It could have been a good movie.

Rating: 1/10 (3 October 2013)

I saw this movie back in 2004 and I remember leaving the movie theater with a bad taste in my mouth. I was completely taken aback by the way that the Korean couple was portrayed in such a complex, dramatic movie where all the other characters have a three dimensional story line in a movie that is essentially about, well, racism. The fact that the director took pains to address this issue but completely mashed in all the stereotypes he could in regards to Koreans (and for all Asians, for that matter), made me sick. Being a Korean-American myself, I was excited to see that Koreans were included in the story line, but I saw how the Korean couple was purely used for comedic relief, showing them as idiotic, evil and one-dimensional as possible. To this day, nine years after watching this movie, I still shake my head when I remember it. I don't think any other film has extracted this reaction from me. My respect for Paul Haggis is ZERO, especially because the movie takes place in LA, city where the largest population of Koreans live outside of Korea. He really could have shown the nuances of one of the most populous races in the city.