A Musical Examination of Randall "Randruff" Park & Ali Wong's Netflix Film Always Be My Maybe & Hello Peril (Spotify Playlist/Soundtrack)
Just this past Friday night, my lovely wife, Caroline, and I bought a well-deserved pizza from a local, newly-opened pizzeria. We, then, decided to rent a movie, which I'll whole-heartedly admit, my wife picked: Always Be My Maybe released on Netflix earlier that same day. Always Be My Maybe—yes, named after Mariah Carey's similarly-named 1996 hit single!—was penned by long-time friends, Randall Park (Fresh Off The Boat) & Ali Wong (American Housewife) along with co-writer Michael Golamco. It was directed by Fresh Off The Boat creator Nahnatcka Khan and has been widely framed as an Asian-American version of When Harry Met Sally, as well as Eddie Murphy's Boomerang; Wong was active as a writer on Seasons 1-4 of Fresh Off The Boat, as well. Simply put, IMDb bills Always Be My Maybe as, "A pair of childhood friends [who] end up falling for each other when they grow up" and we'll leave the general plot at that without giving away any spoilers... however, the film is primarily set in The Bay Area, California throughout the decades, as Park & Wong's characters, Marcus Kim & Sasha Tran, grow up, apart, and, eventually, back together.
As soon as I heard D'Angelo's "Untitled (How Does It Feel)" during one of the early 2000's scenes, I immediately started Shazam'ing songs from Always Be My Maybe to piece together my very own official/unofficial soundtrack accompaniment. We're talking everything from AWOLNATION to Alicia Keys and literally, everything in-between; I've put together a 33-song Spotify Playlist fittingly titled Always Be My Maybe "Soundtrack" (The Witzard Edition.) It features 16 songs I unearthed with Shazam (Tracks #01-16) as well as 13 additional selections (Tracks #18-31) which are tracks I may have missed that were identified by the good people over at REFINERY29, plus, a few "Bonus Tracks," for good measure. Additionally, Marcus Kim, is part of a live instruments-accompanied Hip-Hop band, à la The Roots, called Hello Peril, which, oddly enough, echoes Randall Park's own experience as part of Ill Again from about 2003-20??. For purposes of the film, Hello Peril consists of Marcus Kim, Diet Coke Feisty Cherry advocate Karan Soni as Tony, Ginger as played by Charlyne Yi, and "The Bay's Darth Vader," Quasar, as portrayed by Tsutomu "Tom" Shimura AKA Berkeley-based rapper/producer Lyrics Born.
Hello Peril have three songs featured within the film: "Hello," "Tennis Ball," and "I Punched Keanu Reeves," all of which are, also, featured on the Always Be My Maybe (Original Music from The Netflix Film) EP. For purposes of said soundtrack/EP, Hello Peril consists of Randall "Randruff" Park, Lyrics Born, and super-prolific Indie Hip-Hop producer Dan The Automator. In addition to Hello Peril and the music within the film, Always Be My Maybe, also, features a handful of music-related Easter Eggs, such as: a Handsome Boy Modelling School So... How's Your Girl poster, a Diana Ross impersonator, a Hieroglyphics Third Eye/8 logo T-shirt, and on-screen cameos from Lyrics Born, Dan The Automator & DJ Q*bert. Always Be My Maybe is now available to stream on Netflix, as well as in select theatres Nation-wide. Fingers crossed, Hello Peril-branded T-shirts, trucker hats, and... tennis balls will be made available for purchase before too long!