ORIGIN STORY
BLUE BAYOU Justin Chon’s impassioned immigration drama burns with injustice…
Being adopted from another country is a difficult, emotional process. So imagine the trauma when, through no fault of your own, your new country turns on you, leaving you facing deportation. It’s a nightmarish scenario found at the core of Justin Chon’s new movie Blue Bayou. “I started to snoop around about five years ago… and realised no one’s talking about this!” the actor/director tells Teasers over coffee during the Cannes Film Festival.
Chon’s third feature, following Gook and Ms. Purple, Blue Bayou casts him as tattoo artist Antonio, who was adopted at the age of three from Korea by a Louisiana couple, now deceased. He’s lived in the States for over 30 years, and is married to physical therapist Kathy (Alicia Vikander), but an altercation with police draws the hostile attention of immigration officials. A loophole in the law, which only protects adoptees born after 1983, means he faces returning to a country he barely knows.
As he began to talk to organisations like Adoptees For Justice, Chon was “horrified” to discover that this was a situation faced by thousands. “It wasn’t just happening to Korean-American adoptees, but also adoptees from South America and India.” He also knows he’s
dealing with a contentious issue here. “The trailer launched and I already looked at some comments…‘This is the far left… they’re bitching and whining again.’ I’m not trying to divide people. I’m not saying what’s right or wrong. I’m just posing questions.”
While the previous Trump administration certainly made immigration a hot-button topic,
Chon sees it as a systemic issue that goes much further. “It’s been going on through every administration. I can’t really pin it on Trump. That’s the dangerous thing to do in this film.” In his eyes, “[when] a US citizen adopts a child, the US government… they need to honour this child. Because the child had no say in coming [here].”
Chon, who made his name as Eric Yorkie in the Twilight franchise, felt compelled to take the lead. “It was hard to let it go and just have someone inhabit it. I’ve been living with it for years.” As for casting Swedish star Vikander as a New Orleans native, he was delighted by her commitment to authenticity. “She’s a beast!” he chuckles. “A consummate professional and, Jesus Christ, she cares about the right things.”
With Asian-American hate crimes also on the rise, the Korean-American filmmaker knows that Blue Bayou can help open up a constructive discourse, as well as entertain. “There are so many different views of how to deal with [racist attacks]. You can get very angry about it,” he argues. “I feel that’s why I make films, make art. That’s my way of bringing up the conversation, rather than [posting something] on Instagram.” JM
ETA | 3 DECEMBER / BLUE BAYOU OPENS IN CINEMAS IN TWO MONTHS.