The Most Emotional Scene in Beef Gets At a Deeper Truth
The Netflix series’ depiction of Korean American Christianity is terrifying in its accuracy.
Most of you have watched Beef on Netflix already and I just wanted to share a piece I wrote for Slate Magazine about the church scenes in Beef and what they say about Korean-Americans’ relationship to suffering, Christianity, and healing.
You can read the full article here.
While writing this piece, I really had to reflect on my own healing journey as a pastor’s kid and exvangelical. I feel as though I’ve transitioned from a religion that glorifies suffering to a more buddhist perspective where I’ve accepted that suffering is a part of life and also understand that this too is temporary, such as everything else in life.
It again reminds me of the Japanese/Buddhist expression “mono no aware"—the impermanence of life. Just like how the beautiful sakura leaves sprout for a short time in the spring and fall ever so gracefully, that’s how I like to think of negative thoughts and feelings. Even the positive ones don’t last forever, which makes me appreciate them more in the present moment.
Like Amy says, “Everything fades. Nothing lasts. We’re just a snake eating its own tail”—implying that all of the accolades and external validation in the world can never actually fill the emptiness inside.
So the work begins with you filling this emptiness from within, and also understanding that negative emotions like loneliness, sadness, and anger are temporary and with time, they’ll also disappear like sakura leaves, drifting off into the air.