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It Starts On The Page: Read ‘The Sympathizer’ Premiere Script “Death Wish” By Don McKellar & Park Chan-wook


'The Sympathizer' creators Don McKellar & Park Chan-wook talk about writing the premiere. Part of a franchise featuring limited series Emmy contenders.

“What they want to hear, Sir, is that we still share a purpose: the Mission Civilization, a faith in the good fight, the American way, et cetera,” double agent the Captain (Hoa Xuande) tells the desperate General (Toan Le) as the fall of Saigon appears imminent in the opening episode of HBO ’s The Sympathizer. In many ways, the line from the “Death Wish” script, written by The Sympathizer creators Don McKellar and Park Chan-wook, sums up the complexities and duplicities of the premium cabler’s multi-genre limited series based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer-winning novel of the same name. As Old Boy helmer Park, who also directed the premiere, and McKellar explain in the forward to their script below, the seven-episode The Sympathizer embraces unconventional wisdom and takes a new perspective on a history too many of us have learned from Hollywood movies.

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don mckellar & park