Last year at the San Francisco International Film Festival, I got to see on opening night Sean Wang’s feature length directorial debut of Didi , which premiered at Sundance earlier in 2024. At this year’s 2025 festival, I got to see the world premiere of Isle Child, the feature length directorial debut of 24 or 25 year-old director Thomas Percy Kim. A synopsis of Isle Child:
“Si Miller (Ethan Hwang, Riceboy Sleeps) leads an idyllic life as a teenager in Concord, Massachusetts, reveling in the camaraderie of his baseball teammates and blessed with the unyielding support of his loving parents (Samantha Mathis, Sam Robards). His self-assured personality comes crashing down when he receives a phone call from an adoption agency, informing him of his South Korean birth mother’s illness. The news complicates Si’s perfectly constructed self-image, thrusting him into a complex space between his Korean heritage and his American identity. In his absorbing feature debut, Thomas Percy Kim perceptively and compassionately examines the challenging feelings of otherness that manifest from Si’s precarious circumstances, along with the universal desire to belong. Gorgeous cinematography captures Hwang’s stunning performance and paints a breathtakingly beautiful portrait of Si’s search for his place in the world.”
The concept was initially in a short film,Si, that he directed a few years ago that was up for an Oscar and picked up by HBO Max.
Review
The film is a coming of age story as Si (portrayed convincingly by Korean Canadian Ethan Hwang) confronts his self identity after discovering a letter hidden by his white mother, Carey Miller (portrayed by the talented veteran actress Samantha Mathis) from the adoption agency his parents used. He finds out that his Korean birth mother is reaching out since she is in poor health and doesn’t have much time left and wants to reconnect.
Director Thomas Percy Kim
Si is an “all American” high school kid, a star pitcher on his high school baseball team, but who really doesn’t know much (and doesn’t seem to care all that much about his roots). At the same time, a Chinese American kid, Yang (portrayed by American Born Chinese fame, Ben Wang), moves into town and is “the other Asian” kid, a sophomore pitcher and makes Si start questioning his own self identity when Yang first tries to greet Si with a few different Asian languages. We’re brought along for emotional journey roller coaster with Si to reconsider his relationship with himself, his teammates, his parents and his girlfriend.
Ethan Hwang, actor who portrays Si
Having been born-and-raised in Western Massachusetts, I was intrigued that Isle Child was based in Concord, Massachusetts – a town outside of Boston. In the post-screening Q&A, director Thomas Percy Kim mentioned that he was raised in Concord and that the film was semi-autobiographical about a fellow Korean American (who was adopted, unlike himself) in his high school, Si. Kim avoided him until his junior year or so and then became friends with him. That experience sparked the short film, Si. Kim said Concord was a pretty white town and he wanted to just fit in, much like how Si is portrayed.
Samantha Mathis, actress who portrays Si’s mother, Carey Miller
I think any Asian American growing up in anywhere in the U.S. where there aren’t a lot of Asians can relate to trying to fit in. That experience is shown very well. Add on top of that if you’re an adopted Asian with parents of a different race (transracial adoption). I have to imagine the complicated feelings an adoptee must have when people assume you’ve grown up culturally Asian American because you look the part. We get that with Si in the film.
Overall, I enjoyed the performances in the film and the portrayal of the struggle of identiy that many Asian Americans or anybody questioning their identity can relate to.
Post-Screening Q&A
Actor Ben Wang also happened to be in the audience. When I was waiting to see the film outside the theater, I did bump into Wang and when I was seated, by coincidence, sat right behind him.
Me & Ben Wang
I had a chance to chat with him outside the theater before the film and after the film – especially how I liked him in American Born Chinese, his first film Sight, and wished him good luck with the upcoming release of The Karate Kid: Legends.
I wish the best of luck to the very young and very talented, Thomas Percy Kim, Ethan Hwang, and Ben Wang. One thing that Kim reiterated during the Q&A was the difficulty of bring a film to fruition in this day and age in Hollywood. Kim essentially crowdsourced and raised over a million dollars to make this film, and Isle Child is still looking for distribution. So you may or may not be able to see this film in the near future – perhaps at future film festivals or eventually streaming, like A Great Divide.
