Watershed year for Asians in film, TV
“(My parents’) whole philosophy was to be grateful, be thankful and work your ass off.” PAUL SUN-HYUNG LEE KIM’S CONVENIENCE STAR
found a new and enthusiastic audience globally, garnering solid reviews after being streamed beyond Canada on Netflix this year and making his character’s “OK, see you” line a bigger part of North American pop culture.
To add to the exposure, Lee has also been moonlighting as the host of CBC’s Canada’s Smartest Person Junior, which debuted this fall. Then there are the numerous public-speaking appearances throughout North America coming during a watershed year where Asians are getting recognition and traction in film and in television.
“It’s a really pinch me moment,” says the humble Lee. “I’ve always been a jobber. I’m just a day player in the business. But to see that I’m the series lead on an international and critical hit is really incredible. You feel like Cinderella at the ball.”
Fans say the show is successful because it goes beyond the immigrant story.
“For a lot of people the show is relatable on a lot of levels,” says Mike Yuan, whose podcast What You Talking interacts with fans and analyzes themes of the show on an almostmolecular level. “Yes, it’s about immigrants and being an outsider, but it appeals to much more than that. There are also familiar elements like the estranged relationship between father and son, the kind of family dynamics with a lot of heart and drama that don’t play on stereotype.”
The premiere episode of Season 3, which also stars Jean Yoon, Andrea Bang, Andrew Phung, Simu Liu and Nicole Power, has Appa trying to save on the cost of a new dishwasher for Mrs. Kim (Jean Yoon) and, of course, his frugality goes spectacularly wrong. The writing resonates because it is one of the few shows on television — if not the only show on television — where a Korean-Canadi- an showrunner (Ins Choi) is actually writing lines for KoreanCanadian actors.
“I think in the third season there is a bit more self-assuredness, the characters are hitting their stride,” Lee says. “Umma (Yoon) and Appa are exploring different situations as a couple, and the world has really expanded. It’s an evolution of the Kim family and really I think our funniest season.”
In the U.S. in particular, the fan base has exploded, helped in no small part by Lee, a publicist’s dream, who makes a point of following and sometimes responding to just about every fan who follows him on his @bitterasiandude handle on Twitter.
“Fans are everything. They’ve taken the time to invest themselves in the show,” Lee says. “And I’m a fan too. I know what it’s like when you send a message telling someone, ‘I’m a huge fan of your work’ and then nothing happens. Even if you know they have zillions of followers, but it’s still disappointing. It’s such a small thing to do to say ‘Thanks for watching.’ It’s no different when I tell my boys to say please and thank you.” (Lee has two sons, aged14 and 9, with his wife Anna, who is a sign-language interpreter.)
As a journeyman actor, Lee, like many in the creative community, had struggled over the years to maintain a middleclass existence. With his new gigs that has changed, from the largest to the smallest of ways.
For one thing, he recently got his dad dentures. Both of his parents work at a Korean church — the former teachers moved from Korea to Calgary, and opened a restaurant and a convenience store there, before moving to Toronto and studying theology. They also seem like a potential source for inspiration for an episode of Kim’s Convenience.
“My parents never cared for material things. My dad was making makeshift teeth out of cardboard calendars. He’d get a calendar from the Korean church which had this thick, heavy laminated stock, and he’d cut them up and fold them and make it appear as if he had teeth, because he couldn’t afford dentures,” Lee says. “The dentures to him weren’t important. He just made do. The whole philosophy was to be grateful, be thankful and work your ass off. And, most importantly, treat others with kindness and respect and humility.”
The fact that he is able to help in a small way to support his parents has been a profound shift for Lee.
“I’m finally able to be that good Korean son,” says Lee.
His talented co-star Yoon, meanwhile, who has been a mainstay on Toronto stages for decades, jokes that having a regular paycheque meant that she could now have two winter coats.
“I used to have to choose between having a warm one and a stylish one. And now I can have both.”
Lee, meanwhile, says he’s enjoying the ride as much as he can because he knows how difficult getting here has been to achieve.
“It looks like it happened overnight. But Kim’sstarted as a play more than a decade ago. And I’ve been working for a quartercentury,” he says.
“Although I still can’t believe it when people invite me to some fancy gala. It’s like, ‘Who, me? Thank God you’re not hunting me for sport or it’s not some kind of weird snuff film. I’ll show up. Thanks very much.’ ”