How does The Sympathizer TV adaptation compare to the Pulitzer-winning novel?

Viet Thanh Nguyen wrote his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer as a response to movies about the Vietnam War like Apocalypse Now, which sidelined Vietnamese voices.

His story follows a half French, half Vietnamese spy,known only to the audience as "the Captain," living in Los Angeles in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. He is a sympathizer with the Communist Party who's been instructed by his handler to keep tabs on a general in California.

It's now a series on HBO, created by Oldboy director Park Chan-wook and The Red Violin writer Don McKellar. Inverse entertainment editor Hoai-Tran Bui joins guest host Ali Hassan to talk about how the dark comedy thriller translates from the page to the small screen.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube:

Ali: You have read this book. When you heard The Sympathizer was turning into a TV series with Park Chan-wook involved, what were your expectations of it?

Hoai-Tran: I love this book. I think it's a masterpiece, and destined to be a modern classic. I felt like Park Chan-wook was a perfect fit to adapt this book because not only does his particular acerbic, sort of dark, wild, swinging-tonal style particularly suit this kind of strange, surreal story, [but also] Viet Thanh Nguyen has also spoken about how Park Chan-wook was a big inspiration for him in writing The Sympathizer. I'm sure after seeing Episode 2, you can draw the comparisons … But outside of that, it's kind of in the DNA of The Sympathizer — the very sharp, very pitch-black tone that I think Park Chan-wook has translated really well in the miniseries.

Ali: How would you describe the tone of the book?

Hoai-Tran: Razor sharp, very acidic. It's narrated by an unreliable narrator. We never learn his name; he only goes by "the Captain." The framing device of this story is: he's in a re-education camp back in Vietnam after having returned, and he's telling his story to try to convince his guards that he is, in fact, a loyal communist. But he doesn't quite remember it all, and he kind of adds a lot of flourishes. And through that framing device, we are really never sure what exactly is true or false. So it's definitely a very kind of surreal, modern novel, I would say. 

Ali: I haven't read the book yet — I'm going to put a "yet" in there; I'm very intrigued to do so. Would you say that the series captures the tone of the book well?

Hoai-Tran: I would say so, yes. I think that Park Chan-wook has such a specific visual style and directorial flair that he brings to life some of those surreal touches of the book in ways that I think really suit the visual medium. He really plays with style and directorial choices that kind of put you off-kilter, that kind of make you feel like you're not really sure what this reality is. And it plays a lot with the dissonance, too, of violence and joy and love, and that kind of thing. And I think that's a good way of honing into what the novel did really well.

Ali: I should mention too, Hoai-Tran, Park Chan-wook is showrunning but he's doing more. He's directing the first three episodes, writing on every episode, so his fingerprints are all over the show. You interviewed Park Chan-wook and talked to him about why he wanted to make The Sympathizer. What did he say?

Hoai-Tran: Yes. This interview is not yet published, but I spoke with him briefly before the premiere of the show, and I asked him specifically why he, as a Korean director, thought that he would be the right choice to direct this singularly Vietnamese story. And what he told me was really interesting. He said that he found himself drawn to this story because he always found the cultural and historical similarities between Koreans and Vietnamese to be very similar and very interesting. Like, historically, we've had wars that have divided the country, that have had American participation and interference in some way, and that has always been a part of our recent historical memory.

Culturally, it's also somewhat similar. Korea is part of the East Asian contingent and Vietnam is very much part of the Southeast Asian contingent. For a long time, they were industrializing rapidly. Korea only recently became much more prolific because of the influx of the Korean media industry. But, for a long time, there were kind of very similar paths, historically and culturally … So I found that to be quite fascinating.

WATCH | Official trailer for The Sympathizer:

Ali: We anxiously await the prevalence of V-pop, Hoai-Tran, you know? Vietnam will rise again and compete against Korea. I wanted to mention this: Robert Downey Jr. plays multiple characters throughout the series. I would have liked to have known that out of the gate, to be honest — there were a few confusing minutes for me there. He's a CIA officer in the first episode. We later see him as a grad school prof, and then, as I understand it, a politician, and also a Hollywood director. What do you think of that decision to cast Robert Downey Jr. in multiple roles?

Hoai-Tran: I know that this decision is actually quite controversial amongst a lot of Asian American critics who have come to The Sympathizer with a bit more of a lukewarm approach than I have. I think that Robert Downey Jr. obviously had a huge part in making this show more prolific. Park Chan-wook is obviously very well loved within the film community, but Robert Downey Jr. definitely had a big hand in making this show as big as it is. He and Team Downey also produced The Sympathizer, so they definitely gave it a boost and probably helped give it that HBO Sunday time slot.

I know that the actual performances that Robert Downey Jr. gives have been a little bit grating amongst a lot of Asian American critics as well, because they find it to be a little too showy, a little too distracting from the central Vietnamese story, but I don't totally agree with that. I think that it actually is the best visualization that we can see of that unreliable narrator that we have in the book. I think it also really comes to a satisfying conclusion later on in the season … A major reason why Robert Downey Jr. is playing all these patriarchal, white male figures in the Captain's life is because he represents, in some way, the imperialist figure that is always sort of oppressing and pressuring and kind of tearing our narrator into different directions, in many ways. I think Robert Downey Jr.'s casting as all these characters kind of taps into this anti-imperialist undertone that I feel like is even more present in the show than in the book.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Hoai-Tran Bui produced by Jean Kim.