Amy Lau is the main character of the Netflix series, Beef. She is a business owner, a former wife to George Nakai, and a mother to June.
Childhood[]
In the 1987, Amy was born at the same time as Danny Cho in the USA, and she is the only child of her migrant parents from China. As a toddler, Amy overheard her parents fighting each other in their house. Amy wondered in her bedroom to hope that nothing bad happens in her family. Unfortunately, in her teenage years, Amy witnessed her father cheating on her mother with a Caucasian woman outside of Amy's house, shattering Amy's psyche that romance between two people is nothing more but a facade to pleasure each other in favor of lust over love. Furthermore, Amy held a grudge against her father for his affair, but her mother is fully aware of it and that her mother said that they should forget all about it in the past. In other words, Amy's traumatic experience had cause her ironic self, like her unfaithful father, to do the same thing to others within her romantic relationships.
Biography[]
Amy is a business owner who is trying to sell her store, Kōyōhaus. Amy struggles with personal issues, including a strained relationship with her mother-in-law, her husband, and a general feeling of unhappiness or a serious mood disorder. Despite her troubles, she is a loving mother to only her single child and daughter, June.
Amy's character also displays a certain level of vulnerability, especially when she becomes a "victim" of a road rage incident that is captured on video. She starts a "war" with the other man in the road rage incident, Danny, when she flipped him off with her middle finger after her car is almost hit by Danny's truck accidentally. They get back at each other's throats, which continues to fuel their rage and vengeance.
Meanwhile, Amy is working to sell her business to Jordan, who makes her work for it by building a relationship together. Amy wants to sell it, and become a stay-at-home mom, but Jordan's business offer includes a clause that asks Amy to stay on as the face of the brand for an additional 3 years. Amy considers this and plans to negotiate.
As part of her revenge against Danny, she makes a fake online profile using the photos of her assistant, Mia, to flirt with Danny's brother, Paul. Paul shows up at Amy's store, and she is forced to confess that she catfished him. He is still intrigued by Amy, and they both start a friendship, eventually hooking up and having sex. Amy breaks it off after Paul calls her a b***h when she says that is it hard for Paul to start his own business by demanding loans from her.
Eventually, Amy makes the deal with Jordan, becoming very rich herself. She tries to be a good wife and a good mother until one day, Paul comes to the house and tells George that he slept with Amy. Amy owns up to it, and George asks for a divorce.
Amy goes to Jordan's house. She gets a call from Isaac Cho that he has her daughter captive, and that she needs to pay a lot of money to get her back. She tells Isaac to rob Jordan instead, because she can't get the money in time. Isaac shows up and robs Jordan. He ties up Jordan, Naomi, and Amy. The police show up and a shootout ensues. Amy leaves and receives notice that June is safe and with George. She receives an emergency sole custody order from George, and she is upset, sitting inside of her car. She sees Danny drives by, and knows he was involved with the robbery, so she chases him in her car. They both drive off of a cliff, and they both get injured in a desert isolated from society with almost no traces of human contact.
Amy pulls a gun on Danny, but he pushes her and flees. Eventually, after fighting, they make up because they need each other to escape the desert. They are both lost, hungry, thirsty, and confused. Eventually, they make it out by acknowledging each other of how they are the same person, especially vomiting and hallucinating to communicate with each other in their swapped bodies after eating poisonous berries. After making out of the desert, George sees the couple and runs to Amy, but upon seeing Danny, he shoots him. Amy goes to the hospital to hug Danny in his hospital bed for days until he wakes up.
Physical appearance[]
Amy is Asian-American. She has short (previously long) black hair, has dark brown eyes, she is petite and pretty, and she wears trendy or preppy, elegant clothing.
Personality[]
Amy has a calm, thoughtful personality on the outside. She is also shown to be a hardworking, ambitious individual who is determined to succeed. On the contrary, very similar to Danny, she deals with sadness, borderline condescendence, revenge, insanity, and entitlement on the inside. This is shown when she wants to ruin Danny's life for getting revenge on her for the road rage incident, without getting to know him at the end of the series, and she lies pathologically about never cheating on her husband and not being apart of the road rage incident to think that she is above the law.
Relationships[]
- George Nakai (ex-husband)
- Paul Cho (short-lived affair)
- Unnamed Caucasian man (short-lived affair)
- Danny Cho (soulmate)
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Amy's last name is "Lau", which is a Cantonese surname that is used for people in Hong Kong, China, and Overseas Chinese communities.
- Like Danny, Amy is 36 years old in the Netflix series.
- Amy masturbates with George's handgun, since she thinks George doesn't pleasure her enough during sex.