I had the privilege of seeing the Clint Eastwood movie Gran Torino yesterday. Going in, I had no idea that there would be a SE Asian connection in the movie.
The movie centers around Walt Kowalski, an aging Korean War vet and retired Ford autoworker who just lost his wife. Walt is stubborn and refuses to leave his house in a rundown Detroit neighborhood despite the crime, gang activity, and being one of the few remaining Caucasians. He lives next door to an Asian family who we discover are Hmong.
Walt hates Asians and uses a variety of racial epithets to describe them. He does not even attempt to hide his disgust and contempt of living next door to an Asian family.
The movie is about culture clash. The clash between Walt, an old school veteran of a Asian war who does not understand how Asian people ended up surrounding him in the Midwest United States. It is about the culture clash of multiple ethnic groups trying to live together in harsh circumstances. It is about the culture clash of hard working people trying to cope with predatory gangs of young thugs. Without giving too much away, it is about an "old dog" learning new tricks in accepting people with different looks, beliefs, and customs.
The SE Asian connection made it even more interesting. There are a couple of fine "history" moments such as when Sue, the teen Hmong neighbor, explains to Walt that the Hmong people are hill people, not jungle people and that they fought the communists in Laos on the U.S. side until the U.S. "bailed".
The story of the Hmong people and how they ended up in the United States is both fascinating and tragic. They fought against the communists in Laos during the Vietnam War. This was known as the "secret" war as the United States simply refused to admit any part in a war in Laos until recently. The United States left the area to the communists, led by the brutal communist group Pathet Lao. Pathet Lao publicly called for the extermination of the Hmong people which they begun to carry out.
I will probably write more about the Hmong in future posts, but I will finish by saying that I would have missed out on the story had I not gone to see Gran Torino. I highly recommend the movie.
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Thanks for the review of Gran Torino. As of yet, I have not seen it. I was not aware that it was about the Hmong people. I was aware of the issues of cultural clash.
ReplyDeleteThe Hmong people fough valiantly alonside US soldiers in Vietnam, and the latter leared life lessons from the former.
Many years ago, I read a book about the war in Vietnam about the Hmong. One story in the book still stands with me today and says much about the Hmong people (and probably many Asians as well).
A US soldier noticed after a battle, and of the Hmong had died, that the Hmong people had a celebration that included much laughter, signing, drinking, and dancing. The US soldier was appalled by the display. He confronted on the Hmong. The latter told the soldier that among the Hmong it was customary to hold such a ceremony after a person died. The Hmong were celebrating the person's life and his contributions. But they did it with partying and dancing, which was meant to honor the spirit of the person's life. In America, by congtrast, death was a horrific thing with much grief and crying and melodrama. I know that this is not Gran Torino, but it also illustrates the culture clash that you mention.
I will have to go see it now.