Free Chol Soo Lee

Originally Premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in the U. S. Documentary Competition Selection.

"Free Chol Soo Lee" is about the story of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean American who was falsely convicted of a 1973 murder in San Francisco. Prior to watching this I knew very little about the real life incident and I was going to see this at the Sundance Film Festival but I ended up getting too busy with my schedule so I ended up skipping it. Now it's available on MUBI, I gave it a shot. Although it wasn't one of my favorite documentary's that showed this year's Sundance, it still was a good film. Directors Julie Ha and Eugene Yi clearly is very passionate about the film's contexts and they have created a good documentary regarding with it's tough subject. Since Chol Soo Lee passed away in 2014, the documentary features many uses of old footage, recordings that were voiced over from an actor, re-enactments, and lots of textures and editing to add to the film which ended up working very well. Many of the films information was handled honestly and it didn't feel rushed or cheesy.

The presentation throughout the film is really good and the sound mixing was also great. The ranges of emotions throughout helps to build anger, emotions and frustrations regarding the issues of the courts system, asian discrimination and the problems in the United States with Asian Americans. A lot of the conversations from the figures helped to add a lot of interesting contexts with the case. Although there was certain interviews that felt it didn't need to be in the film and certain moments where the pacing did slow down the film, it was still an overall good film.

It's not an amazing unique documentary but there's a lot of importance around discrimination against Asian Americans that I still think is important.

Rating: B+