"Banned in Vietnam" and other interesting facts behind HBO's 'The Sympathizer'

Since airing in April, HBO’s ‘The Sympathizer’ has gathered widespread attention due to its topic focus and its stellar cast. Here are some interesting facts about the show behind the scenes.

All images in this gallery are from HBO unless otherwise stated.

HBO's 'The Sympathizer' is based on a Pulitzer-winning book of the same name written by Vietnamese-American author Viet Thanh Nguyen, reports the Los Angeles Times. The book itself has won multiple awards, with nine to its count, while also being featured in numerous listicles.

While Variety reports the book itself has not been technically banned in Vietnam and merely not allowed to be published, HBO’s ‘The Sympathizer’ has been banned in the country due to it having “details that distort Vietnamese history to sabotage (the Vietnamese) Party and State”, reports state-run newspaper Tuổi trẻ Thủ đô.

The HBO show itself has drawn mixed feelings too from the Vietnamese-American community. According to The Los Angeles Times, younger Vietnamese-Americans praise the show for touching on Asian culture but older Vietnamese-Americans do not like how the show appears to glorify communism.

The lead for HBO's 'The Sympathizer', Hoa Xuande, is an Australian citizen of Vietnamese descent. This is his first leading role in a major miniseries.

Another interesting fact is that HBO's 'The Sympathizer' is led by award-winning South Korean director Park Chan-wook. According to The Korea Herald, the director's previous work, 'Oldboy', shared similar themes of revenge to the topic focus on 'The Sympathizer'.

Screenrant reports that 'The Sympathizer' features several Vietnamese cast members who are famous in their own right, such as the Vietnamese director Phan Gia Nhat Linh, also known as Phanxine.

Image: HBO

Variety notes that Phanxine had quite the internal conflict regarding his participation in 'The Sympathizer', as the politically sensitive topics covered in the show could result in backlash for the actor-director, who is based in Vietnam. He only took up the role after deciding that it was safe for him to do so.

Because 'The Sympathizer' was a politically sensitive production, BBC News reports that the show did not get permission to be filmed in Vietnam, despite its Vietnamese setting and topic focus. Hence, HBO had to film in Thailand and Los Angeles instead.

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