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FortuneCookie posted...

The Mike Yanagita scene from Fargo (1996).

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/4/7/AAdlC_AAE-2_.jpg

Yes, he lied. Marge could've suspected Jerry of lying without her friend from college turning out to be a creep. It felt needless and racially stereotypical.

This scene is important to the Coens' take on their Minnesota home and how Marge fits into it. A big element of the film is how a culture of pleasantness can lead people to retreat inwards in how they handle their problems ironically leading to the breakdown of communication between people. Yanagita is on like two layers of facades in this scene and Marge herself has hid her meeting from her husband and isn't even sure what she wants out of it.

FortuneCookie posted...

There's nothing off about the initial call. It's just one friend contacting another to congratulate them

That's kinda the point of the movie.

Whether Yanagita being Asian speaks to an implicit bias to depict Asian men as weak in American cinema is its own question. I can't think of many Asian characters in their filmography off the top of my head except the student and father in A Serious Man with the iconic "Accept the Mystery" shtick trying to bribe the professor.