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Free Chol Soo Lee
Directed by
Eugene Yi
and
Julie Ha
PG-13
2022
83m
Documentary
,
Crime
7.1
100%
88%
Add to Watchlist
In 1970s San Francisco, Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee is wrongly convicted of a Chinatown gang murder. After spending years fighting to survive, journalist K.W. Lee takes an interest in his case, igniting an unprecedented social movement.
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Where to Watch Free Chol Soo Lee
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Rent $3.99
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Cast of Free Chol Soo Lee
Chol Soo Lee
Self (archive footage)
Sebastian Yoon
Narrator (voice)
Ranko Yamada
Self - Friend; Defense Committee
K.W. Lee
Self - Investigative Reporter
Jeff Adachi
Self - Activist
David Kakishiba
Self - Activist
Jay Kun Yoo
Self - Chair, Defense Committee
Grace Kim
Self - Vice-chair, Defense Committee
Warren Furutani
Self - L.A. Defense Committee
Leonard Weinglass
Self - Defense Attorney (archive footage)
Josiah “Tink” Thompson
Self - Private Investigator
Gail Whang
Self - Bay Area Defense Committee
Jai Lee Wong
Self - L.A. Defense Committee
Mike Suzuki
Self - Bay Area Defense Committee
Me Yea Lee
Self - Mother of Chol Soo Lee (archive footage)
Leonard Tauman
Self - Defense Attorney (archive footage)
Tony Serra
Self - Defense Attorney
Stuart Hanlon
Self - Defense Attorney (archive footage)
Frank Falzon
Self - San Francisco Police Dept. (archive footage)
Sandra Gin
Self - Reporter (archive footage)
Sung Soo Yoo
Self - Defense Committee
Richard Kim
Self - Professor, UC Davis
Free Chol Soo Lee Ratings & Reviews
Nerdophiles
Therese Lacson
Free Chol Soo Lee tackles many subjects, the justice system, the Asian American community, the burden of representation, but the way that it puts Chol Soos story and his tragedies front and center is exceedingly effective.
Los Angeles Times
Robert Abele
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...
NYC Movie Guru
Avi Offer
A gripping, enraging and moving documentary.
Spectrum Culture
Jake Cole
Though operating well within the lines of contemporary true-crime, this focused documentary maintains a sense of disgust that many of its peers only tap intermittently.
IndieWire
Kate Erbland
With so much to cover, Free Chol Soo Lee often feels like the tip of a much larger iceberg. Ha and Yi instead opt to focus their feature on its more uplifting elements, which makes for an understandable, if somewhat limiting choice for the feature.
Chicago Reader
Kathleen Sachs
The documentary details the plight of the Korean immigrant who, in 1973, was wrongfully convicted of murder in part because white tourists were unable to distinguish one Asian person's features from another...
Willamette Week
Chance Solem-Pfeifer
Channeling the spirit of Sacramento Bee reporter K.W. Lee, who first led the charge for Chol Soo's exoneration, Ha and Yi embrace detailed reportage, demonstrating the racially biased bunglings of police and judicial procedure.
TheWrap
Lena Wilson
This is a worthwhile introduction to Soo Lee; even more importantly, it's an urgent cautionary tale.
Variety
Dennis Harvey
Julie Ha and Eugene Yi's involving documentary covers a U.S. wrongful conviction case that ultimately helped improve cultural and judicial sensitivities.
RogerEbert.com
Odie Henderson
Chol Soo Lee's complicated story deserves to be told; this film does a good job telling it.
Chicago Reader
Josh Flanders
Directors Julie Ha and Eugene Yi craft a powerful indictment of systemic racism and the criminal justice system, while providing Lee a chance to have agency and tell his story through his own words.
Next Best Picture
Eve O'Dea
The film sympathetically, but honestly, portrays Lee as a man encircled by his destiny practically determined by his social setting.
New York Times
Ben Kenigsberg
As much as it celebrates the exoneration of its subject, a Korean immigrant in California named Chol Soo Lee, this documentary... is concerned with how the consequences of the failure of justice rippled through the rest of his life.
Austin Chronicle
Richard Whittaker
It deliberately and pointedly asks far more questions than it can ever answer: questions it quietly implores the audience to take home; to debate; to take to the ballot box and the courtroom...
RogerEbert.com
Nick Allen
Free Chol Soo Lee is what documentary filmmaking should strive for as a medium built of humanity and empathy.
East Bay Express
Kelly Vance
As we examine the details of Lee's case, its combination of poverty, social inequality, official indifference, casual racism and plain-old bad luck creates a whirlpool of misfortune that draws us in irresistibly.
The Weekend Warrior (Substack)
Edward Douglas
Filmmakers Ha and Yi have a lot of archival footage to work with, which they assemble quite masterfully to tell Lee's story.
Rolling Stone
K. Austin Collins
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.
The Hollywood Reporter
Lovia Gyarkye
A loving depiction of a lonely and often misunderstood man.
Film Threat
Ray Lobo
Free Chol Soo Lee reminds us that when we sit on the sideline and do not actively fight against discrimination and the stereotyping of Asians, real people, such as Chol Soo Lee, suffer.
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