Free Chol Soo Lee

Released Aug 12, 2022

1 hr. 23 min.

Documentary

History

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42 Reviews

Tomatometer

88%

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Audience Score

In 1970s San Francisco, 20-year-old Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee is racially profiled and convicted of a Chinatown gang murder. After spending years fighting to survive, investigative journalist K.W. Lee takes a special interest in his case, igniting an unprecedented social justice movement.

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Critics Consensus

Free Chol Soo Lee powerfully relates a story of injustice while issuing a searing indictment of the systemic racism that enabled it.

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Sean

Very powerful and important story

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

08/28/22

Full Review

Johnny

Fascinating account of our messed up justice system taking 10 years of an innocent man's life. Asian Americans have been discriminated against in so many ways, including within the justice system.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

09/19/22

Full Review

Smoking K

Saw this last night with the kid units. We all cried. The documentary delivers on so many arcs. It's great documentary film making. There isn't a lot of footage or recordings of Chol Soo Lee. How to make a film with so little material? Voice overs, a few re-enactments, and lots of texture including great sound work. It works as a personal story about Chol Soo Lee. A man born with a mountain of bad luck under tragic circumstances. A flawed man by design who was racially profiled and wronged by America's courts and the police. Again and again. The white people involved in wrongly accusing Lee and jailing him can't tell the difference between a Korean or a Chinese man. The Asian Americans in the documentary notice details about him like his smile and refer to his "beautiful face." Lee wasn't just a Korean man to them. He was born during the Korean War to a single mother into an impoverished family. He didn't want to come to America with his mother at the age of 12. This documentary upends the tired immigrant stories of longing and yearning for a beautiful America that gives a warm embrace to immigrants. It gives voice and faces to all those who helped him. There's a great sense of Asian American movement building and history. We all felt slighted by the white savior movie "True Believer". I've read about Lee since I was a child. I've been curious about him for decades. This movie makes him whole. This movie makes all the people who endeavored to help him whole.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

09/02/22

Full Review

Audience Member

The greatest 01 hour: and 23 minutes ever of real footage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

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Julie Ha

Director

Eugene Yi

Director

Sebastian Yoon

Narrator

K.W. Lee

Self

Julie Ha

Producer

Sona Jo

Producer

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Free Chol Soo Lee: Trailer 1

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Robert Abele

Los Angeles Times

In its clear-eyed empathy for the totality of life, “Free Chol Soo Lee” is only deepened by not ignoring what happens when the spotlight fades on a righted wrong...

Aug 25, 2022

Full Review

K. Austin Collins

Rolling Stone

There’s an entire history of political representation to confront here, in other words, and even when Free Chol Soo Lee doesn’t seem to be taking this problem on in a direct way, the movie’s self-aware deviations from the norm are pronounced.

Aug 22, 2022

Full Review

Wendy Ide

Observer (UK)

[An] impressive and wrenchingly sad documentary...

Rated: 4/5

Aug 21, 2022

Full Review

R. Colin Tait

The Playlist

What “Free Chol Soo Lee” lacks in terms of earlier material, it more than compensates for in revealing this underseen historical movement.

Rated: B+

Dec 17, 2022

Full Review

Diego Batlle

Otroscines.com

Beyond the conscientious and dogmatic spirit, Free Chol Soo Lee is a sociopolitical documentary that digs into yesterday to find the footprints that still have an effect today. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 4/5

Oct 4, 2022

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Glenn Dunks

The Film Experience

[Ha and Yi] instead tell their story with sober details, having amassed fascinating archival footage of the man, his family and the media storm that surrounded him.

Sep 27, 2022

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Synopsis

In 1970s San Francisco, 20-year-old Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee is racially profiled and convicted of a Chinatown gang murder. After spending years fighting to survive, investigative journalist K.W. Lee takes a special interest in his case, igniting an unprecedented social justice movement.

Director: Julie Ha, Eugene Yi
Executive Producer: Kathryn Everett, Sally Jo Fifer, Stephen Gong, Andy Hsieh, Bryn Mooser, Lois Vossen
Distributor: MUBI
Production Co: XTR
Genre: Documentary, History
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 12, 2022, Limited
Box Office (Gross USA): $50.1K

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