Free Chol Soo Lee

Name: Free Chol Soo Lee
Genre: Documentary
Released: August 12, 2022
Duration: 83 min
Rating: 73
Cast: Chol Soo Lee, Jeff Adachi, K.W. Lee, Ranko Yamada

2022

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Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

MUBI | Release Date: August 12, 2022 | PG-13

Starring: Chol Soo Lee, Jeff Adachi, K.W. Lee, Ranko Yamada

Summary: 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: Eugene Yi and Julie Ha

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 83 min

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Critic Reviews

Robert Abele

Aug 25, 2022

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, and what’s left are demons, trauma, guilt and that thing both sought after and scary: being free. Read full review

The Playlist R. Colin Tait

Jul 27, 2022

Directors Ha and Yi’s unflinching portrait of Lee is also admirable, as the movie shows the overall effects of a system indifferent to people who fall through its cracks. By staying with Lee and his story, from his early years in Korea, to his later years in America as an injured ex-convict, the documentary shows how the damage to Lee occurred, both as a death row inmate and a reluctant figurehead for the movement that coalesced around him. Read full review

The Observer (UK) Wendy Ide

Aug 22, 2022

[An] impressive and wrenchingly sad documentary. Read full review

The Film Stage John Fink

Jul 27, 2022

Directors Ha and Yi craft a compelling and moving tribute to a man who was by no means a perfect person but nevertheless had a remarkable impact on breaking barriers. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Odie Henderson

Aug 12, 2022

Chol Soo Lee’s complicated story deserves to be told; this film does a good job telling it. Read full review

K. Austin Collins

Aug 22, 2022

Free Chol Soo Lee is not a true crime documentary. If anything, it goes out of its way to avoid becoming one. Read full review

Ben Kenigsberg

Aug 12, 2022

Free Chol Soo Lee is somewhat dry and, as criminal-justice documentaries go, sadly familiar when it strays from Lee’s unique and grim perspective, which includes details of his struggles with prison life and depression. Read full review

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User Reviews

alanpotter17

Dec 20, 2022

Narra o caso real de um imigrante Koreano preso injustamente, apoiando-se na pauta identitária para fortalecer o argumento, isto é, o documentário abre mais espaços às reinvindicações populares que pressionaram a justiça do que ao próprio sistema em si. A meu ver, ficou desbalanceado.
ONarra o caso real de um imigrante Koreano preso injustamente, apoiando-se na pauta identitária para fortalecer o argumento, isto é, o documentário abre mais espaços às reinvindicações populares que pressionaram a justiça do que ao próprio sistema em si. A meu ver, ficou desbalanceado.
O terço final, tratando de problemas traumáticos de Chol Soo Lee parece até deslocado de tudo que vinha sendo abordado. A edição estava boa, mas ficou um tanto esquisito ao final, não consegui ter a ligação necessária com o rapaz, parecia que o documentário estava forçando lágrimas do telespectador. Filme mediano apenas.… Expand

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