After wrapping on “Gran Torino,” actor Doua Moua wondered what was next. The Hmong actor, who also played Po in the live-action “Mulan,” yearned to tell a story that was authentic to his heritage. But with Hollywood’s tendency to typecast Asian American and BIPOC actors, Moua felt like his options were limited. In Moua’s personal life, his father was undergoing dialysis and his cousin had recently come out. From those real-life experiences, “The Harvest” was born.
Written by Moua and directed by Caylee So, the first female Khmer director in Hollywood, “The Harvest” is currently doing the film festival rounds and has received acclaim and mentions from the likes of acting veteran Daniel Dae Kim. The film centers around a father-and-son relationship but also provides glimpses into the Hmong community, a rarity in films. Like Moua’s reality, the ailing patriarch Cher, played by Perry Yung, is undergoing treatments when his son Thai, played by Moua, dutifully returns home.
While the clothing, culture, and language are all Hmong, the silent struggle between father and son, as demonstrated in scenes with sparse dialogue between the two, is one that is near and dear to many BIPOC and immigrant families.
“It’s not just particularly Hmong,” Moua says. “It’s such a universal story, because [I have had a lot of viewers who are] Hispanic or Latinx, and even the Black community to the Chinese and Japanese and Korean community, who watch this film and see beyond it being a Hmong story. The whole patriarch is really rooted in how the father was raised and systemically trickled down to a different generation.”
Unfortunately, for many patriarchs, being a father of color means hardening oneself to the realities of living in America and taking on a machismo role as the head of the family. Fathers — and Hmong ones, at that — are rarely depicted on the big screen as being vulnerable. Moua…
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