Kim's Convenience - General Discussion

[MusubiMyHomie]

All summer long, I'm rewatching and writing reviews of every single episode of Kim's for an episode guide book I'm working on, and I'm finding out that the show's end credits are often full of typos and mistakes, particularly credits for actors whose scenes ended up being deleted and incorrect info about bands. In a later season, which I haven't gotten to rewatching yet (but last year, I captured a screen shot of the blooper because it was such a funny error), Boyz II Men is referred to as a "local Toronto artist."

"Motownphilly" clearly didn't reach the Canadian airwaves in 1991.  Even a Benedictine monk would know that Boyz II Men hails from Philly.

An episode guide requires complete listings of the actors to be typed up, but the actor credits in the season 3 end credits are often incomplete. Not even the IMDb users have been thorough about the cast info on the IMDb Full Cast & Crew pages for Kim's episodes.

Who the hell are these two uncredited Canadian actors commenting on Janet's new Korean name next to Ms. Murray in "New Appa-liance"?

UPDATE: And we have a winner! I did some digging around IMDb's actor credit pages for Second Jen, another Asian Canadian sitcom that aired at the same time as Kim's, and thanks to that show's photo gallery, I found out that the male patron was played by an uncredited Nile Séguin from Second Jen. UPDATE OVER.

Who's the uncredited Canadian beauty who played Lisa, Mr. Kim's online admirer, in "Cutie Pie"?

ANOTHER UPDATE: And we have another winner! I've never watched Workin' Moms, but I tried looking around the IMDb pages for Workin' Moms to locate the name and face of a completely different Kim's guest star who also wasn't credited, and I found out that the above uncredited actress who played Lisa was Lisa Berry. I've only watched Supernatural once or twice, but Berry apparently played Death on that show. UPDATE OVER.

And who played Frank's object of desire at the end of "Cutie Pie"?

I'm not going to turn to the Kim's subreddit for help because I dislike that subreddit.

Edited July 5, 2021 by MusubiMyHomie
because the person who typed out the end credits for Kim's Convenience every week royally sucked, and I'm doing a better fucking job than that person

[LisaM]

I started Season 5 and have been limiting myself to one episode each night because I do not want to run out too quickly.

Just watched the episode where Appa and Umma go to the ritzy neighborhood to play tennis. Loved that plot. I was surprised that Umma could play tennis so well! Not too cracked over Janet inviting over a friend from work - who turned out to be a high school kid. I don't think TPTB really know what to do with Janet. Also not cracked over Shannon and Omar. The character of Shannon has always bothered me;  if there is going to be action at Handy's, I'd prefer that it focus on Kimchee, Stacey and Terrence. I think that the actress is fine; I just can't stomach the character - who continues to remind me of a teenaged girl instead of a manager. 

I could watch endless episodes of Mr. and Mrs. Kim dealing with the various people who come into the store. Less cracked over the Janet and Jung subplots (even though I like parts of the Handy scenes). 

[AllAboutMBTV]

Quote

I could watch endless episodes of Mr. and Mrs. Kim dealing with the various people who come into the store.

Agreed, LisaM, that is what Kim's Convenience should have been -- centered on the Kim family. Nothing against any of the Handy cast, but those scenes generally brought the show to a dead halt.

[Meedis]

I saw previews of the show pop up on my Netflix feed and it looked interesting.   Gave it a try and so far I'm enjoying it.   It's definitely giving me a few laughs.   

[DanaMB]

Finished watching all 5 seasons. I pretty much loved it and plan on a rewatch. I liked that all the characters were flawed but you could still feel the love. 
 

Disappointed it was canceled but with the bts stuff maybe it’s for the best. 

[greekmom]

On 6/9/2021 at 3:30 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Per production, Shannon's spinoff has been in the works for over two years. I don't know about the actual timing of the logistics, but I'm guessing that Nicole's contract for Kim's Convenience was for 5 years and they wanted to have her finish that before moving her onto her spinoff.

Simu and other cast members have said that they like Nicole and support her new show. The fact that the only main character who is white/not Asian got a spinoff is what's problematic, not the actress.

The reason that Shannon was offered a spin off was because the character wasn't in the original play and isn't "owned" by the writer of the Kim's  Convenience and they do not have to pay them. It's the same thing with the Kimchee character who is also getting his own show: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/kims-convenience-andrew-phung-run-the-burbs-1.5986776

While I can understand some of Simu Lui's frustration I really cannot sympathize with him specifically. He is very lucky as Marvel picked him up for Shang-Chi.  He was barely in the last season as he was filming the movie. Also Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is also going to be in one of the new Star Wars series for Disney+.  

Is there racism in film work? Yes there is. But also there is sexism, ageism and a whole lot of isms that is going on not only in film/tv but in the rest of the world.  To me, I would have been more receptive if Andrea or Jean voicing their opinions than the dude who is going into major film work for a powerhouse like Marvel.

[statsgirl]

I don't know much about Andrea Bang other than the spots she did for the last Olympics, she seems like a nice person.

From the posts and tweets, it sounds like both Jean Yoon and Simu Liu worked to keep the show authentic with corrections of mistakes and submitting story suggestions but were ignored. It would have been easy for Liu to say 'see ya' to the show after he was picked as a Marvel superhero but he did long distance taping while he was in Australia and shot a ton of scenes in quick succession when he got back. He wanted the show to have a sixth season and be part of it.

One of the things that disappoints me most is that Yoon and Liu tried hard to keep the show authentic and they were overruled by the producers (e.g. Yoon saying that the odds of a person with Korean heritage getting MS were extremely slight and suggesting that they pick another disease and being shut down). My parents didn't come from Korea but the cultural gap between first and second generation was true for me too and what elevated the show above other comedies. Knowing that Kevin White didn't care about any of that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The Handy stuff and the awful Pastor Nina bits was what I had to sit through to get to what I wached for. 

[SomeTameGazelle]

2 hours ago, greekmom said:

It's the same thing with the Kimchee character who is also getting his own show

Andrew Phung is creating his own show. I don't believe the character of Kimchee is part of it.

[greekmom]

2 minutes ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

Andrew Phung is creating his own show. I don't believe the character of Kimchee is part of it.

Fine. But it's still an opportunity for the actor.  

[statsgirl]

While Nicole Power's new show (also produced  by Kevin White) continues her character of Shannon, Andrew Pfung's show has a completely different character and premise (stay-at-home dad of 2 kids). Both shows were supposed to air alongside Kim's Convenience .

[MusubiMyHomie]

Quote

One of the things that disappoints me most is that Yoon and Liu tried hard to keep the show authentic and they were overruled by the producers (e.g. Yoon saying that the odds of a person with Korean heritage getting MS were extremely slight and suggesting that they pick another disease and being shut down). My parents didn't come from Korea but the cultural gap between first and second generation was true for me too and what elevated the show above other comedies. Knowing that Kevin White didn't care about any of that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The Handy stuff and the awful Pastor Nina bits was what I had to sit through to get to what I wached for.

I agree with everything that's said here except for the Pastor Nina scenes being awful. I just rewatched for the second time "Thy Neighbour's Wifi" for the purposes of my manuscript, and Amanda Brugel is the best thing about a subplot many people over on Reddit and IMDb detested: Janet makes an ass of herself at church while trying to impress a couple of white feminists. I don't hate that feminism subplot as much as those other folks do, but goddamn, those two white feminist characters are so dumb. Anyway, Pastor Nina's first experience of watching a K-drama at the end of that feminism subplot is one of the show's most amusing scenes.

Edited July 6, 2021 by MusubiMyHomie

[statsgirl]

An longish article in Variety with more on Simu Liu speaking out and diversity in casting. "Egg Foo Jung" really seems insulting to me.

Quote

“Kim’s Convenience” star Simu Liu asks himself “every day” whether he should’ve spoken out last month on social media about his experience on the set of the hit CBC series, when he noted in a Facebook post the “overwhelmingly white” producers and lack of Korean voices in the writers’ room after creator Ins Choi departed. But Liu remembers watching what wound up being the anticlimactic series finale at the end of the fifth season, which had just been released on Netflix, and reflecting on the global impact of the show about an Asian Canadian family.

“It made me really sad [for] what could have been, and made me angry, in a lot of ways, that we weren’t able to pull things together to figure out our differences,” he told Variety in mid-June, shortly after being presented with the Canadian Award of Distinction at the 2021 Banff Rockie Awards. His co-star Jean Yoon echoed his initial sentiment on Twitter, decrying allegedly “overtly racist” storylines that the cast pushed back against. And this week’s Entertainment Weekly cover story featuring Liu, now the star of the upcoming Marvel Studios tentpole “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” reveals he protested a line in a script in which he refers to himself as “Egg Foo Jung.”

“In the spirit of speaking out about these issues, I really wanted — more than to cancel anybody or call anybody out — I wanted to make sure that future productions learn from our shortcomings and mistakes,” he continued. “And I outlined a lot of things that we as a cast didn’t do correctly. I think we were subject to a lot of infighting and kind of missed the bigger picture of what was happening, which is that we felt like creative control was being wrestled away from us and that we were becoming less and less relevant than our own show.”

[snip] said Dr. Ana-Christina Ramon, UCLA’s director of research and civic engagement at the social sciences division and co-author of the annual Hollywood Diversity Report. “Quantitatively, you see that the representation is there in terms of having more people of color overall on screen, but when you look at the writers and directors and creators, you still see this severe underrepresentation across all the major racial and ethnic groups.”

That lack of meaningful representation translates to “white people writing about these characters [that are] cast as people of color, but there’s never a match in terms of the writers talking about their personal experience.”

Later in the article he talks about how he was listened to by the director of the Marvel movie and able to contribute to making it more realistic unlike Kevin Feige on Kim's Convenience.

From Simu Liu to Network TV, How Diversity Talk Can Shift From Cancellation to Cooperation

[SomeTameGazelle]

4 hours ago, statsgirl said:

Later in the article he talks about how he was listened to by the director of the Marvel movie and able to contribute to making it more realistic unlike Kevin Feige on Kim's Convenience.

Kevin Feige is the president of Marvel. Kevin White is the co-creator (with Ins Choi) of Kim's Convenience. 

[statsgirl]

Oops. 😲

[LisaM]

Just finished the last episode of Season 5. So bittersweet. I will miss this show and the Kim family. 

[Meedis]

On 7/21/2021 at 8:29 PM, LisaM said:

Just finished the last episode of Season 5. So bittersweet. I will miss this show and the Kim family. 

I just finished it today and yes it's very bittersweet.    It's sad to read about Simu Lu and Jean Yoon's experiences dealing with a writing team that was non-Korean and not taking any of their ideas seriously.    It's disheartening especially with Korean representation being even lower than other minorities.

I did enjoy the family scenes in the convenience store a lot more than Handy's.   It did feel like a completely different show when the scenes switched to Handy's.   

I also enjoyed Mr. Metha's scenes with Appa and would've liked to have seen him make another appearance or two near the end.

[Meedis]

Totally off-topic to the show but it's nice to see Simu Liu winning.

[Red Bridey]

So can some kind person let me know how the last season ended? I have been watching this show on CBC and missed the final couple of episodes; was nearing the end on rerun...and my cable company dropped both Canadian channels. Curse words can be inserted. Please recap please!

[SomeTameGazelle]

Just making sure anyone interested is aware that Simu Liu is hosting Saturday Night Live this week. 

[statsgirl]

Kim's Convenience did well at the Canadian Screen Awards:: Paul Sun-Hyung Lee won for Best Actor, Comedy, Jean Yoon won Best Actress Comedy and Andrew Pfung won  Best Supporting Actor, Comedy.

Paul Sun-Hyung Less talks on radio show q about Kim's Convenience and more than ten years of playing Appa.

 

[statsgirl]

Simu Liu has written a book about his life and immigrant experiences. In this interview on CBC radio with another child of immigrant parents, he gets very candid about his life, including being beaten for not getting high enough marks in school and being 'the good immigrant'.

On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

[oliviabenson]

So mom gets a short haircut one episode next episode back to long hair?

[oliviabenson]

Poor Terrence always got treated poorly!

[oliviabenson]

https://movieweb.com/kims-convenience-season-six-canceled-why/

[oliviabenson]

Who inherited/will run the store at the series finale? 
 

Shannon is truly annoying! Im glad she dumped Jong. 
 

[MusubiMyHomie]

On 6/7/2021 at 12:30 AM, MusubiMyHomie said:

I started writing on the first day of AAPI Heritage Month the manuscript for a Kim's Convenience episode guide I plan to self-publish either later this year or next year.

That book about Kim's I was working on back in 2021 is in limbo. Meanwhile, the L.A. Clippers game announcer has butchered not just Simu Liu's name but Shang-Chi's name as well (it's "shawng-chee," you Clippers dumbfuck), and Kim's has shown up in the oddest non-Netflix places in America: I stumbled into a 24-hour Kim's channel on the Freevee app on Fire TV, and Pluto TV's TV Land Sitcoms channel added Kim's to its lineup.

I have not watched Andrew Phung's Run the Burbs yet. I'm a bit more excited about that show than I was about Kim's. The fact that the Run the Burbs writing staff is not 100% white folks (Kim's's primary failing was, outside of Ins Choi, a lack of Korean writers, and it really showed in the writing) and the fact that the Asian lead actors (Phung and Rakhee Morzaria) are part of the writing staff have a lot to do with that.

Edited November 2, 2022 by MusubiMyHomie
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