The stereotype of the Korean convenience store owner in this continent hasn’t exactly been the most positive depiction it could be. If you ask many Americans, I bet you’d get a slew of negative adjectives that may-or-may-not apply. Movies like Do the Right Thing and Falling Down haven’t helped. Neither has the recent MAGA movement which seems to loathe all immigration unless it comes from prosperous white countries.
As for Korea, I mean, sure, we f***ed up their country but good in the 1950s, but what do we owe them, really?
Enter So Yun Um, a “Liquor Store Baby,” which is a lot more innocent than that sounds. She’s a young filmmaker with, I’m guessing, other projects on the back burner. For now, it’s “let’s talk about me and my dad!” And I’m being unfair here. So Yun Um’s work is very personal, but endearing. She takes both an historical look at Korean business ownership in Los Angeles before and after the riots … and how such has filtered down to her own family. She also spotlights a friend of hers in a similar situation – Dan is the son of Korean liquor store owning immigrants and wants to be anything but … and yet realizes that’s almost certainly where his future lies.
So what is it about liquor/convenience stores that draw Korean attention? Honestly? Opportunity, and little more. All else being equal, do you think anybody really wants to own a liquor store in Watts? Of course not; it’s thankless, dangerous work. Your clientele tend toward alcoholics; you will get robbed, sometimes at gunpoint. Nobody robs Michael’s or JoAnn Fabrics. But if you want to own something to make your American Dream come true, this is a path.
The American Dream is at the root of this film. A question the film hints at but never really addresses is “does this dream still happen?” We live in an extremely polarized country. A full third of the country dem
onizes all non-white immigrants. Another third humors them because in the current United States, no winning argument begins, “what if we expand immigration?” And my third mostly remains silent realizing what little impact any of our actions will have no matter how much we care.
Liquor Store Dreams is big on heart, but light on action. The film does little more than describe the plight and historical forces against Korean-American business ownership. Mostly, however, it described the sometimes misunderstood plight of the protagonist. I’m both happy and amused to find the Netflix sitcom “Kim’s Convenience” so endearing; it’s just like Liquor Store Dreams, except it has humor because maybe we can’t laugh about Korean store ownership in Los Angeles, but they sure can in Toronto. God bless Canada.
A Korean with a mind on progress
Bought into a Southern Cal mess
The shrewd Asian stray
Would have avoided El Lay
And invested in BTS
Not Rated, 82 Minutes
Director: So Yun Um
Writer: Christina Sun Kim, So Yun Um
Genre: The American Dream alternative
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Korean Americans
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The kind of people who falsely claim Joe Biden has opened the borders
