Review by JD Piche, RCR News Media, Co-Editor, Producer, Reviewer, and SAG-Aftra Actor, follow on @Misadventur3r on Instagram.
We had the privilege of reviewing the narrative directorial debut of “The Bird Who Could Fly” by Raphael Sbarge, a familiar face over the past several decades, from film to theater to television, a master storyteller with decades of experience.
Sbarge puts the life of the fictional Lee family in focus, Joe Seo plays Arthur, the youngest of three sons, and the only one to make their mother, Sung played by Vivian Bang, happy. Arthur becomes the titular Bird That Could Fly, after coming to terms with his troubled home life. Mixing hazy Super 8 footage of family fun during younger days, Sbarge highlights the good memories that make the bad memories hurt more when Sung’s attitudes swing the other direction.
Without directly saying Sung is Bipolar or suffers from mood swings that being a parent makes apparent. Sung and her husband moved from Korea to Los Angeles’s Korea Town to raise their boys, until the husband was out of the picture, and the elder sons let their mother down in their own ways. Only Arthur remains caring for their mother.
Arthur has just become a lawyer, passing the Bar on his 3rd attempt, to try to get his older brother Johnny, played by Jack Yang, out of prison, after his 3rd strike, which in California means life in jail. Johnny ostensibly shakes Arthur out of the nest that had long been broken. Arthur still clinging to the failed ideal that ‘if you’re good, everything will work out’ – Arthur tries his best, but when a 3rd try to pass the Bar is his ‘best’ Johnny disabuses him of thinking there’s any way to undo his brother’s troubled past.
Vivian Bang deserves special attention for her role, as does the hair and make-up team, Vivian has several age looks, that point out the years with their styling. She is Mother and Monster in the film, understandably frustrated at the card life has dealt her, her husband was absent to help raise the three sons, and her reliance on the Church as a double-edged sword, it gives her strength but also fuels her resentments, as she would force the young boys to wait in the parking lot for their father whom would never come. And opting out of Church was not an option, as a traumatizing memory that haunts Arthur is shown. Bang screams in Korean as she takes a clawhammer to the drywall next to Arthur’s door, flinging a mounted crucifix across the room, as her eyes and mouth are visible through the damage, homage to Nicholson’s immortal “Here’s Johnny!” from The Shining.
Johnny, behind bars, having no future, their other brother, Kenny also in a downward spiral with drugs. Arthur has to learn that he can’t change how other people live. He has to fly on his own. Leave others to their cages. They see what Arthur doesn’t that his co-dependence is holding him back, their mother can take care of herself she can speak English fine, his coddling her is only preventing him from becoming his own person and Sung shaming him for taking 3 tries to become a lawyer, is the final straw. Arthur isn’t turning his back on his family, he’s freeing himself.
It’s an emotionally affecting, well-made short film. Sbarge assembled a great team to put this together. A story that could be any family, choosing to tell the story of a Korean family makes it more of an American Story, in a beautifully tragic way. We are a nation built by immigrants and being chewed up, is part of the package.
Watch the Trailer
There’s room to grow, this could be a feature, it could be a series, there’s a lot of promise in the concept and it was well executed, would love to see more from all involved.
See “The Bird Who Could Fly” for the first time ever online!
The GLOBAL ONLINE PREMIERE by FirstGlance Films and itsashort.com Followed by a Q and A with Director and Cast Friday, April 9th.
Get your tickets here: https://itsashort.com/FirstGlanceFridays
The Bird Who Could Fly is Directed by Raphael Sbarge Immigrant story set in K-Town: Arthur tries to help manage his one brother, serving life-in-prison, his other brother, a long term meth addict, and the demands of their Korean-born mother, who speaks little English. Juggling his mother’s religious extremism, Arthur tries to heal his brothers lives and emerge to find his own. Starring Joe Seo, Vivian Bang, Lombardo Boyer, Rob Yang, Jack Yang, Ayden Saveng, Rober Munic.
- The Bird Who Could Fly has earned the following honors:
- Asians on Film: Winner, Best Short, Best Drama, Best Ensemble and Best Director
- Greenpoint Film Festival: Winner, Best Narrative Short
- First Glance Film Festival: Winner, Best Short, Best Director, Best Ensemble, Best of Festival
- DisOrient Film Festival: Winner, Best Narrative Short
- Asian American International Film Festival: Nominee, Best Narrative Short
- Action on Film Festival: Nominee, Best Actor and Best Cinematography
