Entertainment - Movies
Gran Torino Ignites
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“Hmong girls fit in better here,” Sue tells Walt. “The girls go to college and the boys go to jail.”
They are next-door neighbors in a once-affluent Detroit neighborhood. Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is a cantankerous, racist old Korean War veteran who deals with neighborhood problems like gang violence with a long rifle and more than a few choice racial slurs.
Walt’s most prized possession is his green 1972 Gran Torino, which he built himself when he worked on the Ford assembly line. After he catches Sue’s nerdy younger brother, Thao (Bee Vang) stealing the car, Sue (Ahney Her) quickly interferes, forcing Thao to work for Walt to repair the dishonor done to the family’s name.
Thao is a shy kid, pressured into stealing the car as initiation into a Hmong gang.
“He can’t stick up for himself, so the gang would be there to back him up,” Sonny Vue, who plays the gangleader, said. “Becoming a gang was really so they could protect each other from other gangs in the neighborhood.
Eastwood, at 78 years old, is perfect for the juicy role of Walt and plays “grouchy old man turned surrogate father” to a T. But almost more interesting than Eastwood’s dual acting and directing is the casting of Hmong actors in Hmong roles.
Hmong immigrants, who originate from Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries, began arriving in the United States in 1975 after allying with the U.S. in the Secret War.
But very few movies exist that feature Hmong characters, actors or plotlines, which is why Hmong actor Wa Yang, from Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima told Asian Week he hopes Gran Torino might change that.
“Maybe later,” Yang said, “a movie can be made that tells the story of how we ended up in the U.S.”
Vang and Her, who are both actually Hmong, are incredible, especially as both make their screen debut in this film. Vang’s Thao is believably naïve, and his mentor/mentee relationship with Walt is full of enough light moments that it doesn’t even come close to corny.
As Thao, Sue and their family slowly befriend the prejudiced Walt, his own family, by contrast, is portrayed as selfish and materialistic.
While I appreciated that this hinted that Walt loves his neighbors more than his family, I thought the family was too exaggerated, especially his granddaughter (Dreama Walker). Her character relied too heavily on overused devices to stereotype teenagers, like the bare midriff and an obsession with texting. In one contrived scene, she asks Walt who he is going to give the Gran Torino to when he “like, dies.”
This didn’t take away much from my overall enjoyment of the film, though. The story is moving but not clichéd, the leading cast is terrific and the twist ending sends a beautiful message about peace and acceptance.