US: In ‘Blue Bayou,’ Justin Chon highlights citizenship limbo of Korean adoptees (Includes video)
48 hills – September 19, 2021
Adopted as a three-year-old from South Korea and as thoroughly Cajun as crawfish etouffee, Antonio LeBlanc has never had any reason to question his American citizenship in Blue Bayou, actor/director Justin Chon’s latest drama, now playing in theaters. But just as the tattoo artist, his wife Kathy, and Jessie, Kathy’s daughter he’s raising as his own, start counting the days to the birth of a new child, a fight lands him in jail-and a deportation order soon follows, when the authorities discover that his citizenship was never naturalized. “The idea of international adoption originated from South Korea after the Korean War by Henry and Bertha Hold, a couple that found children that needed families and placed them in Christian homes in the United States,” says Chon. “Over the years, it has become a big business; it’s actually a lot of money in exchange for children. “I have quite a few Korean American adoptee friends,” Chon said. “Growing up with them, you’re kind of tuned in and I started hearing about this issue and then I started to do the research.”
https://48hills.org/2021/09/in-blue-bayou-justin-chon-highlights-citizenship-limbo-of-korean-adoptees/