The Sympathizer

I do not write many reviews, usually when I am really blown away or feel that a movie or show is treated/viewed unfair or too harsh.

When I read about the book "the sympathizer" was being adapted into a mini series, it was thrilling. It was a great read and kept me awake for a few nights.

Episode 1 of the tv show was okay, followed by two serious letdowns. The fourth episode made up for it in certain aspects, somehow it was a parody on a previous parody, starring Robert Downey Jr, named "Tropic Thunder". Coming to that actor, is where I personally see the whole problem with the sympathizer show. It appears to be a vanity project for Iron Man. He takes on multiple roles but excells in none, aside from the weird movie director. Neither his CIA spook nor the cultural sucker professor are well done.

So, why even give it a five out of ten? For the 1st and 4th episode, for it being a show set in cool locations and including dark moments in history. Overall tho, I have to force myself to keep on watching, not looking forward to soak up the next episode.

I had hopes for this show especially with Park Chan Wook involved. It was interesting to see RDJ play different roles but no one would be surprised with his versatility in acting skills. The show started off decent but felt the show just wasn't executed in the best way possible. The story felt dragged out each episode with only a seven episode count and although it was nice to see some Asian representation, I just didn't care much for any of the characters. They might've been better off with doing a 2 hour movie. The satire tone worked on some parts but really was overdone throughout the show. I expected something more to keep me engaged and feel some type of emotional attachment but it never delivered. Considering that Hoa Xuande was playing a Vietnamese communist spy, I wanted to see more scenes that made you want to empathize more for the character so by the time the ending came, you'd feel satisfied with the outcome of his character.

I didn't know what to make of this mini-series from the previews. It seemed underwhelming. And Robert Downey Jr. Looked all the bit of a caricature.

However, realizing Park Chan-wook was involved, heavily gave me all the faith needed to fully invest. His work on the original Old Boy, Sympathy for Mr Vengence and Thirst brought Korean Cinema into its golden age, two decades ago.

The Sympathizer itself has the hallmarks of a Chan-wook film. The absurd, yet believable and charming characters. The constant sense of dread and a plot that feels like it can punish someone you are starting to care for, very quickly.

Excited to see where the series goes and feeling confident it's going to be good with its source material being a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Didn't quite live up to the massive expectations I had from an HBO and A24 co-production, but it's still better than a lot of miniseries you'll watch.

The Sympathizer is all about perspective. A Vietnamese perspective of the events. A Communist perspective of the events. Something that is absent from the Hollywood productions about the war.

The complex politics of Vietnam War told by our lead, two-faced spy, and unreliable narrator, the Captain. Hoa Xuande gives an absolutely great performance in this role, supported by Oscar winner, Robert Downey Jr in multiple roles.

As I haven't read the original novel, I cannot judge this show as an adaptation. But, the writing and story deserves a lot of praise. Doesn't take sides and criticises both parties of the war along with the American influence. According to writer's own words, he understood "how the revolution had gone from being the vanguard of political change to the rearguard hoarding power".

PCW's direction in the first 3 episodes is great, as expected. His style, especially in the editing choices, is absent from the rest of the episodes. It also has a bit of pacing issue for which I couldn't engage with the plot as I would have loved to. That's why I am not rating it any higher. But I loved the ending, and the finale was my favourite episode.

I had high expectations for The Sympathizer but it didn't really pan out like I hoped it would.

Robert Downey Jr. Puts in an Emmy-bait performance, playing multiple roles, but they all seemed to be the same guy with just slight variations. There's a story-based reason for this if you stick it out till the end but it still did not come off well, watching a parade of cliches march through the story in lieu of well-rounded characters.

Another major mistake was casting an actor who is obviously 100% Vietnamese as a Eurasian character, which necessitated silly things like awkward looking blue contact lenses and white makeup that must have been stolen from Michael Jackson's cosmetics case.

The actor who played Bon was good though. The story always came alive when he was in a scene. The best episode was the one dealing with a zany movie about the Vietnam War and shot in Napa (??? Must have been a cheap quickie, not something Coppola or Scorsese would have stooped to).

The Vietnamese refugee community was fun, especially the demented General. But the lead character was always lying and being evasive, running away from himself, not even sure who he was. I guess that was the point of the story but when you have an unappealing lead character, it drags down the story.

Worth watching, but only just barely. HBO's glory days of prestige productions seems to be waning. Under Zaslav, I don't expect even productions of this caliber. Zaslav thinks HBO is a good brand to slap on a Harry Potter series.