Growing up and finding your identity can be quite a fight sometimes. Perhaps this is why many features take the simile quite literally by telling the story of a fighter and his/her struggles with their family, their upbringing and also their culture. In their short feature “The K-Town Killer” directors Vahan Bedelian and Healin Kweon take these ideas and implement them within the community of Korean immigrants in the USA. As Bedelian describes, the feature is “about more than a fighter hiding her career”, but also about cultural and generational gaps.
The K-Town Killer is screening at New Filmmakers LA
For years, Grace (Kahyun Kim) has been a professional kickboxer, a fact she has been careful to hide from her mother Sally (Joy Sung Kim). One day, as she is visiting her, she witnesses first hand how her mother's landlord Fred (Tony Nevada) has been harassing her about the rent. As he begins to threaten her, Grace steps in, trying to defend Sally, who does not want her daughter to get in a fight such as this. However, as Fred does not stop his bullying and even says he will evict her mum, Grace needs to decide whether to defend Sally is more important than hiding her true ambition from her.
After having read through the premise of “The K-Town Killer”, it becomes quite clear the directors are quite ambitious thematically. Starting from the generational gap between parents and their children, traditional gender roles and racism, the 14-minute feature tackles quite a lot of complex issues which even full length dramas struggle to deal with. However, there are a number of aspects which cleverly suggest or hint at these points, for example, through the performances. Both, Kahyun Kim and Joy Sung Kim succeed in highlighting the inner conflicts of their characters, the idea of not showing weakness while also not wanting to lose their image of the other.
At the same time, the narrative, while including all of the aforementioned aspects, is not weighed down because of its themes. On the contrary, the various fight scenes, to name one idea, are quite well done, aesthetically, acting-wise and also in the context of the story. Grace's conflicted relationship with her mother, her will to fight for the woman who has protected her all of her life, is shown in these moments and comes through with every punch and kick.
“The K-Town Killer”, while sounding like a thriller, is instead an entertaining and well-executed drama about generational and cultural gaps, and also an exploration of the kind of xenophobia and racism Asian minorities have to fight.
