WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
I’m going to be completely honest here and say that I had always known Awkwafina as actress as I had never really listened to any of her music, only seen her starring in films over the last few years. Well, here’s some of those films below – only one of them I had seen before writing this article…
Jackpot!
I’ll be honest, when you see a film with John Cena and Awkwafina you start to expect a comedy which I guess this film is in part but it’s more of a dystopian comedy. For me it was very The Purge meets Guns Akimbo. Awkwafina plays Katie Kim, an out of work actress returning to Los Angeles for the first time in a long time and accidentally enters the grand national lottery – making her a target for everyone in LA – slightly similar to Daniel Radcliffe’s character in Guns Akimbo…hence the comparison. I actually like the fact that they don’t try and turn this into some sort of buddy comedy, it takes a long time for Katie to start trusting Noel. They finally start bonding with about 40 minutes to go but I like the fact that they didn’t make the relationship between them the main focus of the film. For a lot of this, I see the same Awkwafina that turns up in many of her other films until she is vulnerable and opens up about her father.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Funnily enough, Awkwafina’s character in this film is also called Katy! Also, the actor that plays Shang-Chi is the bad guy in Jackpot! And worryingly it took me a little while to realise that. Unlike the other two films on this list, Awkwafina does play an ancillary character but she is Shang’s best friend and surprisingly willing sidekick for someone who has just found their friend had been hiding things from them for 10 years. However I do feel that at around 30 minutes in and with the introduction of his sister, Xialing, Katy’s role becomes smaller. It’s always a giveaway with stunts if you see the actors face throughout which is the case here with Awkwafina both the driving she does throughout the film as she had actually trained in car drifting for the role as well the archery seen towards the end. This may be an unpopular opinion but I actually think this one of the best films in the MCU.
The Farewell
This is probably a terrible admission but I didn’t realise that a24 had actually made any genre of film other than horror but that’s probably because those were the only a24 films I’d seen before this. It’s actually really refreshing to see Awkwafina in a more serious role. Now, that isn’t denying that there aren’t so comedic moments but she is definitely a more toned down version of herself, in a film with such a serious undertone you need a little light relief here and there. It’s also nice to hear her speaking more Mandarin as she only speaks a little in Shang-Chi. This film is based on Lulu Wang’s, the director, own experience when her grandmother was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Awkwafina’s character of Billi, from what I understand, represents Lulu herself and the beautiful relationship she shared with her grandmother. I honestly couldn’t imagine how hard it was trying to hide the illness from her. OK, yes she sings a little bit of karaoke with her dad towards the end of the film but when you listen to her regular music I would say that’s more like rap anyway so you guys can decide if this still counts.
Honorary Mentions
I think mentioned it a few times in this article, the fact that most of Awkwafina’s roles I had seen seemed to be based in comedy, Jumanji: Next Level being a great example. However my first introduction to her was in Ocean’s 8 alongside Sandra Bullock and Anne Hathaway. She’s even done a few voice roles including Zhen in Kung Fu Panda 4 and Chump in Migration
