Liquor Store Dreams director So Yun Um with her dad Hae Sup Um
(Picture: BFI/London Film Festival)“If you want to change the world, ground zero is your parents,” So Yun Um told the audience after a screening of her new documentary Liquor Store Dreams as part of the London Film Festival on Monday evening. The Korean-American wants to change with the world in her own way, and so she points her camera at herself and her family.
For her first featurem So decided to expand on an earlier short film of hers called Liquor Store Babies (which is on YouTube here). In telling her personal tale, she strives to tell the story of immigrants everywhere, be they Koreans in LA, Hispanic bodega owners in New York or Chinese families running laundromats.
But she wants to look beyond the stereotypes (such as the Angry Korean Liquor Store Owner, as seen in Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing which is mentioned several times), or at least examine why they persist.
Third and final screening of @LiquorDreamsMov at #LFF2022! Let’s gooooo! 💛🥰 pic.twitter.com/vQcVp8sgxP
— Liquor Store Dreams (@LiquorDreamsMov) October 10, 2022
So squeezes a lot into 80-minutes, cramming in all sorts of techniques, styles and footage, but the film’s briskness doesn’t stifle her ambition. The filmmaker grew up in Los Angeles, with her dad working 15-hour days in the family liquor store, a common upbringing among second-generation Korean immigrants in the US (at one point 75 per cent of all liquor stores in South Central LA were Korean-owned).
Her story is focused on herself, her dad and her best friend Danny Park, a third-generation Korean immigrant who has latterly embraced his liquor store heritage, jumping back and forwards in time and across narratives, trying to show So’s important touchstones for her life - including a selection of clips that inspired So as a teenager wanting to get into the film industry (Justin Lin’s Better Luck Tomorrow gets a special mention).
But this is no sugar-coated view. So doesn’t flinch from showing her family in an unflattering light - the most powerful moment is an argument with her dad who, having had his store destroyed in 1992 in the Los Angeles riots, veers towards racism as the George Floyd protests spread across the nation.
“How many Koreans have been shot by black people trying to rob them?” he demands as he watches rolling news coverage in the summer of 2020. So aggressively argues back, saying their communities must work together, that the anger felt by the black community is understandable in the circumstances.
The generational divide is pronounced. So’s father and Danny’s mother still struggle with English; both rely on their stores and their children to help them connect with the LA changing around them.
The riots are returned to repeatedly. A city-wide outburst of community anger at the Rodney King verdict, combined with the killing of schoolgirl Latasha Harlins by a Korean liquor store owner, resulted in roughly 2,000 similar establishments, including So’s father’s, being looted or destroyed.
The scars of the riot, also called the LA Uprising, run deep, but Danny, whose mum runs a store in Skid Row, is making efforts to bring communities together.
Danny’s tale is particularly touching - having literally run around 1,200 miles to apply for his dream job at Nike headquarters in Portland - but quits to help his mum run the store after his dad’s death. He admits his father would be turning in his grave if he knew his son had given up such a high profile career (Korean-Americans are particularly fond of Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ slogan).
Danny has his own mental health struggles (his grandfather, who also ran a liquor store, died by suicide when he went bankrupt) but his optimism is infectious. In one of the documentary’s most moving moments, his mother admits hiding the reality of her father’s death out of shame.
So’s dad has poured 20 years of his life into his store, but he is adamant the last thing he wants is for So to take on the family business (all her parents want is for her to get married...). But he’s full of pride when, in a meta moment, So shows him the almost-finished documentary, his racist outburst included. He doesn’t shy away from it, saying it’s his truth. With Liquor Store Dreams, So has shown the world hers.
