Starring: Justin Chon, Alicia Vikander, Mark O'Brien, Linh-Dan Pham, Sydney Kowalske, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Emory Cohen, Susan McPhail
Distributor: Universal Pictures International
Runtime: 117 mins. Reviewed in Dec 2021
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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A Korean-American man, who has been in America since he was three, faces deportation ‘back’ to a country where he has never visited, has no ties and cannot speak the language. For Australian audiences too, this social justice issue is acute.
This is a strong and powerful drama – and recommended for those who appreciate the dramatisation of social issues. Some have said that the film pulled no punches. Rather, for this reviewer, it was like being put through the wringer. And, during the final credits, we are still being squeezed in the wringer.
Even as we watch, we are hoping that everything would be resolved, for a happy ending; after all, is this is an American film and that’s what we might expect. But, no, with the final image and all through the credits, there is no let up, no simplistic solutions.
And why are we so involved. The central character, Antonio LeBlanc, is a Korean orphan, brought to the US at the age of three in the 1980s, adopted, abused, discarded, and involved in stealing felonies. Nevertheless, he is a most engaging character, a credit to American-born Justin Chon (who has written the screenplay, directs and acts). Chon has his own Korean heritage. He creates such a likeable man, joyful father delightfully playing with his stepdaughter, a caring husband to his pregnant American wife, eliciting sympathy despite his limitations. Of course, it is the migrant issues, especially the dramatic highlighting of deportations that gripped us.
This means that we watch with Australian eyes, memories of the post-World War II migrations, acceptance of the British, the Poms, but wariness of the Italians and Greeks, Poles and migrants from other European countries of Europe. It means memories of the experience of the acceptance of refugees from Vietnam in the 1970s and 1980s. And, then, 20 years of boat people, of turn backs, of engagement against people smugglers, harsher and harsher legislation, refusal of entry to boat people, calling them illegal even though they had rights to refugee status, Muslims, Middle Easterners, isolation on Nauru and on PNG’s Manus Island, years and years of harshness, stagnation, and futures denied.
More to the point, the years of the experience of the Sri Lankan family in Queensland’s Biloela, accepted by the community and welcomed, yet removal to and isolation on Christmas Island, kept in custody, years and years of legal wrangles about refugee status, the nationality of their children, the possibilities for compassionate intervention by politicians – but none forthcoming.
Perhaps we were ready to be put through the wringer even before we go into the cinema.
It is a surprise to discover the number of Korean and Asian children, apart from the Vietnamese, who had been adopted in the US. It is difficult to follow all the details of legislation about adoptions, rights, citizenship, times and dates on which residency and deportation depended. Complicated and bureaucratic.
Here is the story of Antonio (Chon), sympathetic, supported by his pregnant wife Kathy (Vikander) and loved by her little daughter, Jessie (Kowalske). But, prejudice and racism forever hover. His mother-in-law is unwilling to speak to him and ready to snatch her granddaughter away from him. His wife’s former husband Ace a Louisiana cop is hostile. And there is the back story of his adoptive parents, his unwillingness to make contact with his mother, eventually going to see her, his and our being puzzled at her behaviour towards him during his pleading visit.
When a family spat unexpectedly leads to a grocery store confrontation with Ace and his racist partner, Denny (Cohen), Antonio is arrested and transferred into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Despite having been brought to America at the age of three, the Korean-American adoptee married to an American citizen – suddenly faces deportation from the only country he’s ever known as home.
Antonio is not a saint. Not only has he stolen in the past, his felonies and race prevent him in the opening interview from being given a job as a mechanic, but to get the money for the lawyer for his case, he and his friends steal more motorbikes. We realise that according to the letter of the law, authorities will not easily grant him citizenship.
With Antonio facing an uncertain future, he finds an unlikely ally and source of support in a Vietnamese-American woman named Parker (Pham). Visiting her home Antonio asks her father whether he regretted dividing his family on the boats escaping Vietnam and he replies ‘never.
If only those against migration or those who say they are for migration but are rigid in their interpretation of laws, rules and regulations, could sit down quietly and watch this story, get to know the characters from the inside, and be moved.
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