Blue Bayou’s drama centres around the potential deportation of a Korean-American man who learns he has no legal status in the US due to being an unregistered adoptee. 

Now it is important to note that Blue Bayou has received heavy criticism from sections of the media and the Korean adoptee community for appropriating stories without consent. Director Justin Chon based much of his lead character Antonio Le Blanc, who he also plays, on real life Korean American deportee Adam Crasper. Crasper is unhappy that his story was included without his permission and feels the film does no favours to this ongoing issue that is destroying families across America. 

With this in mind, it does alter your perception of Justin Chon’s film. Blue Bayou is not a film without merit. It has a consistently pleasing visual presence with its natural 16mm cinematography, and the conflict of the core family is genuinely affecting with strong performances throughout. 

There is no denying that there are many human rights stories around the world that need to be told and the deportation of Korean American adoptees is not one that is overly familiar to wider audiences. In a broader sense, there has been a recent rise in Asian American films, made by Asian Americans and their voices undoubtedly need to be heard. 

Where Blue Bayou is troubling is the over-wrought and emotionally exploitative nature it handles such issues. When you add the fact the filmmakers did not have the consent, and have therefore upset the communities they were trying to depict, the film instead carries a lack of dignity to those adoptees who suffered and lost so much.