Asian-American Refugee Experience in the United States
Since the inception of America, there had been a plethora of Asian American refugees. Inside these Asian immigrant communities, there exists a sub-group that has withstood tremendous psychological trauma and violence. These are the Asian American refugees. Although the Western media has almost never publicly brought their stories into television and film, there have been a few films which have been released around a decade ago that touched on this topic. Today, I will dive deeper into the two films called Downsizing and Lost for Words. Both these films are similar in terms of the Asian immigrant refugee experience. Although Lost for Words is not a Hollywood film unlike Downsizing, it carries significant weight in terms of portraying the Asian American refugee experience as aforementioned earlier. Specifically, let’s examine the themes of psychological trauma, violence, and negligence in each of the two films by examining the experiences of the characters and the background as well.
Before we can understand the two films and their message, we have to understand the synopsis of the two films. Firstly, let’s talk about the short film Lost for Words; a young boy named Ka Nyaw (played by Klo Lay Pla) is an Asian American immigrant from the borders of Myanmar and Thailand, who faces bullying at school because of his culture, language and his PTSD. He then soon meets Jeremy Lin (played by the actual Jeremy Lin), a tutor, and later begins to tell his story about the civil war of his country. In the second film, although the main character is Paul Safranek (played by Matt Damon), we are going to be focusing on the character Ngoc Lan Tran ( played by Hong Chau). In this film, Ngoc Lan is a political activist who escaped her country Vietnam to the United States. After, she found work as a house-keeper for rich downsized people, hence the name of the movie. Throughout the film, Ngoc Lan brings the lead character, Paul Safranek, to the slums exposing him to destitute communities where immigrants reside.
As shown in the film Lost for Words, the sound of a heavy textbook smacking the floor, which can resemble the sound of a gun shot, triggers a psychological shock in Ka Nyaw. Ka Nyaw responds to this sound by ducking and squating while trembling in fear. The sound reminds Ka Nyaw of Burmese soldiers that burned down his village and shot his relatives and family. This is how the film portrayed psychological trauma for Ka Nyaw.
Furthermore, the film explores one other themes I have mentioned, negligence. Most of Ka Nyaw’s classmates and his teachers were oblivious to Ka-Nyaw’s childhood trauma. Ka Nyaw’s classmates even laughed at him because he struggled to fit in. This left Ka Nyaw isolated from the rest of his classmates and was unable to fully tell his problematic story to all of his peers. In addition, he faces bullying frequently at school because of his unique behavior.
In the second film Downsizing, the film showcased how Ngnoc Lan Tran experiences violence and trauma. In the film, Tran escaped Vietnam due to her country’s unstable political system. Upon arrival, American doctors amputated her badly infected leg but she then receives no additional treatment afterwards, except for a prosthetic leg. She then works profusely to earn a living despite after developing arthritis in her amputated leg due to extended pressure.
The film also brought up theme of negligence. In the slums, the poor have a hard time receiving basic healthcare needs. Throughout the film, Ngnoc lan had to steal pain killers while cleaning for the rich in order to tend to her physical pain due to her arthritis and even gave some to other immigrant peers as well. Thus, the film explores the theme of negligence by showing that the slums are a place where poor people struggle to survive while society neglects their health and well being.
Although these two films are accurate depictions of real life Asian American refugee experiences, the actors/actress portraying their roles actually experienced the life their character lived. For Klo Lay Pla, who plays Ka Nyaw, is actually a Karen immigrant in the United States who was born on the border of Thailand and Myanmar inside of a refugee camp. Klo Lay PLa had witnessed various war-like violence while growing up. Although much older and much more successful by receiving awards from show business, Hong Chau was born in a refugee camp inside Thailand after her parents fled Vietnam when the Vietnam war ended. In an interview with Hong Chau, she stated that her parents were refugee immigrants who escaped Vietnam after the Vietnam war and ended up in a refugee camp in Thailand. After immigrating to the U.S, they essentially lived the life of Ngnoc Lan Tran in the movie “downsizing.”Specifically speaking, they had low paying jobs cleaning toilets to make ends meet. On the other hand, in an interview with Klo Lay Pla, he stated that he experienced frequent bullying at school. In some instances, people would take his lunch and he would not have anything to eat. In other instances, the bullies would splash water onto his face whenever he entered the bathroom. Furthermore, bullies would also steal his school belongings as well. He stated that it was really sad for him to witness that very frequently in school.
In both films, storytellers explore the three common themes for these refugees to be able to tell a story that is different from a large general population of Asian-Americans. It is apparent that both films brought up issues that society in large neglected or have been suppressing for many generations. The films’ focus is to tell a story of these two individuals while also relaying a deep to the general public about the overall struggles of some refugees in the United States.
Works Cited
Lee, Jason Y., director. Lost For Words — Jeremy Lin , Youtube, 2 Apr. 2014, https://youtu.be/2vDEYx-euSo. Accessed 6 Apr. 2022.
Lee, Jason, director. Lost for Words (Ft. Jeremy Lin) | Behind the Scenes, Youtube, 2 Apr. 2017, https://youtu.be/2vDEYx-euSo.
Payne, Alexander, director. Downsizing Character — Hong Chau . Downsizing, Youtube, 15 Jan. 2018, https://youtu.be/nmWoIxapDSU.
Payne , Alexander, director. Downsizing. Paramount Pictures Studios , 2017.
