ABOVE AVERAGE

REFUGEE. TRAITOR. HERO. SPY.

One of the most ambitious miniseries of the year was based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, features a cast with largely Vietnamese actors and comes with a bombastic, stylish attitude that feels true to Park Chan-wook.

The story of a 1970s North Vietnamese mole’s (Hoa Xuande) life in California has lots of comedy and dark moments as he spends time with the South Vietnamese community there, but also gets involved in activities with a number of strange men (most of them played by a freewheeling, wonderful Robert Downey, Jr.), including a war movie in the series’ funniest episode.

A little too sprawling at times, but ultimately tragic and moving.

2024-U.S.-Canada. 290 min. Color. Created by Park Chan-wook, Don McKellar. Novel: Viet Thanh Nguyen. Cinematography: Kim Ji-yong, Barry Ackroyd. Music: Cho Young-wuk. Cast: Hoa Xuande (The Captain), Robert Downey Jr. (Claude/Robert Hammer/Ned Godwin/Niko Damianos), Toan Le (The General), Fred Nguyen Khan, Duy Nguyen, Sandra Oh… David Duchovny, John Cho. 

Trivia: Originally shown in seven episodes. Co-executive produced by Park (who also directed three episodes) and Downey, Jr. Fernando Meirelles helmed the war movie episode.

Last word: “Maybe it’s a showcase of acting, I felt like I was watching a circus act. That is to say, rather than me really directing the scene, I was able to sit back and enjoy [Downey, Jr’s] performance, because he would offer different performances for every individual take. I was very excited and I would be anticipating what would be the next performance he would come up with. So speaking of editing, yes, it is challenging to select certain takes, only because all of them are very good and entertaining.” (Park, Screen Rant)