Smoking Tigers
Smoking Tigers
6.2100%
Follows Hayoung, a lonely 16-year-old Korean American girl who tries to hide her problematic family and lower-income background from her new wealthy friends, only to discover the struggles of adulthood that will forever shape her life.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 2, 2025
Excellent Korean-American coming of age drama anchored by an impressive lead performance from Ji-Young Yoo. Set in early 2000’s Southern California, Hayoung is an adolescent experiencing monumental changes. Her parents are newly separated, and both financially struggling. Living with her mother, they’ve downsized into a smaller house to a different part of town. But her mother insists on enrolling her in a prestigious academy to ensure she has the right doors opened for a good education. It’s here she meets Rose who introduces her to more experiences—boys, parties, drinking, cheating on exams, tattoos, etc. Hayoung navigates all this while trying to hide the fact that her family isn’t nearly as well off as the other students families.
We all have a tendency to hide our shame. Hayoung’s mom tries to hide that she’s taken a second job at a restaurant. Hayoung hides where her actual residence is, telling people she lives at the large gated house at the end of the street. But sometimes we’re forced to wear that shame, like matching tattoos of a boyfriend who’s left you for someone else—or a name tag from the restaurant you work. We can’t usually hide these things, at least not for very long. There’s a recurring use of mirrors throughout the film, that suggest the need to see our true reflections and stop with all of the hiding.