HBO and A24 are producing a new drama series called The Sympathizer staring and produced by Robert Downey Jr. and directed and show run by Park Chan-wook.
Other cast members include Kieu Chinh, Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen, Hoa Xuande, Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Vy Le and Alan Trong. The Sympathizer is an adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
The film follows a half-French half Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam war and his resulting exile in the United States.
Oh will play Ms. Sofia Mori, a liberated feminist who in the midst of a love triangle begins to awaken to the complexity of her own Asian American identity. Chinh portrays the Major’s Mother. Homesick for Vietnam, she doesn’t find an easy fit with her new circumstances, in contrast to her son who has jumped in feet first. Nguyen is Madame, the General’s wife and elegant and commanding matriarch who’s desperate to keep her daughter modest and her husband from unraveling as they restart their lives as refugees. Xuande portrays The Captain, a spy for North Vietnam embedded in the refugee community in Los Angeles. A man of two minds and dual identities, the Captain is caught between conflicting loyalties, contradicting desires, and is ultimately forced to confront what it means to sympathize. Nguyen Khan is Bon, “the Captain’s childhood friend who refuses to bring the Captain’s multiple identities into focus. A proud member of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, Bon arrives in Los Angeles after a tragic loss and ultimately finds new meaning in the most unlikely of places and circumstances.” Toan Le plays The General, “the larger-than-life former leader of the South Vietnamese Secret Police. Overtaken by paranoia, the General is fixated on sniffing out traitors amongst the refugee community in Los Angeles and is in feverish pursuit of his goal to lead a counter-revolutionary mission back in his homeland.” Vy Le portrays Lana, “the rebellious daughter of the General. Fluent in both American and Vietnamese culture, she has an uncanny skill of absorbing and adapting to American popular culture, a capacity that is dizzying for the Captain and unnerving for her father.” Trong is Sonny, “the idealistic former classmate of the Captain and now the editor of a Los Angeles Vietnamese-language newspaper. Sonny is free to pursue his desires and ideals with open passion which provides the perfect foil for the Captain.” Downey Jr. is set to “play multiple supporting roles as the main antagonists, all of whom represent a different arm of the American establishment.”