REVIEW: 'Best of the Best' universality breaks through cultural barriers

'Best of the Best' stars best friends played. by Priyanka Kedia, left, and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan.

Step out onto the ledge with me, because we’re looking at a film that is absolutely bursting with color, rhythm, and pure collegiate energy! Netflix’s Best of the Best takes us right to the chaotic, high-stakes edge of the competitive South Asian collegiate dance circuit, and it is a total trip.

If you’re looking for a fresh lens on the modern diaspora experience, this movie delivers a front-row seat. Think Booksmart but turbocharged with a major dose of Bollywood fusion. 

Scrolling through Netflix's offerings, Best of the Best sneaked up on us with very little fanfare or advance PR reviews.

Directed by the brilliant Lena Khan (The Tiger Hunter and Disney+'s Flora & Ulysses).  and co-written by the powerhouse duo of Hasan Minhaj and Prashanth Venkataramanujam, the film follows childhood besties Maya and Anjali as they dive headfirst into the cutthroat world of UCLA dance, specifically Bollywood-dance competitions. 

'Best of the Best' stars, from left: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (“Never Have I Ever”), Hasan Minhaj (“Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj”) and Priyanka Kedia (“Everything To Me”). 

The movie completely nails the vibrant, hyper-focused youth culture of South Asian Americans—balancing massive ambitions, deep sisterhood, and the classic hustle of identity and family expectations. It’s funny, authentic, and spectacularly alive.

But does Best of the Best land the jump as pure entertainment for a massive, diverse audience? Absolutely, though it depends on what you're craving. We've seen the basic formula in other films (the Pitch Perfect franchise comes to mine.) so the outcome is perfectly predictable, but that is the appeal of the feature. It's familiar, but the additional masala makes it new.

Over on Rotten Tomatoes, critics are totally on board, giving it a sparkling 81% for its dazzling choreography and infectiously joyful chaos. General audiences are sitting a bit lower at 47%, mostly because underneath all those jaw-dropping, rhythmic dance numbers beats the heart of a classic, predictable college formula.

The key is one doesn't have to be South Asian to enjoy this coming-of-age feature that offers a glimpse into a community that largely does unnoticed by mainstream media and the non-Asian communities.

Still, from where I’m standing, that familiar storyline is exactly what makes it so universally accessible! The universal themes of friendship and following your passion mean anyone can grab some popcorn and enjoy the ride. If you love high-energy spectacle, dance, and a lot of heart, this one is well worth the watch.

FYI: The South Asian American dance competitions is real thing. See below:

Collegiate teams are the backbone of the South Asian dance circuit, especially across the Desi Dance Network (DDN) and the National Desi Dance League (NDDL). 

The primary intercollegiate South Asian dance competitions scheduled for the 2026–2027 season feature several prominent events:

2027 Collegiate Desi Dance Competitions

Competition	Date	Location / Venue	Styles / Focus
REVIVAL 2027	January 16, 2027	P.C. Ho Theatre, Scarborough, ON	Canada's largest collegiate & secondary circuit; features Bhangra, Bollywood, and Classical Fusion.
Aa Dekhen Zara (ADZ XVII)	February 6, 2027	Shannon Hall, Madison, WI	Massive South Asian Fusion collegiate bid competition run by UW-Madison students.
South Asian Showdown	February 2027	Northeast US (Boston, MA)	High-profile regional competitive showcase for top-tier collegiate Bollywood and Fusion teams.
Origins Dance Championship	April 2027	TBD Location	Premier national-level championship circuit strictly dedicated to intercollegiate Indian Classical dance teams.

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Flag Over Fortune: Alex Eala settles for Bbonze in Nagoya, faces $10,000 fine

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Alexandra Eala falls short of her goal at the Asian Games.

Filipina tennis phenom Alexandra Eala missed out on a gold medal at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, after a heartbreaking semifinal collapse against China’s Wang Xiyu. 

Entering the draw as the top seed and world No. 18, the 21-year-old star shockingly dropped the match 6-3, 3-6, 2-6 despite a dominant 5-0 lead in the opening set. The loss effectively dashed her hopes of locking down a direct qualification quota for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics—an honor strictly reserved for the Asiad singles champion.

But for Eala, the real battle started long before she stepped onto the court in Japan. By choosing to represent her country's flag, Eala knowingly locked horns with the Women's Tennis Association (WTA).

Reflecting on her semifinal loss, Eala stated at her press conference: "I feel like I have no regrets. It meant a lot to me to be here and to compete. And at the end of the day, I give my all, the best I could prep, I fought the best I could fight. Yeah, I'm happy I was able to have this experience.

WTA punishes patriotism

 Choosing the Asian Games meant withdrawing from the mandatory WTA 1000 China Open in Beijing, triggering a stiff $10,000 fine and zero-point penalty from the tour. Despite frantic attempts by the Philippine Tennis Association (PHILTA) to secure a waiver, the tour stood its ground, forcing the rising star to choose between commercial tour obligations and her ancestral community. [2, 4]

“I want to say that it's easy for people to relate to wanting to represent their country and wanting to play these types of Olympic Games,” Eala noted regarding the scheduling conflict.

For the global Pinoy diaspora, who turned out in droves to turn foreign courts into home territory, Eala's choice has already cemented her legacy, regardless of the scoreline. She walks away with her second consecutive Asiad bronze, remaining completely undeterred about her path to the LA28 Games. [5, 6, 7]

"At the end of the day, being a professional tennis player and a competitive tennis player, you know, losing comes, you have to understand that losing is part of the job and losing is always a possibility.

"That's why, you know, that's what makes tennis so difficult," she continued.

View from the edge

Eala's penalty for prioritizing national pride highlights ongoing friction between tour mandates and international representation. Her standing among her legions of Filipino fans just gets stronger and the WTA is the loser.

Looking ahead, Eala remains focused on her career trajectory, stating, “Um, I'm going to Wuhan and continue the tour.” She plans to participate in the Wuhan and Ningbo Opens for the WTA to continue advancing her international ranking.

"That's what makes tennis so exciting is that you never know what's going to happen and you can't let your guard down," says Eala. "So, you know, I think that also contributes to, you know, my pursuit for excellence and my pursuit for the best version of myself."

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Hispanic Heritage Month: Filipino Mexicans played key roles in Mexico's revolution

 

History has a funny way of erasing the folks who don’t fit neatly into mainstream boxes. If you open a standard textbook, the story of the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821) is usually told through a singular lens. But look a little closer at the edge of the frame, and you’ll find a deep, deeply embedded Asian American connection — or more accurately, an Asian-Latino connection — that has been swept under the rug for far too long.

We’re talking about the Filipino Mexicans who fought, bled, and rose to leadership to kick Spain out of North America.

To understand how they got there, you have to look back at the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade. For 250 years, the Spanish Empire essentially used Mexico and the Philippines as two cogs in the same colonial machine. 

Because the Philippines was actually governed through the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico), thousands of Filipinos made the perilous journey across the Pacific. Many were sailors and laborers who, upon docking in Acapulco, decided they’d had enough of Spanish cruelty. They jumped ship, settled in the coastal regions of Guerrero, and integrated into local society. 

In the colonial caste system, they were collectively labeled "Chinos"—a lazy catch-all term for anyone of Asian descent.

When the revolution sparked in 1810, these marginalized communities didn’t sit on the sidelines.

The original subversives: The Tondo conspiracy of 1587

The seed of this anti-colonial defiance wasn’t planted in 1810—it was planted over two centuries earlier by the very first documented Filipino settlers in Mexico.

In 1587, a secret alliance of pre-colonial Tagalog royalty orchestrated the Tondo Conspiracy (also known as the Revolt of the Lakans). Led by noblemen Don Agustin de Legazpi and Martin Pangan, these native leaders plotted a massive, highly sophisticated geopolitical coup to completely overthrow Spanish rule in the Philippines. They secured an agreement with a Japanese sea captain for weapons and allied with the Sultan of Brunei for naval support. But after 15 months of planning, a single betrayal shattered the plot.

The Spanish response was swift and merciless. While the main ringleaders were publicly executed, Spain stripped several remaining high-ranking noblemen—including Pedro Balinguit (Chief of Pandacan), Felipe Salonga (Chief of Polo), Pitongatan, Calao, and Agustin Manuguit—of their property and exiled them across the Pacific to Mexico.

Arriving in Acapulco in July 1589, these royal political exiles became the historic cornerstone of the Filipino Mexican diaspora. They weren't just random travelers; they were a lineage of deposed freedom fighters. For generations, Spain continued to use Mexico as a dumping ground for Manila’s political subversives, effectively exporting a continuous supply of anti-colonial resentment straight into the Mexican bloodstream.

General Isidoro Montes de Oca

Masterminds on the fontlines: Montes de Oca and Mongoy

By the time the 19th century rolled around, those generations of mixed heritage were ready to finish what the exiles started.

Take a look at General Isidoro Montes de Oca. Born in Mexico in 1789 to a family of Philippine heritage, Montes de Oca wasn’t an indentured sailor. He was a free man who chose to put his life on the line for liberation. Genealogists have tracked his lineage directly to the prominent Montes de Oca family of Makati, Philippines. In fact, his relative, Juan Montes de Oca, was the Prior Administrator of the famous Guadalupe Church in Makati. 

This deep-rooted Catholic connection explains why Montes de Oca and his fellow rebels fiercely marched under the banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe—a symbol of resistance that bridged both sides of the ocean.

Montes de Oca quickly became a trusted lieutenant commander under legendary revolutionary leaders José María Morelos and Vicente Guerrero (who would later become Mexico's first president of African descent). Today, his bravery is so deeply woven into Mexican history that a municipality in Guerrero bears his name: La Unión de Isidoro Montes de Oca.

Then there’s Francisco Mongoy. Like Montes de Oca, Mongoy was a brilliant military commander of Philippine descent. He rose through the ranks to become a brigade commander under General Morelos, specializing in ruthless, high-stakes guerrilla warfare in the rugged mountains of Guerrero.

Mexicanos are beginning to uncover and honor the Filipino immigrants' impact on their culture.

The 200 Warriors of Guerrero

But Montes de Oca and Mongoy weren’t lone actors. When Father Miguel Hidalgo first called for revolution, the insurgent leadership actively recruited an entire contingent of roughly 200 Filipino Mexican revolutionaries from the coastal areas of Guerrero.

These 200 men became the secret weapon of the southern insurgency. Because their families had worked the docks and regional trade routes, they knew every hidden path, valley, and escape route surrounding the heavily fortified Spanish port of Acapulco. Under the direct leadership of Vicente Guerrero, this fierce cohort consistently outmaneuvered and humiliated elite royalist Spanish forces sent to crush them.

The historical irony is delicious: Spain built a maritime global empire by forcing these two cultures together and exiling Filipino rebels to the Americas, only for the human bonds forged by that empire to dismantle it from the inside out.

A lasting footprint

The legacy of these 200 fighters didn’t vanish when the Treaty of Córdoba was signed in 1821. It completely rewrote the cultural and genetic landscape of Mexico's Pacific coast.

• The genetic proof: A 2018 genetic mapping project of the population in Guerrero revealed an astonishing truth — roughly one-third of the modern-day coastal residents carry about 10% Filipino ancestry. That is a direct line of blood tracing right back to the Chino immigrant communities that fought for the nation's freedom.

• The cultural blend: The descendants of these revolutionaries permanently introduced Filipino traditions into mainstream Mexican culture. If you’ve ever enjoyed a glass of coastal Mexican tuba (coconut wine) or seen someone rocking a traditional guayabera shirt, you are looking at living Philippine heritage.

Following independence, General Vicente Guerrero was so moved by the bravery of his Filipino troops that he actively pushed for Mexico to use its new freedom to send a military squadron to help liberate the Philippines from Spain, citing the "intimate relations" and shared blood of the two lands.

Asian Americans and Latinos have a history together. From the first hunters who crossed the land bridge between Asia and North America to the Mexicans and Filipinos marching together for farmworker rights giving birth to the United Farmworkers union, we need to acknowledge that shared history this Hispanic Heritage Month.

History might try to keep these stories on the cutting room floor, but the receipts are there. From the exiled datus of Tondo to the battle-hardened soldiers of Guerrero, Filipino Mexicans didn't just witness the birth of a free Mexico—they fought on the front lines to build it.

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Elderly Asian parents charged with slaying son-in-law

At 77-years old, Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen should have been enjoying the quiet autumn of their lives. Instead, the East Bay grandparents find themselves behind bars, facing first-degree murder charges after a shooting that left their former son-in-law dead. As details emerge from the case, the tragedy exposes a raw, agonizing intersection of severe domestic trauma, immigrant sacrifice, and the profound limits of cultural protection.

The suspects, Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77-year-old grandparents, are currently being held without bail at the Santa Rita Jail of Alameda County. They face charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and child endangerment following the fatal shooting of Jonathan McKinsey, 40, a director of engineering for New York Times Games. 

For our community, this case forces a look past the shocking headlines and into the immense, often invisible pressures facing elderly immigrant parents who step into the fray to protect their children.

Cultural duty and multi-generational household

In many traditional Asian immigrant families, the boundary between the nuclear family and maternal grandparents does not exist. When their daughter, Candice Jang, separated from McKinsey amid a volatile relationship, Zhang and Chen moved into the home in Dublin, California.

They did not just act as babysitters to their three young grandchildren; they became a physical and emotional buffer against what court documents describe as an increasingly tense domestic situation. 

Court filings show McKinsey had a pending criminal case for misdemeanor child abuse and endangerment after allegedly bruising his 6-year-old son. 

For elderly immigrant parents, seeing a child and grandchildren trapped in a system that allows an accused abuser weekly supervised visits can trigger a profound sense of helplessness. In traditional cultural dynamics, the duty to protect the bloodline is absolute. When the legal system appears slow or inadequate, that protective instinct can morph into something desperate.

Generational and identity clashes

The case also underscores the heavy friction that can occur when old-world generational expectations collide with contemporary American life. In reciprocal court filings, McKinsey—who transitioned in 2010—alleged that his mother-in-law, Shili Chen, targeted him with anti-LGBTQ+ slurs.

While the defense has yet to lay out its formal arguments ahead of the couple's Wednesday, Sept. 30 arraignment, community advocates note that language barriers, unfamiliarity with Western legal frameworks, and generational misunderstandings often compound the isolation immigrant families experience during highly stressful domestic disputes.

While extended family members have largely shielded themselves from the intense media spotlight, local community reactions reflect a mix of horror and a quiet, somber understanding of the desperation involved.

Neighbors and community members have expressed utter disbelief that a 77-year-old couple — described by those who caught glimpses of them as quiet and entirely devoted to their grandchildren — could allegedly execute a premeditated deadly plan involving masks and a firearm.

"Are we surprised by the violence? Absolutely," noted one local community advocate who works with Asian immigrant families in the East Bay. "But are we surprised by the lengths to which immigrant grandparents will go if they truly believe their flesh and blood is in immediate physical danger? No. In their minds, they may have felt they were sacrificing the remainder of their own lives so their daughter and grandchildren could have a future."

As Zhang and Chen step into the East County Hall of Justice for their arraignment on Wednesday, Sept. 30, the community is left to grapple with an unresolvable paradox. Two lives have been irrevocably stolen — one ended on the pavement, and two others effectively buried behind prison walls — all in the name of a ferocious, desperate instinct to protect the next generation.

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Filipino Canadian steps up to win Singapore Open

Filipino Canadian Leylah Fernandez is back in the winners circle.

A Filipina wins the Singapore Open after all, just not the one everyone expected.

Local fans packed the stands at the Singapore Tennis Open expecting a deep run from young home-region favorite Alex Eala. But after Eala suffered an early exit in the Round of 16, it was Leylah Fernandez who stepped into the spotlight, dismantling Australia's Talia Gibson 7-5, 6-0 in the final to capture her sixth career WTA title.

Fernandez, who proudly embraces her Filipino Canadian heritage, made sure to give a massive shoutout to the local crowd that fueled her dominant run all week long.

Feeling the Pinoy love

In her on-court post-match speech, an emotional Fernandez expressed deep gratitude to the passionate crowd:

“I would like to thank all the Singaporean fans and the Pinoy fans who came to watch this whole week. Not only my matches, but everybody’s matches. You guys made this week extremely special with all your encouragement, the energy, and the positivity that you brought in everyone’s matches. It truly meant a lot. Thank you for coming to watch women’s tennis, and hopefully, you guys get to watch many more matches live and in person too.”

Tournament breakdown

After fighting through a tight 7-5 first set, Fernandez hit another gear, delivering a 6-0 bagel in the second set to seal the WTA 500 crown in 1 hour and 38 minutes.

To reach the finals, the sixth-seeded Fernandez had to battle past top seed Mirra Andreeva, dropping only one set the entire tournament.

With this victory, Fernandez is set to make a triumphant return to the WTA top 30, while Eala shifts her focus to her gold medal chase at the Asian Games in Japan.

Of the six titles Fernandez has won, three have been Asian tournaments. She will move on to Beijing for the China Open, followed by the Korea Open, the Ninngbo Open in China, the Japan Open in Osaka, the Toray Open in Tokyo, Guangzo Open in China and tournaments in Hong Kong and India.

"This gives me a lot of confidence, but I do know that the very next day I have to start from zero," Fernandez told reporters after winning the Singapore title. "Another big tournament starts. Beijing is not an easy tournament, with so many top players. So you know it's just going to get tougher from here on out.

"But seeing that I was able to go through this type of adversity this week gives me the belief that I can do it again."

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