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About This Film
On Lunar New Year’s Day, first-generation Korean immigrant Chun Bae Choi waits in Los Angeles for his newlywed daughter and son-in-law to arrive from San Francisco. What he imagines as a perfect Seollal family gathering becomes increasingly strained by generational expectations, assimilation, aging, unemployment, and his hostility toward the man his daughter married. The holiday gives the film a concentrated family arena: everyone is expected to gather, respect elders, and reaffirm continuity, yet Chun Bae’s desire to control the reunion threatens the very family cohesion he wants to celebrate. The Korean-American setting makes Seollal a bridge between national tradition and immigrant identity rather than simply a domestic holiday.
Vibe
Seollal / Lunar New Year —
Watch For
- Watch how Seollal expectations amplify Chun Bae’s anxiety over family status and generational continuity.
- Notice the Los Angeles Koreatown setting as a diasporic extension of Korean holiday culture.
- Track tensions between first-generation parental authority and younger family members’ American lives.
- Pay attention to the grandmother’s presence and memory loss; generational continuity is literal as well as symbolic.
Production Notes
The Korean Film Council database confirms LArirang as a released 2025 South Korean feature running 109 minutes. Its official synopsis begins, “It’s Lunar New Year’s day,” and describes Chun Bae eagerly awaiting his daughter and son-in-law in Los Angeles. KOFIC lists the film as family/comedy/drama and records its October 29, 2025 Korean release. This is strong primary-style provenance for both release status and holiday centrality, especially important because the film was recent at the time of research.
Trivia
- KOFIC lists the film as released, not forthcoming.
- The official synopsis begins on Lunar New Year’s Day.
- The runtime is 109 minutes.
- The story centers on a first-generation Korean immigrant family in Los Angeles Koreatown.
- The film received a Korean theatrical release on October 29, 2025.
Legacy
LArirang expands Holiday Movie Night’s Lunar New Year representation into Korean diaspora cinema rather than treating the observance as only Chinese or Vietnamese. Its long-term critical legacy is still developing, but its cultural fit is unusually strong: Seollal becomes a test of how immigrant families negotiate tradition across generations and geography. The film also demonstrates why release-status verification matters for current collections; by 2026 it is a fully released work with documented admissions, not an announced title requiring a hold.