Now Streaming: IN THE LAND OF THE BLIND, Desperately Searching for Identity
Yong A. Yoon directs the indie drama, starring Tom Yi.
![Now Streaming: IN THE LAND OF THE BLIND, Desperately Searching for Identity](https://screenanarchy.com/assets_c/2025/01/sa_LOTBkeyart_430-thumb-430xauto-96824.jpg)
Filmed in 1997, this quietly assured film was completed only last year. Yet its search for identity is timeless.
In the Land of the Blind
The film is now streaming on Asian American Movies.
Taesu (Tom Yi) and Christina (Yuko Ohara) are happily married as they await the birth of their first child. After the child is born, however, cracks in their marriage start to appear.
First manifested when a longtime male friend stays overnight, Taesu is openly unhappy, especially when he sees (and hears) Christina and the Caucasian guest happily talking. Are they flirting? Are they resurrecting an old love? Are they really "just friends"? Soon, Taesu confronts Christina with the primary reason for his unhappiness: why is the newborn infant blonde, since they are both Korean-Americans with black hair?
Taesu's accusation, and Christina's firm denial of infidelity, leads to a rupture in their relationship. In turn, that sends Taesu down a rabbit hole. Grasping at straws, he latches onto an old envelope he found among his late mother's belongings, sent from a name and an address he does not recognize.
The mystery begins to unravel as Taesu comes into contact with Ashley (Amelia Barrett), a single woman living at the address. Acting obtuse, as though she doesn't want to reveal what she knows, she teases Taesu. Is she being playful? Is she just lonely?
In 1997, while a graduate student in UCLA's film school, Yong A. Yoon wrote the original story and got funded by an independent businessman. The screenplay, credited to Vivian Nana Umino, Yong A. Yoon, Tom Yi, Amelia Barrett, and C.J. Bau, lays out the narrative in a series of small moments, gaining gentle momentum that leads to a surprising conclusion that nonetheless makes perfect sense.
As the film plays, it feels non-dramatic and almost too ordinary. Individual scenes, however, play with pinpoint dramatic intensity, such as a single-shot conversation between Taesu and Christina in their kitchen that quickly escalates into a heated discussion. And the cumulative effect of the film is strong, especially when the overriding theme of a desperate search for identity becomes more and more apparent.
As noted, the film's production began in 1997. Different from recent films set in that time period, however, which tend to exaggerate comically fashion styles and other period details into being much more important or essential than they were, In the Land of the Blind is completely absorbing.
In fact, until quite late in the movie, when someone pulls into a gas station and is offered full service -- complete with pumping the gas, washing the windshield, and offering to check the oil -- I'd forgotten completely that the film is set in 1997. The drama is still relevant today, and that makes In the Land of the Blind feel quite timely.
Now Streaming covers international and indie genre films and TV shows that are available on legal streaming services.
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