Watching everyone act like this "south Vietnamese government in exile" remnant is ever going to be any kind of serious thing is very funny. I feel like even at the time most people knew it was a farce; although I guess I can't blame Saigon for thinking, for the first few years anyway, that the CIA could come back and start some shit.
I saw the author at a talk a few years back and bought the book, haven't finished it. It's supposed to be good, seeing that it got the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 2016 though…
The end of the civil war wasn't that long ago. Many immigrants were politicians or soldiers, or children of these people, that were jailed and then left Vietnam when they could. Up until some years ago, Vietnameses that were involved in the war were still fearing that they would be thrown in jail if they came back to visit. So there were a lot of animosity to the governments and even to certain northern people. There were a lot of spy activities.
A lot of the people from the younger generation, especially the diaspora grandchildren do not have much feeling about it but they grow up with the grandparents and parents who suffered from the aftermath of the war and listen to their stories. They are not going to debate about it.
I love Sandra Oh but it seemed odd that they cast her in the role of a Japanese character. I haven’t read the book yet (it’s still sitting on my pile of unread books) so for anyone who has read the book, is there anything about her role/storyline that required her to be Japanese? Is there any reason they couldn’t have renamed this character and made her Korean? Maybe I’ve been spoiled by watching Shōgun for the last two months and I now have unreasonable expectations for casting Japanese actors in Japanese roles.
It's actually quite significant for Sofia Mori (her character) to be Japanese American and it's not quite as strong if you switch her ethnicity out - in the book, her and her family suffered through incarceration being Japanese. So there is a representation of why and who she is and how she identifies with her history in contrast to the Captain and other Vietnamese Americans who are more refugees displaced by war. The history of proving your American-ness with Japanese Americans is just a contrast to also the Captain who is going through identity problems and is a spy himself.
I loved it - the direction was so sleek, I liked how they did the title cards and subs, the actors were great minus RDJ's marble mouth. Hoping this and Shogun do well at the Emmy's next year!
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry during the Oriental Studies party. I knew exactly what we were in for as soon as I saw how they were all dressed!
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Watching everyone act like this "south Vietnamese government in exile" remnant is ever going to be any kind of serious thing is very funny. I feel like even at the time most people knew it was a farce; although I guess I can't blame Saigon for thinking, for the first few years anyway, that the CIA could come back and start some shit.
Has anyone read the novel? Is it good?
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A lot of the people from the younger generation, especially the diaspora grandchildren do not have much feeling about it but they grow up with the grandparents and parents who suffered from the aftermath of the war and listen to their stories. They are not going to debate about it.
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