Time Writer | County Howe
Older youths recuperating in the cinema.
In recent years, Asian-American dramas have become increasingly popular in the North American film and television industry.
Netflix and Apple TV+, the two major streaming media, have launched Asian American dramas such as "Angry Life" and "Pachinko Game", which have both word-of-mouth and popularity.
This kind of drama is different from the genre cool dramas of all Asian faces such as "Squid Game" and "Sweet Home", but aims to present the survival of Asian American groups in the present and history from the perspective of cultural integration and conflict between Asia and the United States.
Recently, HBO and A24, the "upstart producer", have teamed up to launch a similar series.
"Sympathizers"
This double agent-themed drama, directed by Cannes best director Park Chan-wook, faced word-of-mouth controversy after one episode was launched.
IMDb score of 7.4, Rotten Tomatoes freshness of 87%, MTC expert score of 78, domestic score of 7.9, the results are not outstanding.
The New York Daily called it "wonderful, unsettling, and funny," and Time magazine praised the show as vibrant, bold and ambitious, a perfect match for the original.
However, media such as "The New Yorker" also pointed out that the show has too many directions of expression and lacks realism.
The protagonist of the series is Vietnamese, Park Chan-wook is Korean, and the Korean director filming Vietnamese spies has been a topic of conversation in itself.
From the original book to the series "I'm a spy, a lurker, an agent, and a two-faced man. ”
Both the original book and the series of "The Sympathizer" begin with this confession of the qualitative protagonist.
The story is set in the Vietnam War in the 1970s, and the warring parties are North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the United States.
North Vietnam was supported by the socialist camp and South Vietnam by the capitalist camp.
The protagonist is a North Vietnamese who has been lurking in South Vietnam for a long time and is deeply trusted by South Vietnamese generals.
The entire story is framed by the protagonist's first-person self-confession, so he has no name.
In 1975, on the eve of the end of the Vietnam War, North Vietnam was on the verge of victory and the United States was defeated.
The protagonist fled to the United States with the South Vietnamese general, and began the American life with the smoke of the war in the dream of the general's counterattack on Saigon.
The author of the original book, Nguyen Thanh Viet, also fled to the United States with his family in 1975. He was only 4 years old that year.
Nguyen Thanh Viet, who is currently a professor at the University of Southern California, refers to historical documents such as David Butler's "The Fall of Saigon" and Larry Engorman's "Tears Before the Rain".
Influenced by the language of the novel of Toni Morrison's "The Beloved" by black female writer and the film style of director Coppola's "Apocalypse Now", combined with her own long-term memories of Vietnam, she wrote this first novel.
After being rejected 13 times, Nguyen Thanh Viet was finally able to publish "The Sympathizer", which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the American Award for Outstanding Asian Pacific American Fiction, the MacArthur Genius Award and other major awards.
Park Chan-wook noticed that the novel was recommended by Israeli producer Niva Fickman (producer of Maggie Cheung's post-Cannes film "Clean").
Park Chan-wook, who has tested Hollywood with the movie "Stoker" ("Prison Break" starring Wentworth Miller) and other films, has always been fond of espionage.
From "Stoker" to "The Female Drummer", Park Chan-wook's unification of costumes and compositions encountered a number of investment hurdles in the early days, but with "Determination to Break Up" winning an award at Cannes and Robert Downey Jr. joining as one of the main creators (actors), the production of "The Sympathetic" went smoothly.
In the end, Hou Xuande ("Cowboy Bebop" live-action version), Sandra Wu, Fred Nguyen and other Asian actors starred.
The cinematography of the drama series was handled by Kim Ji-ryong, the cinematographer of films such as "The Determination to Break Up" and "Namhansanseong", and the music was handled by Cho Young-wo, the soundtrack of films such as "Old Boy" and "New World".
Cinematic performance
"The Sympathizer" (7 collections).
It is reported that the first 3 episodes were directed by Park Chan-wook, and the last 4 episodes were handed over to Fernando Meryls, director of "City of God" (2002), and Mark Murden, director of the first season of the drama "Black Sails" (2014).
The lineup of the film history classic "City of God" ensures the film-level presentation of "The Sympathetic".
The story of episode 1 takes place in Saigon in the winter of 1975.
The protagonist (played by Hou Xuande), as the most effective deputy of the South Vietnamese general, and Claude (played by Donnie), an agent of the CIA in Vietnam, jointly interrogated a female North Vietnamese agent.
The general's men searched the female agent for a "South Vietnamese secret police list", apparently provided to the North Vietnamese by a spy.
So, who is the list provider?
For viewers with God's perspective, the answer is obvious.
The female agent refused to speak, and was severely interrogated.
At this time, the North Vietnamese were about to capture Saigon, and the general had to ask the protagonist to select suitable personnel to "retreat" to the United States with him, waiting for the opportunity to counterattack.
From the plot of the first episode, we can get a glimpse of the reason for the word-of-mouth controversy of this show.
That is, the plot information provided by the series is not rich, or the background is not enough for viewers who are not familiar with the fall of Saigon.
At the same time, Donnie, who will play the four roles in the play, also lost a lot of goodwill in the show because of his controversial behavior at the Oscars in March.
When he took the stage to accept the award, Downey directly ignored Kwan Jiwei (at least on the surface) who presented him with the award, and Kwan Jiwei's Asian identity made this matter the focus of heated discussions among netizens.
Now that he is starring in an Asian American drama, it is naturally quite ironic.
If these factors are put aside, "The Sympathetic" is completely cinematic in terms of artistic expression, which is very suitable for the narrative temperament of the original book with concise language and wonderful pictures.
In terms of tone, "The Sympathizer" hides scars and decadence in classical magnificence, which is the style that Park Chan-wook has always continued since "Old Boy", "Miss", "Determination to Break Up" and other works.
For example, the flower arrangement in the general's mansion has black edges like flames in the dense and dense;
Another example is the street that I passed through when I fled Saigon, and there are still vivid movie propaganda display boards between the ruins......
In addition to Damianos, a Greek filmmaker born in 1921, Park Chan-wook showed off his mastery of artistic transitions.
In one episode, the screen shifts from a telephone dial to a car tire (circle), from a surgical light to a photographic light (long light), and from a cigarette fire to a flare (short light......
In addition, the first-class flashback shots in the play, and the depiction of Vietnam's tropical monsoon climate with the fine sweat between Donnie's nose and lips, etc., all show Park Chan-wook's good directing skills from different levels.
If you zoom in on the picture, you can see beads of sweat on Donnie's face, and it is worth mentioning the music.
The sharp and short performance of the female agent when she was interrogated was very Cao Yingwo, which instantly returned to the thrilling scene of the cleansing of the bloody scene played by Tang Wei in "The Determination to Break Up".
Next: "The Determination to Break Up"
The connotation is also not lost
Like the original book, the drama version of "The Sympathetic" adopts flashback mode as a whole, and the protagonist has been arrested at the beginning, and he will sort out the life of a double agent in his memories.
In the process, everything he felt about his life in the United States after the Vietnam War and after was recounted.
The first is the smudge of American pop culture, especially film and music, on a Vietnamese with a complex identity.
Park Chan-wook set up dense fan elements in the play.
For example, Claude is a veteran movie fan.
French director Justt Jackkin's famous film "Emmanuelle" (1974) and American director Michael Wenner's crime film "Dragon Monster" (1974) have won his heart.
"Emmanuelle" 1970s American action movie star Charles Bronson is Claude's movie idol.
The location of the joint CIA-South Vietnamese interrogation of female agents was also chosen in a movie theater, and the interrogation scene was also set up as a screen scene.
The music for the interrogation was composed by Academy Award winner Herbie Hancock (Midnight Melody, 1986).
"Film" is a very important element in "The Sympathizer", perhaps stemming from Nguyen Thanh Viet's obsession with cinema.
For example, the two rapes in the original book.
One takes place in the Vietnam War-themed film "Village" shot by a Hollywood director (who will be played by Downey), and the other takes place in a real-life interrogation room called the "Movie Screening Room".
In "The Village", a North Vietnamese man rapes a South Vietnamese woman, and in "The Movie Room", a South Vietnamese man rapes a North Vietnamese woman.
Different camps and evil deeds are no different, all of which are indictments of the horror and alienation of people by war.
In addition to the film, Park Chan-wook also implanted a lot of music from creators such as the American rock band War (formed in 1969), the 50s funk music pioneer Aisley Brothers, and singer Del Shannon.
The song sung by the protagonist is War's famous song "Low Rider" released in 1975, which is a strong American style of video and audio, which has a subtle impact on the protagonist's sense of belonging in the context of the chaotic Vietnam War.
For example, his friend, North Vietnamese comrade Man, said to him in the light of a wine glass: You speak English in your dream, you love the United States, admit it.
At the end of the first episode, Park Chan-wook used a very concrete act to present the hidden emotions of the protagonist.
On the night of escaping Saigon, the protagonist and the general's family are in the bombing of North Vietnam, rushing to the passenger plane that is about to take off.
The wife and children of the protagonist's friend Bang were killed in the bombing, and Bang was wallowing in pain, but the protagonist left Bang and ran wildly towards the airliner.
The mood of flying to the United States in the aftermath of war is already on the horizon.
However, he suddenly stopped in the middle of the Bang Ho airliner, as if he were between the devastated Vietnam and the modern and vivid United States, as if he had to concentrate on a pause in thought.
In the end, he chose the United States, the uncertain future that he "obsessed with and repulsed."
The complex feelings for his hometown are further embodied in The Sympathizer as feelings for his mother.
In the play, when the seats on the airliner are limited, a South Vietnamese policeman takes away the mother and leaves the daughter behind, and his reason is that "the child can be reborn".
In the novel, when a South Vietnamese woman is raped, she keeps screaming in the horrific violence and spurting blood: Mama Mama!
It can be seen that in "The Sympathizer", the image of the mother is very much in line with the psychological comfort and spiritual protection side of Asian culture.
Mothers are deep beings that transcend their homeland, their country, and their offspring.
In the follow-up plot, "The Sympathizer" will also focus on the topic of racial and cultural conflict that is customary to Asian American themes.
This conflict, both from the United States and from the Vietnamese in the United States.
As Nguyen Thanh Viet has said, some Vietnamese teenagers in the United States terrorize the Vietnamese community, a practice known as "home invasions."
Coincidentally, another Vietnamese-American writer, Wang Ouxing, in his novel "Our Fleeting Splendor on the Earth" (which will also be filmed), also writes about the conflict between Vietnamese people due to the infiltration of American culture.
For example, the protagonist's mother, because she has lived in the United States, was scraped by a neighbor's child with a spoon, and they said while shaving: Scrape off the whiteness (skin color) on her body, scrape off the whiteness on her body!
Wang Ou did all of the above, so that the protagonist of "The Sympathizer" finally experienced a rather cruel interrogation.
This final interrogation, written by Nguyen Thanh Viet after studying many torture works, is like the terrifying combination of "Eavesdropping Storm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four".
It's worth looking forward to how the episode will be presented!
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