Loosely based on director Anthony Shim’s own experiences as a child immigrating to Canada with his family, Riceboy Sleeps is a deeply engaging drama about a Korean single mother raising her son in Canada.
Set in the 1990s, the film opens with the tragic backstory that prompts So-Young (Choi Seung-yoon) to leave South Korea behind and move to British Columbia, Canada with her young son, Dong-hyun (played by Dohyun Noel Hwang as a child, and Ethan Hwang as a teenager).
In the suburbs outside Vancouver, So-young works hard to provide Dong-hyun with a good life, and we see her strength and determination as she battles casual racism and sexism. As a child, Dong-hyun is quiet and shy, although this is partly a response to finding himself targeted by the other children for being the only Asian student in the class. So-young is quick to teach her son to fight back (resulting in alternately amusing, frustrating and disheartening outcomes), and the teenaged Dong-hyun we encounter remains quiet but demonstrates more confidence.
We follow the intertwined stories of mother and son in mostly equal parts, and their paths often mirror each other—we see both of them struggle with feeling isolated and lonely, find community and build friendships in their daily routines, and lean on one another for comfort and support. So-young’s friendship with a group of women at work is particularly affecting and entertaining as it evokes a familial bond of shared experiences and hopes.
Of course, we also witness the dreaded teen years in which mother and teenage son experience classic conflicts as Dong-hyun withdraws from his mother, stays out too late, smokes weed, and leaves his room a mess. Meanwhile, So-young alternates between trying to pull Dong-hyun back to her, scolding him, and worrying about his well-being and future.
Another point of contention between mother and son is the new man in So-young’s life (played by Anthony Shim) and the unspoken absence of Dong-hyun’s father. Although So-young has finally found someone else with whom she and Dong-hyun might share their lives, Dong-hyun presents an aloof attitude and chafes at his mother’s sustained refusal to speak about his father or their Korean roots. Shim portrays both perspectives with tact, empathy and humour, and Seung-yoon in particular thrives in her role as So-young.
When life-changing news arrives, So-young and Dong-hyun decide to travel to Korea to finally reconnect with their roots, the family they left behind, and, hopefully, each other. This section is a wonderful change of pace that further enriches the film as it more deeply explores family, identity, coming of age, what it means to (re)discover your heritage, and how that all impacts your sense of self and belonging.
Shim deftly weaves a tapestry of emotions in flux as he navigates humour, heartbreak, the sense of great discovery as well as great loss—all with a graceful self-assurance informed by a combination of lived experience and artistic proficiency. Together with Seung-yoon and Hwang, Shim and his lead actors give us wholly alive characters and a complex, meaningful exploration of their relationship and separate identities.
This is the second feature written and directed by Shim (his first was the 2019 film Daughter), who comes from an acting background, having starred in many roles across film and TV.
Riceboy Sleeps has been widely lauded as it traversed the film festival circuit this past year. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, where it was awarded the Platform Prize. The film also received an award for best Canadian feature at the Vancouver Film Festival, an audience prize at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, and the audience award at the Glasgow Film Festival.
Earlier in March, Riceboy Sleeps also won the Toronto Film Critics Association’s 2022 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, which is Canada’s richest film prize. The film has also been nominated for several Canadian Screen Awards; the awards ceremony will air on Sunday, April 16th.
Riceboy Sleeps is currently playing in theatres in locations across Canada.