Connectivity: Riceboy Sleeps

Riceboy Sleeps (2022) is a tender and deeply personal work written, produced, edited, and directed by Anthony Shim.

The film traces the bond between a Korean single mother and her son as they build a life in the suburbs of Canada in the 1990s.

Drawing in part on Shim’s own childhood, the film follows So-young (Choi Seung-yoon) and the young Dong-hyun (Dohyun Noel Hwang, Ethan Hwang), whose hopes for a better future are tempered by the racial and cultural challenges that confront them.

As Dong-hyun grows into adolescence, he becomes increasingly curious about his Korean heritage and in particular, about his deceased father.

So-young is focused on building her new life, which now includes a relationship with a kind Korean-Canadian man (Anthony Shim) who is eager to take on the role of Dong-hyun’s surrogate father.

Sudden devastating news prompts mother and son to return to South Korea for the first time since their initial departure, in hopes of reconnecting to their roots and reconciling their tragic past.

Anchored by delicate performances and graceful long takes, Riceboy Sleeps is a moving portrait of diasporic working-class identity and the connections between parents and children.

Filmmaker Anthony Shim will join moderator Miguel Penabella (Carsey-Wolf Center, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of Riceboy Sleeps.

This event is presented in conjunction with the UCSB Reads program.

The program’s 2026 selection is Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner.

For more information and tickets to attend Zauner’s free public lecture at Campbell Hall on Thursday, May 7 at 7:30 PM, please visit this page.