Program Note
The HBO original series, The Sympathizer is a story about a young Vietnamese mixed-race man who, after the fall of Free Vietnam in the 1970s, seeks asylum in the United States. It explores his struggles between two civilizations and two ideologies, written and directed by Park Chan-wook and produced in collaboration with A24, consists of seven episodes. Park Chan-wook directs episodes 1, 2, and 3, Fernando Meirelles directs episode 4, and Marc Munden directs episodes 5, 6, and 7. The story centers on a captain(Hoa Xuande), a mixed-race man of Vietnamese and French descent, who experiences extreme internal and external dislocation. This turmoil is the harsh price he pays for surviving his era. As a South Vietnamese soldier in the 1970s, he works with the CIA to hunt down North Vietnamese communists. However, his true identity is that of a spy sent by North Vietnam. His mission is to acquire a list of secret police members who kill North Vietnamese comrades. To succeed, he must show loyalty to the enemy and cruelty to his comrades. Park Chan-wook masterfully depicts the deep irony of a man caught between the identities of East and West, unable to reveal or settle into his true self in the divide between North and South Vietnam. Can the notion that absolute ideology does not exist be more convincingly illustrated? The performances of Hoa Xuande as the captain and Robert Downey Jr. in four roles are outstanding. All episodes will be screened in theaters this year in BIFAN. (KIM Hye-seon)