Director's Statement
An interest in the Korean diaspora, particularly in its intersection with trauma spawned from wars, led me two summers ago to Ho Chi Minh City, where as many as 100,000 South Koreans have settled just over the last several years. One of this community’s predecessors, though, and his enterprise swiftly caught my eye. Ong Kim’s is a factory in an industrial park in the Tan Binh district of Ho Chi Minh City that has been producing fermented Korean foods—specifically tofu and kimchi—for decades, effectively putting the cuisine of the map of Vietnamese palettes. HO CHI MINH KIMCHI captures the madness of this production: replete with airborne cabbages, highly routinized manual labor, gorey and gooey chili paste.
Precedes TAIPEI STORY
Director
Joseph Pomp
Country USA, Vietnam
Year 2016
Runtime 6 min
An interest in the Korean diaspora, particularly in its intersection with trauma spawned from wars, led me two summers ago to Ho Chi Minh City, where as many as 100,000 South Koreans have settled just over the last several years. One of this community’s predecessors, though, and his enterprise swiftly caught my eye. Ong Kim’s is a factory in an industrial park in the Tan Binh district of Ho Chi Minh City that has been producing fermented Korean foods—specifically tofu and kimchi—for decades, effectively putting the cuisine of the map of Vietnamese palettes. HO CHI MINH KIMCHI captures the madness of this production: replete with airborne cabbages, highly routinized manual labor, gorey and gooey chili paste.
Precedes TAIPEI STORY
Director
Joseph Pomp
Country USA, Vietnam
Year 2016
Runtime 6 min
