Hollywood is supposed to be a magical place where dreams come true. Sometimes, for some people, it truly does, but for the vast majority of people, that’s not the case. Or, at least in the case of Ke Huy Quan, sometimes it takes four decades. Ke Huy Quan had his first movie role in 1984 with Indiana Jones and the Temple Doom, and now over 40 years later, he finally has his first starring role in Love Hurts.
I’ve been excited to see Ke Huy Quan’s debut as a lead since I heard Love Hurts was on the way. While I’m not going to argue that the lighthearted film is some masterpiece of cinema, I enjoyed the movie overall. Unfortunately, my enjoyment was tempered by an incredible frustration, because we could have had movies like this for decades if Hollywood had been smart enough.
Ke Huy Quan Quit Acting Due To A Lack Of Opportunity
When Ke Huy Quan joined the cast of Everything Everywhere All At Once, it was heralded as a return to the screen for the child actor that my generation remembers fondly from both Temple of Doom and The Goonies. We all wondered where he’d been all this time. Well, he was behind the scenes because it was the only place he could find work. Quan was open about the fact that roles simply didn’t come his way as often as he thought they would, saying…
I thought that I was going to have this amazing career. It was tough. I was waiting for the phone to ring, and it rarely did.
It was certainly proof of Ke Huy Quan’s talent when he went on to win an Oscar for Everything Everywhere All At Once. On the strength of that, new offers came in. He had a strong supporting role in Loki Season 2 and a heartfelt part in the excellent American Born Chinese that I wish you could watch, but you can't because Disney+ killed it. Now we have the new movie Love Hurts. It’s the first time Quan has led a major studio film, and it’s all the proof we need that we screwed up 40 years ago.
Love Hurts Shows Us What We Missed
Love Hurts is a simple movie about a former mob enforcer who tries to go straight, only to be pulled back in by a woman he loves. The story is a bit on the weak side, but the action scenes are solid and the comedy works. I agree with most critics that there are plenty of flaws that keep Love Hurts from being great, but I certainly didn’t feel like I wasted my time watching it.
But the most important thing about Love Hurts is that it shows that Ke Huy Quan can lead a movie, and all that says to me is that we’ve missed out by not allowing him to do that for the last four decades. Imagine just how many movies we could have had, but will never see because Hollywood had decided on its own that this wasn’t something that we would want to see.
In many ways, Love Hurts feels like just the sort of movie we've seen in the last few years where older action heroes come back for one last job. But in those cases, they're playing off the nostalgia for their previous work. Here, we're missing the career that came before.
You screwed up, Hollywood. Ke Huy Quan is a movie star, and he could have been one for years. I'm sure studios don't care that they stalled a man's career, but they also left a lot of money on the table. I hope they at least feel bad about that.