Here Comes Uncle Joe: He Delivers

Unfortunately, (Joe) Byung-gi Cho is not in a growth business. He has an extremely loyal but steadily shrinking customer base. For years, he has delivered groceries and sundries to the elderly residents of rural An-dong.  Not just a merchant, he has become an integral part of their lives. However, the demands on his time often cause friction with his own family. Filmmakers Wooyoung Choi & Sinae Ha document his quiet but not necessarily simple life in Here Comes Uncle Joe (promo here), which airs this Sunday on PBS World’s Global Voices.

Once, “Uncle Joe,” as the Aunties and Uncles call him, was a promising academic, until his relationship with a former student short-circuited his career. They are still married, with children, but she begrudges all the time his spends with his An-dong clientele. For many of his customers, Uncle Joe is a lifeline for nutrition and socialization. To some he is a drinking buddy and to others he is a surrogate for the grown children who never visit. He cannot help getting emotionally involved with them, so when one of his aging customers inevitably passes away, it is hard for him to shake it off.

HCUJ is not just about plucky oldsters and the younger sensitive cat who hangs with them. It is largely a gentle observational doc, but the filmmaking duo never sugarcoats Uncle Joe’s disappointments in life or his own family issues. Yet, despite catching him in moments of sadness and regret, they clearly suggest his life has meaning.

So yes, Uncle Joe seems like an unabashedly good guy. The hour long broadcast cut captures some moments of real drama, especially when a beloved community member passes. Still, there is nothing in the film you would consider shocking, by any stretch. Somehow though, the co-writer-co-directors keep all the niceness from getting too cloying. Towards that end, Lee Byung-hoon’s elegant acoustic soundtrack provides a key assist, setting a vibe reminiscent of some Kore-eda’s family dramas.

HCUJ is not as cute and quirky as Marigold Hotel fans might prefer, but it reaffirms the messiness of life nonetheless. While far from indispensible, it is a sensitive look at rural, traditional values-holding Korea. Recommended for Reader’s Digest subscribers with an international interest, Here Comes Uncle Joe airs this Sunday (8/31) as part of the current season of PBS World’s Global Voices.

Elusive Justice: Comrade Duch

Somewhat fittingly, the English translation of Tuol Sleng is “Hill of the Poisonous Trees.”  During the reign of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, or the Khmer Rouge as they were subsequently known, the Tuol Sleng prison was a true charnel house, ostensibly charged with enforcing ideological purity.  Kaing Guek Eav, the man dubbed “Comrade Duch,” oversaw the wholesale torture and mass executions perpetrated there with the ferocity of a zealot.  Years later, Duch became the first Khmer Rouge official to stand trial for crimes against humanity.  Adrain Maben documents the historic trial and the complicated circumstances surrounding it in Comrade Duch: The Bookkeeper of Death (promo here), which airs tomorrow as part of the current season of Global Voices on PBS World.

Duch was a butcher, plain and simple.  However, he represented himself as a much different person in 2007 than he was in the late 1970’s.  A convert to Evangelical Christianity, Duch initially surprised the world by acknowledging personal culpability for the crimes he committed and asking for the forgiveness of victims and their families.  Indeed, it seemed to confuse the issues for the tribunal, which eventually sentenced Duch to what most of the country considered a scandalously lenient sentence.

Trying a nearly seventy year old man for crimes that were committed decades ago but still remain a source of acute and widespread pain throughout the country will always be a tricky proposition.  Problematic as it might have been, Duch’s trial was only possible thanks to the gumshoe work of investigative photojournalist Nic Dunlop (who contributed so many images to HBO2’s Burma Soldier has was officially credited as a co-director).  Haunted by the archival photos of soon to be executed Tuol Sleng prisoners, Dunlop scoured the remote corners of Southeast Asia for the notorious ideologue responsible.

While the trial is presented rather straightforwardly and dispassionately, there are several heavy moments in Bookkeeper.  In one telling scene, Duch earnestly tells his interviewer his only fundamental mistake was serving Communism rather than Christianity.  It is hard to imagine a more Eric Hoffer-esque moment, yet there is no question the world would have been a better place had his allegiances been altered accordingly.  It is also a little unnerving to take into account Duch was the product of his leftist school teacher’s classroom indoctrination.

Arguably, Bookkeeper illustrates the power of the photographic image more forcefully than any recent film expressly documenting the medium.  Profoundly saddening but respectful and informative, it is one of this weekend’s television highlights when it airs tomorrow (5/20) on PBS World.

Global Voices: Teacher

In a career worthy of a great Victorian novel, former heroin addict Nguyen Van Hung found redemption on the streets of Viet Nam’s capitol city, bringing medicine, food, and hope to the HIV-positive street children the government refuses to acknowledge. Once a one-man social services agency, the life and legacy of the man who was known simply as “Thay” (Teacher) is documented in Leslie Wiener-Legrand’s Teacher (trailer here), which airs on PBS stations as part of third season of Global Voices.

As Teacher opens, viewers see Thay Hung rushing from one prospect client to another. He only takes cases of the most extreme need, like HIV-positive children whose parents are dead or in prison. Many times, the parents and children had nearly given up on life until Hung and his assistants (all of whom are HIV-positive themselves) help them retake their health and self-worth. The children he ministers to are truly heartbreaking, but the work Hung and his apprentices perform is genuinely inspiring. We see they get results, tangibly improving the physical and material wellbeing of the children and families in their care.

While the example of Hung and his staff is noble, bordering on saintly, the film should also make viewers angry. Hung’s organization receives no funding from the Vietnamese government, relying almost exclusively on foreign donations. He also investigates suspicions that defective AIDS drugs are being sold to clients in certain neighborhoods. As a result, the Vietnam that emerges in Teacher is a far cry from the image of a relatively benign socialist state many cling to.

Eschewing narration and formal interview sessions, Wiener-Legrand strictly adheres to a fly-on-the-wall approach, capturing the late Hung on his missions of mercy. Indeed, the drama inherent in these situations is so immediately accessible and comprehensible viewers should hardly need any further context or explanation. In fact, it would probably be extraneous background noise.

While Teacher is poignant, even tragic, Wiener-Legrand stresses Hung’s life-affirming legacy, which continues to this day. At just under an hour, Teacher is heartrending and eye-opening look at the harsh realities of life for the estimated 37,000 HIV-positive Vietnamese children, who supposedly do not exist. Strongly recommended, it airs on WLIW World this Sunday (5/9).