The Sympathizer

When the Auteur arrives on the set of The Hamlet, he throws a welcome party for himself and, though the narrator is technically part of the crew, he feels more welcome sitting at the tables with the Asian extras.

The basic premise of the movie is that the American Green Berets, part of the Phoenix Program, are heroes who have arrived in the hamlet to rescue the Vietnamese civilians from the villains, the Communist Viet Cong. The casting for the American roles in the movie includes the Thespian, an older, serious actor, in the leading role of Captain; and the Idol, a pop star turned actor, in the other leading role of Sergeant. The Vietnamese roles are assigned to a series of non-Vietnamese Asian actors: There is a Filipino child, a half-Chinese and half-British lesbian actress, and then a Korean actor named James Yoon who is known for playing the “Asian Everyman” (158). As the narrator explains, as the Asian Everyman, Yoon is a “television actor whose face most people would know but whose name they could not recall. They would say, Oh, that’s the Chinese guy on that cop show, or That’s the Japanese gardener in that comedy, or That’s the Oriental guy, what’s his name” (158).