Korean adoptee feature film, “Isle Child” made its world premiere in San Francisco as a part of the SF International Film Festival, where we caught the young director, Thomas Paul Kim. At only 24 years old set with support from CJ, Sundance, and HBO, he stands at the cusp of a prolific career ahead.
The film was based off of Kim’s own personal experience in Concord, Massachusetts, where he was one of few Asian Americans growing up. “In an age so hungry for love and belonging, you want to fit in, right? So I, for the longest time, tried to act like I was white – and so was Si.”
“Isle Child” revolves around a Korean adoptee of the same name, “Si” (played by Ethan Hwang, who also appeared in Anthony Shim’s ‘Riceboy Sleeps’). Here, Si is “one of the boys.” In this white-majority town, Si plays baseball, talks shop about college, and is comfortably surrounded by his peers. His carefully-built suburban world rattles, however, when another Asian student, Yang (Ben Wang) transfers in. From there on, Si becomes increasingly aware of his own discomfort with his skin. The internal turmoil only escalates when he learns that he may be able to travel to South Korea to find his birth mother.
Though Kim and Si were in close proximity, they “never really wanted to associate with each other.” They only began to bond while Si worked at a local ice cream parlor, and Kim approached. “From then on, we would sit in the basement of the ice cream parlor after he closed every weekend, with ice cream, gummy bears, and the stories of our lives. We realized there are so many parallels,” Kim reminisced over our Zoom call. “In that basement of the ice cream parlor, we could talk about these things freely, without the fear of being judged by our peers. We didn’t really like the fact that we were Asian.”
“This film is about my relationship with Si and how it’s evolved throughout the last 10 years. I hope that other young Asian Americans can see this film and realize that they are not alone.”
From there on, Kim created a proof-of-concept for their story, where he was able to cast “Maze Runner” star Ki Hong Lee for the role. Kim said he reached out to Lee with an offer $200 a day, a pitch deck, a script, and a nice email. The two hopped onto a Skype call, and from there it was history. “He was the first person to take a chance on me,” Kim said. “He’s just been like an older brother figure, a mentor.”
That short film was later acquired by HBO Max. Afterwards, by sitting at his laptop for “two, three hours of day” and “tens of thousands of cold emails and LinkedIn messages,” Kim was able to crowdfund over $1 million to make the feature. “I bring a Silicon Valley energy to the movie,” he grinned. “It’s a boot-strap, tech start-up mentality. You just need a vision, a lot of persistence, and be very self-evaluative on how to improve.”
Naturally, as someone who has seen my own fair share of Korean adoptee-centric films in the last few years – including “Broker” (2022), “Return to Seoul” (2022), “Joy Ride“ (2023), to name a few – I asked about Kim’s own relationship to South Korea. “My relationship with Korea is one of curiosity. I know I’m seeing this place through a romanticized lens.” We bounced off each other about the societal pressures of living there – such as the high suicide rates and intense pressure to perform. “But when I visited, it was so beautiful,” he insisted. “I’m in New York now, but it feels even more ‘New York’ [than New York].”
Unlike the other Korean adoptee films though, where most of the children are displaced by the Korean War or other instances of financial hardship, Si discovers that his adoption is the product of the IMF Crisis of 1997. “I suppose I am young,” Kim bemused. “But coming-of-age films are more difficult to make the older you are.” He referenced some classics – “Boyhood” (2014), “Didi” (2024) – and went on. “This movie is similar to how real kids my age would talk.”
And for Kim, his young age is more of a fact than a badge of honor. He prattled off on the names of some of our rising auteurs in the independent film industry, like Sean Wang, Céline Song, Andrew Ahn, and Jim Cummings. This came naturally to the University of Southern California – School of Cinematic Arts grad, who at the same time seemed disenchanted with his alma mater, a local staple of Hollywood.
He echoed the energy of the young Sammy (an autobiographical mirror of Spielberg himself) in Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” (2022). “I’m not a huge proponent of film school. I think the better way to learn, with that money, is to live in LA and shadow a director you really admire, who is looking for some personal assistance.”
Or, instead, Kim urges young people to check out his YouTube channel. “Directing is one way I’ve been trying to give back to the community. I’m just happy to be able to share all this knowledge I’ve amassed from doing this in a very permissionless way,” he concluded confidently. “If you have an ounce of persistence or dedication, you can go on YouTube, and find everything you need to know. You learn by doing, and seeing what that Delta is between your script, your vision, and the screen.”
