FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM FEBRUARY 18, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 43
Flushing natives celebrate release of new fi lm on streaming platforms
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com
@jenna_bagcal
Two Flushing natives are celebrating
the release of their fi rst
feature fi lm “Happy Cleaners,”
which made its Lunar New Year
debut on digital streaming platforms
earlier this month.
Aft er making a 2019 fi lm festival
debut and receiving accolades
at the Los Angeles Asian
Pacifi c Film Festival and the
Center for Asian American
Media’s CAAMFest, Julian Kim
and Peter S. Lee were excited that
their fi lm is fi nally available to
the general public.
As of Feb. 12, the fi lm is available
on Amazon, iTunes Apple
TV and Google Play. On Feb. 26,
one of the fi lm’s executive producers
KoreanAmericanStory.
org will present a livestreamed
event with the directors, producers
and main cast members.
More information on that event
will be available on www.facebook.
com/HappyCleanersFilm/.
Th e fi lm tells the story of the
Korean American Choi family
and delves into the themes
of immigrant survival and the
value of family. Mr. and Mrs.
Choi’s Flushing dry cleaning
business Happy Cleaners is in
danger of closing when a new
landlord takes over. On top of
their challenges, their children
Hyunny and Kevin struggle with
the pressure of meeting their
parents’ high hopes while trying
to forge their own life paths.
As indie fi lmmakers, the duo
encountered funding challenges
to get their movie off the
ground but found the support of
KoreanAmericanStory.org in the
process. Th e nonprofi t stepped in
as one of the fi lm’s executive producers
with the mission to “capture,
preserve and share stories of
the Korean-American experience.”
Prior to creating “Happy
Cleaners,” the pair had created a
handful of short fi lms as part of
their Flushing Web Series, which
told stories of the neighborhood
where they grew up. While they
were pitching the series, they
met people from the nonprofi t
who expressed interest in helping
them to create a feature fi lm.
“Th ey were totally on board.
Th ey helped us fundraise to help us
get through production,” Lee said.
Th e pair said that a typical
fi lm’s life cycle ranges from
about six months to a year, but
the onset COVID also brought
about a new set of challenges
with getting the movie out.
“I think a lot of fi lms that were
sort of coming out in 2019, they
all had the same roadblocks that
we did,” Lee said. “So it was a
little late in the release but I
think we’re thankful that it’s still
coming out. Very oft en, a lot of
independent fi lms can just have
nowhere else to go aft er festivals,
so we’re thankful for the opportunity
to be able to share it.”
Flushing stories
Both Kim and Lee grew up in
Flushing, which became a central
part of “Happy Cleaners.”
But the neighborhood’s importance
was not always evident to
the fi lmmakers.
“Flushing as a neighborhood
didn’t mean much, to be honest,”
Kim said. “When we fi rst started
off making the Flushing Web
Series, we didn’t think much
about it. We just thought, hey,
with the neighborhood, with the
setting, let’s see if we can fi nd
stories here.”
Kim said that they were “surprised”
at the Flushing stories
they were able to fi nd and cultivate
during the fi lmmaking
process. Th e diverse and “colorful”
neighborhood eventually
became a character itself in
“Happy Cleaners.”
“We grew up in Flushing but
we never give attention to it, so
that’s kind of why we started this.
By doing that, we were quite surprised
at the stories we were taking
in, the kind of stories that Flushing
created and how it shaped us to
be a New Yorker, a Queens native
and a Flushing-born Korean
American,” Kim said.
Like many who grew up in
Flushing, Lee said that they
experienced a love/hate relationship
with it but recognized that
their upbringing shaped their
unique experience.
“Th at experience shaped how
we view and interact with the
world, so you have to give credit
to that,” Lee said. “Also, there
was certainly a lot of beauty to
it. Flushing is unique in the way
that there’s nowhere else like it.
I think that this was a place
with a wealth of stories. Th ese
experiences are not just uniquely
Julian’s and mine but it’s sort
of the collective experience that
many of us who grew up in that
neighborhood have experienced.
So all of that is what Flushing
means to the fi lm and to us.”
A cathartic process
While creating “Happy
Cleaners” Lee and Kim
described the process as a “therapeutic
and cathartic” experience.
Th ey struggled with their
identities growing up as Korean
Americans and eventually started
talking with and documenting
the stories of the friends they
grew up with and other people
from the neighborhood.
“Th ey had similar struggles,”
Kim said. “I think during that
process, we kinda connected and
we just saw how important it was
to truly dive into this story and
tell it as authentically as possible.”
Th rough the conversations they
had, the pair learned a lot about
themselves while also gaining
more insight into the diff erences
they had with their parents.
“Generational diff erences, cultural
diff erences and also just
the language barriers,” Kim said.
Also coming to understand
more as fi rst-generation immigrants
who come to this foreign
country and try to make ends
meet for their kids. I think writing
and working on all that and
making the fi lm really widened
our appreciation for that. Th at
was like a healing process that we
really cherished.”
Although “Happy Cleaners”
tells the story of a Korean
American family, Kim and Lee
said that the movie’s themes are
universal to the human experience.
But they aimed to tell the
story in a way that they had rarely
seen in other fi lms.
“I think what makes it unique
is the fact that it’s a tale that happened
in Flushing to a working
class, immigrant family and
we didn’t hold back,” Lee said.
“We were very personal and very
unapologetic about what we
were writing. Because it was so
personal, it became very universal
and it just made it so relatable
to people. We haven’t seen
it packaged this way because
a thing about these themes is
nobody owns them; they’re very
universal. But I think it’s about
how it’s been presented. Part of
the motivation behind wanting
to create stories like this is
because there’s not enough of
our Asian Americans stories
out there and we just wanted to
unapologetically exist.”
buzz
Courtesy of KoreanAmericanStory.org
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