a life that has suddenly lost direction.
In Act 2, Evelyn doesn’t even show up for the Internal Revenue Service’s tax audit. Even at a party held in a laundromat with many guests, she destroyed the space – because the laundromat is more than just a professional space, it symbolizes the home of Evelyn’s life that Evelyn’s choice has built – her self, her It even appears destructive. The reason why Evelyn, who had tried to hold on to responsibility for her own choices even though she felt regretful and regretful about the choices she had given up, became nihilistic was because of her daughter Joy’s grandfather, Tu Paki (Stephanie Su), who is also the main villain. It was because of the influence.
Evelyn and Joy, who experienced friction in their mother-daughter relationship, were in fact in a fundamentally similar hostile relationship in any other universe. Joy, who has the ability to jump bus at will, experiences all the possible universes she can experience. However, experiencing every possible experience reduces the value of life by destroying the possibilities that can be expected from the rest of life, and ultimately directly contributes to Joey becoming the nihilistic villain ‘Grandpa Toupaki’. Joy’s transformation serves as the main premise of the film, and this premise can be understood in relation to the lines of her husband, Alpha Waymond, in the Alphaverse.
Alpha Waymond tells her that the reason the Evelyn of this universe, who runs a laundromat, is weak and insignificant is because the Evelyn of this universe chose the worst. Evelyn in the current universe is living the worst life because she made the worst choice, but on the other hand, Evelyn in other universes who avoided the worst choice and made the best choice are enjoying the best or best life. In situations where we do not know which choice is right or better, we sometimes view experiencing all possible options as a solution. However, the setting that Joy, who has experienced all possibilities, desires voluntary death seems to gently encourage the audience of the 21st century, where jump buses are not yet possible, that the current life comes from your best choices. However, in the process of becoming many Evelyns from other universes, the main character, Evelyn, eventually develops nihilistic beliefs like Joey and commits self-destruction by destroying the laundromat.
It is her husband, Waymond, who calms Evelyn down and opens her new eyes. Waymond confesses that he, too, lives a life like a battle, torn by regrets and lingering feelings, and says that the weapon of that battle is kindness. The message of saving and cherishing the current day more rather than feeling lingering over unrealized dreams, missed opportunities, or feeling vain in a reality that can no longer be new may be somewhat trivial and ordinary. However, the storyline that condenses the story that expanded into an orbit as wide as the universe into one keyword to converge on one message, ‘the power of kindness’, is powerful enough to provide comfort to all of us in the multiverse. After achieving her enlightenment through her Waymund, Evelyn is able to attach a doll eyeball symbolizing the Ajna Chakra between her eyebrows.
Evelyn confronts her enemies to rescue Joey, who is walking towards death because he cannot escape from nihilism. At this time, she defeats her enemies by vividly reproducing their unfulfilled dreams. This part shows how creative and rich a maximalist film can be without losing its penetrating message.
In the final third act, Evelyn heads to the IRS again. But this time she’s all with her daughter Joy and her daughter’s girlfriend Becky (Tali Medel). The settlement results are much better, but the National Tax Service still requires additional supplementation. This scene can be seen as a metaphor for the fact that no matter how hard you try to be satisfied, it is difficult to have a perfect life without even the slightest regret. Once the curtain rises on the movie and the lights turn on in the theater, it feels as if Evelyn’s unfinished business remains our responsibility. We will never be perfect, but if we don’t give up, our power will increase little by little, and our universe will expand little by little but surely – the endless settlement finally becomes meaningful.
Sometimes I change my shoes
Let’s add eyeballs
Since most cases are open to other universes, in order to jump into a world of another dimension, you must do something that none of the countless ‘I’s’ that exist in the vast universe have ever attempted. Therefore, one must take actions that are described in the movie as being ‘statistically improbable’. This is ultimately in line with the film’s theme that strange and erratic behavior becomes the individuality and uniqueness of our lives.
In addition, the doll’s eyes, which are seen as the visual identity of the movie, have great meaning and resonance. Even considering the context of the movie, isn’t the act of attaching eyes to something beautiful in itself? This is the act of giving life to a non-human object. Attaching ‘eyes’ that can align our focus and gaze is a clear intention to cherish the object. In a scene where two stones, distinguished only by color and location, appear, the moment one’s eyes are drawn to the stones, the ‘object’ called a stone turns into a ‘person’.
We also need to instill small, but special meanings in our daily lives. Since our life is different from that of Doctor Strange, who can travel between multiple dimensions, there is a high probability that it will not be a heroic work. However, since he is not such a stereotypical hero, wouldn’t he be able to try the Jump Verse across space without any arduous training? When we try on a pair of shoes with a reversed pair or put our eyes on a still rock, we will be able to treat our lives more kindly, albeit in a very small way.
