समाचार

Back when tigers used to smoke, starry-eyed dreamers imagined tantalizing futures that seemed so within reach — until cold harsh truth reared its ugly head. So it goes in So Young Shelly Yo's debut feature, “Smoking Tigers,” an incisive excerpt of 2000s Korean-American life in Southern California. Here, sixteen-year old Hayoung (Ji-young Yoo) has to juggle her family and social life in one fateful summer. Between her parents' failing marriage, new cram school friends, and her own yearning for a stable home, she becomes entangled in an network of lies that becomes increasingly difficult to extricate herself from.

We had the opportunity to speak with So Young Shelly Yo over Zoom, on the occasion of “Smoking Tigers”' North American theatrical premiere. Over the course of the conversation, we spoke about filming bilingually, working on a first feature, and the gamble that is the American Dream.

This interview has been edited and redacted for clarity.