Korean directors have made headlines in Hollywood the last two years, and Justin Chon may just be next in line. Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” and Isaac Lee-Chung’s “Minari” won a variety of accolades; between the two of them, they boast 5 Oscars, 2 Golden Globes, and a Palme d’Or to boot. Chon – whose latest release “Blue Bayou” had also been selected for Cannes 2020 – has been reviewed as another potential favorite for the 2021 awards season. This time, Chon introduces a different Korean American tale to the table: that of involuntary migration.
“Blue Bayou” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
In “Blue Bayou,” Antonio (Justin Chon) is an ethnic-Korean adoptee who is not exactly a model citizen. He’s a small-time tattoo artist with a criminal record; moreover, as the movie shows, he’s prone to run away from his problems (oftentimes on a motorcycle). Despite his speckled past,...
“Blue Bayou” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
In “Blue Bayou,” Antonio (Justin Chon) is an ethnic-Korean adoptee who is not exactly a model citizen. He’s a small-time tattoo artist with a criminal record; moreover, as the movie shows, he’s prone to run away from his problems (oftentimes on a motorcycle). Despite his speckled past,...
- 3/1/2023
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
The Before Trilogy (Richard Linklater)
Earning its status amongst the likes of Three Colors, Apu, Human Condition, Antonioni’s ’Decadence’ trilogy, and Kiarostami’s Koker trilogy, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, and Ethan Hawke’s exploration of romance both fledgling and tested is one of the great film trilogies of all time. Though there’s Before Movie, Says Julie Delpy”>no plans for a fourth film in sight, one can enjoy all three films, now available to stream on The Criterion
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Blue Bayou (Justin Chon)
After Antonio (Justin Chon) is wrongfully arrested in front of his wife Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and step-daughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske), he’s surprised to learn he’s been flagged for deportation. Due...
The Before Trilogy (Richard Linklater)
Earning its status amongst the likes of Three Colors, Apu, Human Condition, Antonioni’s ’Decadence’ trilogy, and Kiarostami’s Koker trilogy, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, and Ethan Hawke’s exploration of romance both fledgling and tested is one of the great film trilogies of all time. Though there’s Before Movie, Says Julie Delpy”>no plans for a fourth film in sight, one can enjoy all three films, now available to stream on The Criterion
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Blue Bayou (Justin Chon)
After Antonio (Justin Chon) is wrongfully arrested in front of his wife Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and step-daughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske), he’s surprised to learn he’s been flagged for deportation. Due...
- 7/1/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Justin Chon’s fierce heartbreaker, written and starring himself, centres on a Korean-American whose family is threatened by racist government policy
America’s equivalent of the UK’s Windrush scandal is the driving force behind this fierce heartbreaker from Korean-American star Justin Chon, who played Erik in the Twilight saga and got his directing breakthrough in 2017 with Gook, a drama set around the 1992 LA riots. Here, Chon writes, directs and stars as Antonio, who as a baby was given away for adoption by his immigrant Korean mother and brought up by negligent white parents. After a troubled past and spells in jail for stealing motorbikes, Antonio has turned his life around, working as a tattoo artist in New Orleans and married to a physical therapist, Kathy, played by Alicia Vikander – who, with no dubbing, sings a very nice karaoke version of Roy Orbison’s song about the beautiful Louisiana wetlands...
America’s equivalent of the UK’s Windrush scandal is the driving force behind this fierce heartbreaker from Korean-American star Justin Chon, who played Erik in the Twilight saga and got his directing breakthrough in 2017 with Gook, a drama set around the 1992 LA riots. Here, Chon writes, directs and stars as Antonio, who as a baby was given away for adoption by his immigrant Korean mother and brought up by negligent white parents. After a troubled past and spells in jail for stealing motorbikes, Antonio has turned his life around, working as a tattoo artist in New Orleans and married to a physical therapist, Kathy, played by Alicia Vikander – who, with no dubbing, sings a very nice karaoke version of Roy Orbison’s song about the beautiful Louisiana wetlands...
- 12/1/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Blue Bayou (Justin Chon)
After Antonio (Justin Chon) is wrongfully arrested in front of his wife Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and step-daughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske), he’s surprised to learn he’s been flagged for deportation. Due to his adoptive parent’s oversight, Antonio, who was born in Korea but has lived in Louisiana since he was a toddler, doesn’t have citizenship. Justin Chon’s Blue Bayou is an amalgam of real stories like Antonio’s, among which there are thousands. – Gabrielle M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Detention (John Hsu)
As a subversive poem (according to the Chinese Nationalist Party that ruled Taiwan under martial law during the period known as the White Terror from 1947 until 1987) read by Miss Yin...
Blue Bayou (Justin Chon)
After Antonio (Justin Chon) is wrongfully arrested in front of his wife Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and step-daughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske), he’s surprised to learn he’s been flagged for deportation. Due to his adoptive parent’s oversight, Antonio, who was born in Korea but has lived in Louisiana since he was a toddler, doesn’t have citizenship. Justin Chon’s Blue Bayou is an amalgam of real stories like Antonio’s, among which there are thousands. – Gabrielle M. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Detention (John Hsu)
As a subversive poem (according to the Chinese Nationalist Party that ruled Taiwan under martial law during the period known as the White Terror from 1947 until 1987) read by Miss Yin...
- 10/8/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Blue Bayou Review — Blue Bayou (2021) Film Review, a movie directed by Justin Chon and starring Justin Chon, Alicia Vikander, Mark O’Brien, Linh Dan Pham, Sydney Kowalske, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Emory Cohen, Geraldine Singer, Toby Vitrano, Altonio Jackson, Sage Kim Gray, Renell Gibbs, Martin Bats Bradford and Susan McPhail. Director Justin Chon has crafted an [...]
Continue reading: Film Review: Blue Bayou (2021): Justin Chon’s Moving Film is an Emotionally Powerful Triumph...
Continue reading: Film Review: Blue Bayou (2021): Justin Chon’s Moving Film is an Emotionally Powerful Triumph...
- 9/19/2021
- by Thomas Duffy
- Film-Book
Justin Chon’s Southern-set immigration drama “Blue Bayou” has the raw feel of a ’70s movie — a freewheeling 16mm camera, intimately scaled, in-your-face human drama a la John Cassevetes — but it’s a film that could likely only be made now. That’s even in spite of the film’s exploration of longstanding, trenchant issues of immigration and deportation in the United States.
Korean-American filmmaker Chon writes and directs himself as Antonio LeBlanc, a tattoo artist and father living in the Louisiana bayou with his wife, Kathy (Alicia Vikander), and her small daughter, Jessie (Sydney Kowalske). Kathy has another baby on the way. Despite being an adoptee from Korea, Antonio is as American a citizen as anyone, as he’s now lived in the U.S. for 30 years. But after a misunderstanding with police turns brutal, he ends up in jail, and ultimately in the bureaucratic hands of Ice. Suddenly,...
Korean-American filmmaker Chon writes and directs himself as Antonio LeBlanc, a tattoo artist and father living in the Louisiana bayou with his wife, Kathy (Alicia Vikander), and her small daughter, Jessie (Sydney Kowalske). Kathy has another baby on the way. Despite being an adoptee from Korea, Antonio is as American a citizen as anyone, as he’s now lived in the U.S. for 30 years. But after a misunderstanding with police turns brutal, he ends up in jail, and ultimately in the bureaucratic hands of Ice. Suddenly,...
- 9/18/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Raised in Louisiana from an early age, Antonio (Justin Chon) is happy and content, living with his dear wife Kathy (Academy Award-winner Alicia Vikander) and their beguiling young daughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske) in Blue Bayou). With another addition to the family on the way, though, Antonio is shocked when he is arrested and then threatened with deportation to his birth country, Korea, where he doesn't even know anyone anymore. Antonio and Kathy must put up the fight of their lives in...
- 9/17/2021
- by affiliates@fandango.com
- Fandango
After Antonio (Justin Chon) is wrongfully arrested in front of his wife Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and step-daughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske), he’s surprised to learn he’s been flagged for deportation. Due to his adoptive parent’s oversight, Antonio, who was born in Korea but has lived in Louisiana since he was a toddler, doesn’t have citizenship. Justin Chon’s Blue Bayou is an amalgam of real stories like Antonio’s, among which there are thousands.
Blue Bayou is a successor to the elegiac modes of Moonlight (2016) and The Florida Project (2017) that aestheticized life on the margins in the American south. This style—naturalistic performances, handheld cameras, and soft focus—is intimate, touching, and completely familiar. But as Antoni’s life unravels through the second half, Chon slips from a delivery that is customarily moody to something almost overwrought, closer to melodrama. This is also when the film gets better.
Blue Bayou is a successor to the elegiac modes of Moonlight (2016) and The Florida Project (2017) that aestheticized life on the margins in the American south. This style—naturalistic performances, handheld cameras, and soft focus—is intimate, touching, and completely familiar. But as Antoni’s life unravels through the second half, Chon slips from a delivery that is customarily moody to something almost overwrought, closer to melodrama. This is also when the film gets better.
- 9/16/2021
- by Gabrielle Marceau
- The Film Stage
"Where are you from?"
It's a question that immediately puts Justin Chon's Antonio LeBlanc on edge, and which he avoids answering in his uneasy job interview in "Blue Bayou," Chon's third directorial effort. Antonio was born in Korea, but the only home he's ever known is the Louisiana backwaters. Adopted at three years old by white parents, Antonio spent his childhood jumping from foster home to foster home, until he built a family for himself with his loving, maybe all-too forgiving wife Kathy (a terrific Alicia Vikander) and her precocious daughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske). With a new baby on the way and...
The post Blue Bayou Review: An Urgent Immigrant Story Told With a Thoughtful, But Heavy Hand appeared first on /Film.
It's a question that immediately puts Justin Chon's Antonio LeBlanc on edge, and which he avoids answering in his uneasy job interview in "Blue Bayou," Chon's third directorial effort. Antonio was born in Korea, but the only home he's ever known is the Louisiana backwaters. Adopted at three years old by white parents, Antonio spent his childhood jumping from foster home to foster home, until he built a family for himself with his loving, maybe all-too forgiving wife Kathy (a terrific Alicia Vikander) and her precocious daughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske). With a new baby on the way and...
The post Blue Bayou Review: An Urgent Immigrant Story Told With a Thoughtful, But Heavy Hand appeared first on /Film.
- 9/15/2021
- by Hoai-Tran Bui
- Slash Film
An official selection of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival from award-winning writer/director Justin Chon, Blue Bayou is the moving and timely story of a uniquely American family fighting for their future. Antonio LeBlanc (Chon), a Korean adoptee raised in a small town in the Louisiana bayou, is married to the love of his life Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and step-dad to their beloved daughter Jessie. Struggling to make a better life for his family, he must confront the ghosts of his past when he discovers that he could be deported from the only country he has ever called home.
Starring Justin Chon, Alicia Vikander, Mark O’Brien, Linh Dan Pham, Emory Cohen, Blue Bayou opens in theatres nationwide on Friday, September 17.
https://www.focusfeatures.com/blue-bayou
Enter for a chance to win 2 passes to the advance screening on Tuesday, September 14, 7pm at Ronnie’s Theater.
Winners will be selected on Fri, 9/10, and will be notified directly.
Starring Justin Chon, Alicia Vikander, Mark O’Brien, Linh Dan Pham, Emory Cohen, Blue Bayou opens in theatres nationwide on Friday, September 17.
https://www.focusfeatures.com/blue-bayou
Enter for a chance to win 2 passes to the advance screening on Tuesday, September 14, 7pm at Ronnie’s Theater.
Winners will be selected on Fri, 9/10, and will be notified directly.
- 9/2/2021
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Korean directors have made headlines in Hollywood the last two years, and Justin Chon may just be next in line. Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” and Isaac Lee-Chung’s “Minari” won a variety of accolades; between the two of them, they boast 5 Oscars, 2 Golden Globes, and a Palme d’Or to boot. Chon – whose latest release “Blue Bayou” had also been selected for Cannes 2020 – is now being reviewed as another potential favorite for next year’s awards season. This time, Chon introduces a different Korean American tale to the table: that of involuntary migration.
In “Blue Bayou,” Antonio (Justin Chon) is an ethnic-Korean adoptee who is not exactly a model citizen. He’s a small-time tattoo artist with a criminal record; moreover, as the movie shows, he’s prone to run away from his problems (oftentimes on a motorcycle). Despite his speckled past, however, he is a fiercely loyal father. Madly in love with his wife,...
In “Blue Bayou,” Antonio (Justin Chon) is an ethnic-Korean adoptee who is not exactly a model citizen. He’s a small-time tattoo artist with a criminal record; moreover, as the movie shows, he’s prone to run away from his problems (oftentimes on a motorcycle). Despite his speckled past, however, he is a fiercely loyal father. Madly in love with his wife,...
- 8/26/2021
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
. If done well, these tear-jerkers can emotionally galvanize audiences into grappling with the sort of social injustice that people tend to cry over in the dark of a theater and then leave behind when they re-emerge into the light of day. If done poorly, they risk glazing an urgent problem with a gloss of untruth, and making an all-too-real tragedy from our own backyard feel like the kind of thing that only happens in the movies. An eye-opening sob-fest that eventually loses sight of its everyday tragedy behind a thick veil of tears, “Blue Bayou” is such an uncommonly lucid example of this phenomenon because it manages to cut both ways at the same time.
The crux of the film’s story hinges on the immigration status of this country’s foreign-born adoptees; a bill was passed in the year 2000 that granted them American citizenship, but that long-overdue change didn...
The crux of the film’s story hinges on the immigration status of this country’s foreign-born adoptees; a bill was passed in the year 2000 that granted them American citizenship, but that long-overdue change didn...
- 7/16/2021
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The lovechild of passion and talent, Justin Chon’s “Blue Bayou” — a lyrical and emotional portrait of identity and family — is a piece that drums up lots of support within the film community, general audiences, and the Academy Awards in various branches. Leaving you in a puddle of tears by the end credits, the Cannes Film Festival selection could be a slam dunk for distributor Focus Features across all eligible categories, including best picture.
“Blue Bayou” tells the moving and timely story of Antonio LeBlanc (Chon), a Korean adoptee who is raised in a small town in the Louisiana bayou. There, he’s married to his wife Kathy (played by Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander) and is a step-dad to her daughter Jessie (played by newcomer Sydney Kowalske). Struggling to make a better life for his family, Antonio must confront his complicated past when he faces possible deportation from the only country he’s ever known.
“Blue Bayou” tells the moving and timely story of Antonio LeBlanc (Chon), a Korean adoptee who is raised in a small town in the Louisiana bayou. There, he’s married to his wife Kathy (played by Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander) and is a step-dad to her daughter Jessie (played by newcomer Sydney Kowalske). Struggling to make a better life for his family, Antonio must confront his complicated past when he faces possible deportation from the only country he’s ever known.
- 7/15/2021
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Blue Bayou Trailer — Justin Chon‘s Blue Bayou (2021) movie trailer has been released by Focus Features. The Blue Bayou trailer stars Justin Chon, Alicia Vikander, Mark O’Brien, Linh Dan Pham, Sydney Kowalske, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Emory Cohen. Crew Justin Chon wrote the screenplay for the Blue Bayou. Roger Suen created the music for the [...]
Continue reading: Blue Bayou (2021) Movie Trailer: Alicia Vikander Contends with U.S. Immigration, Deportation, & Family in Justin Chon’s Film...
Continue reading: Blue Bayou (2021) Movie Trailer: Alicia Vikander Contends with U.S. Immigration, Deportation, & Family in Justin Chon’s Film...
- 7/14/2021
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
To New Orleans family man Antonio LeBlanc (Justin Chon) and everyone close to him, he’s as American as the tattooed eagle spreading its wings defiantly across his throat, down to his lived-in Southern drawl acquired over more than three decades. To Ice authorities, however, he’s nothing more than a Korean immigrant with a criminal record and faulty paperwork, and they want him out.
Never mind that he has scarcely any memories of his motherland, having been brought out to the U.S. for adoption at the age of three, or that his all-American wife Kathy (Alicia Vikander) is carrying their second child: The system is the system, and its rules and loopholes exist to punish more than they protect. “Blue Bayou” holds little back as it rails against the cruelties and hypocrisies of American immigration law to stirring effect — though this emotional pile-driver of a film could stand...
Never mind that he has scarcely any memories of his motherland, having been brought out to the U.S. for adoption at the age of three, or that his all-American wife Kathy (Alicia Vikander) is carrying their second child: The system is the system, and its rules and loopholes exist to punish more than they protect. “Blue Bayou” holds little back as it rails against the cruelties and hypocrisies of American immigration law to stirring effect — though this emotional pile-driver of a film could stand...
- 7/14/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Focus Features has debuted the trailer for the official selection of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival from award-winning writer/director Justin Chon ‘Blue Bayou.’
The film is a moving and timely story of a uniquely American family fighting for their future. Antonio LeBlanc (Chon), a Korean adoptee raised in a small town in the Louisiana bayou, is married to the love of his life Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and step-dad to their beloved daughter Jessie. Struggling to make a better life for his family, he must confront the ghosts of his past when he discovers that he could be deported from the only country he has ever called home.
Written and directed by Chon, Vikander, Mark O’Brien, Linh Dan Pham, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Emory Cohen, and Sydney Kowalske co-star.
Also in trailers – Tilda Swinton stars in intriguing trailer for ‘Memoria’
The film has the US release on September 17th.
The post Alicia Vikander...
The film is a moving and timely story of a uniquely American family fighting for their future. Antonio LeBlanc (Chon), a Korean adoptee raised in a small town in the Louisiana bayou, is married to the love of his life Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and step-dad to their beloved daughter Jessie. Struggling to make a better life for his family, he must confront the ghosts of his past when he discovers that he could be deported from the only country he has ever called home.
Written and directed by Chon, Vikander, Mark O’Brien, Linh Dan Pham, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Emory Cohen, and Sydney Kowalske co-star.
Also in trailers – Tilda Swinton stars in intriguing trailer for ‘Memoria’
The film has the US release on September 17th.
The post Alicia Vikander...
- 7/14/2021
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
"Are we getting kicked out?" "Nah, baby girl, I ain't going nowhere..." Focus Features has unveiled the first official trailer for Blue Bayou, the latest film from acclaimed Korean-American filmmaker Justin Chon, known for his other award-winning films Gook and Ms. Purple previously. This time around, Blue Bayou is premiering at the prestigious 2021 Cannes Film Festival playing in the Un Certain Regard category (his last two films premiered at Sundance instead). It's currently set for a limited release starting in September later this year. As a Korean-American man raised in the Louisiana bayou works hard to make a life for his family, he must confront the ghosts of his past as he discovers that he could be deported from the only country he has ever called home. Justin Chon stars with Alicia Vikander, Mark O'Brien, and Sydney Kowalske as Jessie. This is an impressive first look at this film, and...
- 7/13/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
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