RICEBOY SLEEPS

Canada, 2022, 117 minutes, Colour.

Choi Seung-yoon, Ethan Hwang, Dohyun Noel Hwang, Anthony Shim, Hunter Dillon, Jerina Son, Kang In Sung, Choi Jong-ryol.

Directed by Anthony Shim.

This film is a memoir, going back over 30 years, 20 years, the life of the writer-director and editor, actor Anthony Shim. It is a dramatisation of his early life, an opportunity to remember, re-enact, a tribute, especially to his mother.

In recent years there have been quite a number of prominent films with a Korean-North American interest, the Oscar nominee, Minari, the story of an orphan and adoptive parents, Blue Bayou, the 2023 much-awarded drama, Past Lives. Riceboy Sleeps finds its place amongst this trend and these films.

Anthony Shim has invested a great deal of emotion in this film and invites us to appreciate it, to share it. There is a sad prologue explaining how a 30-year-old Korean woman marries, her husband mentally ill and killing himself, leaving her with a little boy, some alienation from his family, and migration to Canada.

The first part of the film is set in 1990. The mother is a resourceful woman, finding a job in a packing factory, at first isolated, eating alone, for instance, but meeting another migrant, offering friendship and support, and building up great rapport with the other workers in the factory. Her son, Dong-hyun (Doyung Noel Hwang) is five, bespectacled, reluctant to go to school, tantrums, some bullying, the children mocking his Korean food (and his throwing it out and asking his mother for sandwiches for lunch), his standing up for himself in a fight, but suspended, his mother arguing with the principal the injustice of this. And, he has to find an Anglo name, wanting Michael Jordan but his mother forbidding it. David is the compromise.

The acting of Choi Seung-yoon, dancer and this her first feature film role, is always moving, a credible portrait of a woman challenged by hardship, but loving her son.

The second part of the film takes place in 1999, David now 15 (Ethan Hwang), dying his hair yellow, one of the boys around school, a friend to lead him astray, introducing him to drugs, some moody episodes with his mother. She has continued working at the factory, bonding with the women there. And, a gentlemanly man, Simon (played genially by Anthony Shim himself) is attracted to her, wants to care for David, proposes.

However, there is a deeply felt personal issue for the mother, confiding in Simon, her friends, and in David. She tells a symbolic story from Korean mythology of a dying mother being carried on a pilgrimage by her son to the top of a mountain but her dropping rice along the path so that he will be able to have a secure return.

The third part of the film is the mother’s symbolic re-enacting of this story, taking David to Korea, his curiosity roused because of a class project on writing the family tree and his realising he knows nothing about his father. The audience accompanies them on this visit, wonder at the beautiful scenery, curiosity at meeting the rice farmer family, the welcome, the genial grandfather, the grandmother mentally disturbed still about the fate of her son. We are glad that David and his mother have made this visit.

And, finally, ascending mountain to find her husband’s grave and headstone, rituals performed, David experiencing his heritage, family warmth, long cultural traditions.

Riceboy Sleeps leaves the story at the turn of the millennium – but, with the director and this achievement in his film, we are assured of the positive results of his young and teen experiences – and the profound influence of his mother.

1. The title? Dong-hyun, as a little boy, as a teenager? The film as a memoir, the writer-director-editor, back to the 1990s?
2. The emotional intensity of the film, the introduction, the mother and her background, her marriage, the difficulties, her husband, schizophrenic, suicide? The relationship to his family? And the later visit? Her migration to the Canada? Her relationship with her son?
3. 1990, migrants to Canada, acceptance/not? Koreans in Canada? Forming a community? Work, companies, friendships and support? The bosses? The supervision? Yet the loneliness, sometimes eating alone?
4. Mother and son, the little boy, his age, glasses, manner, going to school, and willing, in the class, the welcoming teacher, the children, the comments, mocking his food, is tipping it in the rubbish, asking for sandwiches for lunch? Tantrums, in the car, at home? His mother’s care, exasperation, concern?
5. Bullying, the mother’s advice about fighting, martial arts, the boy in the classroom, David and his hitting him, the fight, the yard, mother being caught by the principal, her taking a strong stand about the suspension, the issue of the other parents?
6. The mother, at work, hard work, the newcomer making mistakes, the friendly reach out, the bonding? Support? But, over the years, growing support from the other workers, settling into Canada? The first part of the film establishing the characters, the relationship, feelings? And the issue of choosing an Anglo name, the discussions about Michael Jordan? Settling on David?
7. The transition to 1999, David at 15, appearance, dyed hair? At school, his friends, the teacher and the project about the family tree? His knowing nothing about his father? Harry, sleep at his desk, the friendship, at home, the drugs, getting high? The effect on him?
8. The scenes at home, David at times of hand, speaking English and chorion, meals, 15-year-old behaviour?
9. The mother, continue it work, her friends, her back pain, the visit to the doctor, the diagnosis, pancreatic cancer, the growth of the cancer, terminal? Her response? Sad?
10. Simon, orphan, adopted from Korea, friendship taunts David, towards the mother, the visits, the meals, David and his reactions, the proposal, being gentlemanly, not pressing? The mother asking David, his opinion and reactions? The friends at work, the joy about the proposal?
11. Talking with Simon, the diagnosis, suggestions about doctors, the friends and doctors in Korea? Talking with David, his response?
12. The decision to go to Korea, the fable about the boy carrying his mother, her leaving the breadcrumbs as a trailer for his safe return? In this symbolic journey into action? The vistas of career, arrival at the in-laws, the brother-in-law and his welcome, the grandfather, his work, the rice, the welcome, the grandmother and her harsh reaction, anger about her son? Having the meal, the conversation? The bonding? The effect on David?
13. David learning about his father, the photos? The farewell, the invitation to return? The brother-in-law accompanying them? The baths and the humorous sequence? David and having his hair shorn?
14. The symbolic journey, David having to carry his mother, the grave, the Tombstone, celebration of the rituals, the libation? The effect on David?
15. In the film is retrospect over 20 years?