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Tag: The Sympathizer

  • Three Shows Not to Miss Before the Onslaught of the Summer Shows

    Three Shows Not to Miss Before the Onslaught of the Summer Shows

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    The year has already treated us to some incredible television shows, and the summer rush is about to begin. In June, we can expect big-ticket shows like House of the Dragon, The Boys, The Bear and a new Star Wars show to dominate the scene. However, let’s not forget the smaller shows currently on air. These hidden gems might not have the same hype, but they offer unique and refreshing content that deserves our attention.

    There are three shows that need to be watched before the summer rush of huge shows. The shows are Netflix’s The Talented Mr. Ripley adaption Ripley, Park Chan-Wook’s The Sympathizer on Max and the Max comedy Hacks, returning for its third season.

    This trio of shows features some of the best TV of the year. One of the best and most interesting dramas available right now, a Vietnam War show helmed by a master filmmaker, and one of the best comedies of the past few years having its best season yet. These three shows are worth the time commitment as they are all three some of the year’s best series.


    Ripley

    Ripley is a neo-noir thriller that is based on the 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. The iconic 1999 movie that starred Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Philip Seymour Hoffman is the most well-known and well-regarded adaption of the work. The basic story is about a young con artist who inserts himself into the lives of wealthy and beautiful people. The Netflix series’ story is no different, but stylistically, it differentiates itself and, as a result, becomes one of the best and most compelling shows of the year.

    Andrew Scott stars as Tom Ripley, a down-on-his-luck con man living in 1950s New York. He gets an invitation and job to do in Italy, where he must find and bring home a former acquaintance at the behest of his family. The series also stars Dakota Fanning and Johnny Flynn, who plays Marge Sherwood, and Dickie Greenleaf, respectively. The show looks incredible. From the first episode showcasing the black and white, gritty New York City to the pristine beaches of the coast of Italy, the direction is top-notch. Andrew Scott delivers a complex and fascinating performance that goes along with the noir vibes of the series. Ripley is one of the jewels of the year so far and one of Netflix’s best shows currently streaming.


    The Sympathizer

    The idea of master Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook stepping into the world of television is very intriguing. Couple that with the fact that he wants to helm a series about the Vietnam War and the fall of Saigon. Now add in the fact that Robert Downey Jr. is tapped to play several different characters representing the US intelligence infrastructure and America’s violent and antagonistic foreign policy, and you have The Sympathizer.

    The Sympathizer is a historical drama based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name written by Viet Thanh Nguyen. The series follows Hoa Xuande as The Captain, a policeman in Northern Vietnam who is a communist spy who, toward the end of the war, is forced to flee and continue his spy work in the United States. Park Chan-Wook directs the first three episodes with an incredible sense of style that most films dream they could conjure. Downey Jr. is giving an incredible but polarizing performance. Though he only directed three episodes, Chan-Wook’s imprint is strong, and the following directors continue the show’s visual excellence. The Sympathizer is a fascinating TV show that more people need to watch.

    Hacks

    Hacks is magically back after a long hiatus. Many fans assumed, through the turbulence at Warner Bros. and the whole HBO-Max confusion and mass cancellation of shows, that Hacks was lost in the shuffle. Good news, the show has returned for its third season, and it might be its finest effort yet. The show, whose premise is an odd couple comedy pitting an older comedian with a millennial counterpart, was always considered a jewel on HBO Max. It got good reviews and award recognition, and it feels fortunate that it is back.

    Jean Smart’s Deborah Vance and Hannah Einbinder’s Ava are back, and their whole dynamic has changed, which makes for a fresh return to something that feels very comforting and familiar. Einbinder and Smart are joined again by their fantastic supporting cast, including Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Paul W. Downs (who is also one of the show’s creators), Megan Stahlter and Kaitlin Olsen. The show continues to be about how two different women on their comedy journeys use the medium to evolve as people, but it has somehow upped the ante in its third season. The show’s second season ended on a high note, but the third season is even better and is begging to be checked out as soon as possible.

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    Jamil David

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  • Kieu Chinh Stars on ‘The Sympathizer.’ She Also Lived It

    Kieu Chinh Stars on ‘The Sympathizer.’ She Also Lived It

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    She worked that job for three days before she realized that her grief would only intensify if she couldn’t return to performing. She took her earnings, and the $75 provided to her by a charity, and put it toward making a series of long-distance calls to Hollywood.

    Her first was to Burt Reynolds. He didn’t pick up. Next, she tried William Holden, whom she had met a number of times at Asian film festivals. He was out of the country on a hunting trip. With the last of her money, she reached out to Tippi Hedren. It was a long shot—they had met in 1965, when Hedren visited the troops on a USO tour. “Tippi,” Chinh asked tentatively. “Do you remember me?” She did. Three days later, Chinh received an airline ticket to California. Hedren had sponsored her visa and invited her to stay at her home until she got back on her feet.

    Chinh is the first to acknowledge that she was one of the lucky ones. “I was able to go back to my career,” she says. “So many doctors, lawyers, teachers and artists could not.” But it was hard, even though Holden did eventually help her get an agent and register with the Screen Actors Guild. She was famous in Asia, where she had her own movie production company and hosted a talk show. But few knew who she was in Hollywood. She had to start again from scratch, during a time when roles for Asian actors were few and far between.

    “When I first arrived here, it was very much like The Sympathizer,” Chinh says. “I felt lonely, lost, homesick. I missed my past life when I had a name. I came here and lost everything, even my own identity.” She landed some great roles—she played Alan Alda’s love interest in an episode of M.A.S.H. and misunderstood mother Suyuan Woo in blockbuster The Joy Luck Club—but she was also forced to play characters like unnamed “Chinese woman” and unnamed “Asian woman.”

    “I had to accept whatever came, even the very tiny parts—one line here, one line there, one scene here, another there,” Chinh says. “I took everything. I had to work.”

    That’s why now, even at the age of 86, Chinh has no plans to slow down. She recently wrapped filming an upcoming Apple TV miniseries, Sinking Spring, and has a role in Shal Ngo’s upcoming thriller, Control Freak. “I love what I’m doing. I love my career,” she says. “I have lost so much, and it hurt my career for so long. Now, like my life, I want to rebuild my career.”

    While The Sympathizer required a lot of the actress, asking her to emote in both Vietnamese and French, Chinh adored her time on set. She gushes over how Robert Downey Jr., an executive producer, went out of his way to make sure she felt welcomed. Before shooting began, Downey, who delivers an unforgettable performance as four different characters, hosted a cast lunch during which he sought her out, pulling out a chair for her at a place of honor at the table. At the premiere, as photographers shouted for his attention, he held her hand, making sure she was in the photos as well. “He’s a great gentleman,” Chinh said.

    Over the past few years, Chinh has thrilled in seeing Asian representation grow in Hollywood, with films like Past Lives and Everything Everywhere All at Once giving Asian creatives and actors the opportunity to tell Asian stories. After working with so many impressive Vietnamese actors in The Sympathizer, she is hopeful not only for their future—“This generation will go far,” she says—but also for more opportunities to tell stories about her homeland.

    “During the Vietnam War, more than one million soldiers were in and out of Vietnam. For 15 years daily, Americans saw Vietnam on their televisions, in the headlines, in print media,” Chinh says. But they only knew Vietnam in relation to conflict and bloodshed. “For me, I do not look at Vietnam as only a war country. There was life there. There were people, there was culture, there was art. I hope that someday there will be different kinds of stories told about Vietnam.”

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    Vivian Ho

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  • ‘The Sympathizer’ Star Sandra Oh on How the HBO Series Shows the Vietnam War Through the Vietnamese Lens: ‘This Perspective Has Been Missing for 50 Years’

    ‘The Sympathizer’ Star Sandra Oh on How the HBO Series Shows the Vietnam War Through the Vietnamese Lens: ‘This Perspective Has Been Missing for 50 Years’

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    The upcoming HBO series “The Sympathizer” is bringing an unsung voice to a story that has been told and retold from the American point of view, providing actors like Sandra Oh a chance to finally be involved in a project that puts the Vietnamese refugee experience into focus. 

    “This perspective has been missing for 50 years,” said Oh, who plays the recurring role of Sofia.  

    Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen, the miniseries boasts a majority-Vietnamese cast and crew, including celebrated “The Handmaiden” director and screenwriter Park Chan-wook and esteemed “The Joy Luck Club” actress Kieu Chinh. 

    Many of the acclaimed talent included are making their American film debuts, and others are getting their big breaks on the international stage. Duy Nguyen was raised in Hanoi, Vietnam, and later immigrated to Montreal, Canada. His story encapsulates Oh’s commitment to the series. 

    “He has such a deep emotional connection to this project,” Oh related. “He moved to Canada 10 years ago. Then he read ‘The Sympathizer’ when it came out and [he was] 15 or 16. Because he was learning English, he read it like 10 times. His journey from that to this momentous moment right here – to be fulfilling his potential and the depth that he brought [to the role] – that kind of stuff is what I’m all about.” 

    She added that the authenticity brought by actors like Nguyen allows portrayals that “metabolize very, very deep, painful stories on behalf of many people.” 

    Nguyen said that being in a project that includes “Vietnamese language and culture [was] a dream.” 

    “[The cast and creative team] all felt this responsibility to make this the best that it could be, because we finally have a moment to shine,” he continued.  

    “The Sympathizer” follows the character of Captain (Hoa Xuande), a North Vietnam operative who is a plant in the South Vietnam army. After he is forced to flee to America and take up residence in a refugee camp, he continues to spy for the Viet Cong.  

    “It’s really nice to finally see a story that’s led by a Vietnamese cast – to be able to tell their stories in their own way, and to have them at the forefront of this project,” Xuande said, going on to explain that as serious as the topic is, the show is a unique meld of a black comedy and a spy thriller. “These stories that [audiences are] about to see are just as devastating, just as riveting, just as traumatic, but also just as exciting and wonderful and funny.” 

    A producing collaboration that included A24, Rhombus Media and Robert Downey Jr.’s Team Downey spent years bringing the project to fruition. 

    “Reading the [novel] just [showed] how history books have only told one point of view, the American point of view … And the thing that was so exciting about the book was it was [another] point of view, and it was actually about real, ideological conversations,” executive producer Amanda Burrell said. “It felt urgent that we had to get out there and tell it.” 

    The story was especially personal for Chinh, whose life includes fleeing the Viet Cong twice – first when relocating from North to South Vietnam at the beginning of the war, then later to America when North Vietnam was about to invade Saigon. Her journey is one of many experienced by Vietnamese refugees in the 1960s and 70s, real-life struggles that “The Sympathizer” shines a light on.  

    “So many stories have not been told,” Chinh said. “We should make history alive again to remind people what [cruelty] war has made.” 

    “The Sympathizer” premieres on HBO and Max April 14. 

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    Karla Cote

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  • A Spy Has Many Faces in the New Trailer for HBO and A24’s ‘The Sympathizer’

    A Spy Has Many Faces in the New Trailer for HBO and A24’s ‘The Sympathizer’

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    An HBO series from Park Chan-wook, A24, and Robert Downey Jr. hardly needs selling. But the new trailer for The Sympathizer, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen, does a great job of making me mad that I can’t watch every episode of this thing immediately.

    Though Robert Downey Jr. produced and co-stars in The Sympathizer, the real lead of the series is Hoa Xuande as a communist spy from Vietnam who moves to Los Angeles, where he’s unable to extricate himself from the espionage biz. Unsurprisingly, given the names involved, the series looks great—Robert Downey Jr.’s wacky spy disguises included.

    The post A Spy Has Many Faces in the New Trailer for HBO and A24’s ‘The Sympathizer’ appeared first on The Mary Sue.

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    Britt Hayes

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