Kims

“Kim’s Convenience” may not win points for originality, but originality isn’t really the point of an immigrant family drama meant to be instantly, one might say universally, recognizable.

The play, which opened Tuesday at the Ahmanson Theatre, was a runaway hit at the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival. That success led to a larger production at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre that brought more attention to the show, paving the way for runs off-Broadway, in London’s West End and Washington, D.C.

But the show’s familiarity has another source. “Kim’s Convenience,” which was turned into a sitcom for Canada’s CBC, found an international audience on Netflix.

The story is set in Toronto, and the Kim family (owners of the titular convenience store) is of Korean background. But immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Latin America, India and Eastern Europe and their more assimilated children won’t have any problems relating to the generational conflicts at the heart of this gentle comedy.

Author Ins Choi, who once played the role of the prodigal son, has matured into the part of Appa, the patriarch who left Korea with his wife, Umma (Esther Chung), to start a new life in Canada. He opened a 7-Eleven-style shop, which he once considered calling 7-12, and has been living above the store with his family in what has been an all-hands operation.

Appa made sacrifices to give his son and daughter a better life — and he’s more than happy to tick off a list of what everyone owes him. He’s a mostly benevolent tyrant, but his crotchety side can get ugly and he’s not always in control of his temper. His son Jung (Ryan Jinn) ran away at 16, absconding with money from the store safe, after one of Appa’s flare-ups sent him to the hospital.

Janet (Kelly Seo), Appa’s 30-year-old unmarried daughter, bears the brunt of being the adult child who remained at home. She still works at the store, though her true calling is photography. Her father considers this just a hobby, a weekend recreation that shouldn’t interfere with her taking over the store one day. But she has other ideas for her future.

Change is coming whether Appa likes it or not. A Walmart is heading to the area, and with this news comes an unexpected offer for the shop that would allow him to comfortably retire. But selling the store is tantamount to discarding his story.

Brandon McKnight, left, and Kelly Seo in “Kim’s Convenience.”

(Dahlia Katz)

He explains this to Janet, hoping that she’ll continue his legacy. But she’s put her life on hold for too long. Both her parents never let her forget that she still doesn’t have a husband. But how can she get married when her father subjects any man she dates to the third degree?

Alex (Brandon McKnight), the police officer who answers the 911 call Appa had Janet place to report a Japanese car parked illegally by the store (he still hasn’t forgiven Japan for its invasion of Korea), turns out to be a childhood friend of Jung’s — and someone Janet used to have a crush on. The sparks between them are obvious, and Appa, the soul of indiscretion, can’t help meddling in his overbearing way.

Choi isn’t averse to shtick, if the result is an explosion of audience laughter. One comic gimmick involves Appa’s superhuman grip that can subdue even the mightiest of men. A shoplifter (also played by McKnight, who portrays all the customers and passersby) learns the hard way that Appa is not to be underestimated.

Esther Chung, left, and Ins Choi in “Kim’s Convenience” at the Ahmanson.

(Dahlia Katz)

The scene involves an unsavory routine on how to recognize a shoplifter. Janet challenges Appa’s racist assumptions, but father knows best and no one can convince him otherwise. Janet can’t win with him, but don’t count Appa’s daughter out.

Or his son, for that matter. Jung, who had a stint in rehab, hasn’t had an easy path in life, but he’s stayed in touch with his mother and eventually he and his dad will have their dramatically inevitable reckoning. There’s something determinedly hopeful about “Kim’s Convenience,” which like the store it’s named after, wants its patrons to leave satisfied.

The cast members, under the direction of Weyni Mengesha, all deserve high customer ratings. Choi’s Appa is impossible to stay mad at even when he’s said or done something unforgivable. He doesn’t mean to offend, though other people’s feelings are a luxury he has never been able to afford.

Still, his paternal bluntness is not without its infuriating charm, as when he informs his headstrong daughter, “You have to understand, now is desperation time for you. Sudden death, overtime, penalty kick shoot out. Expiration date is over. Take over store is only choice you having.”

Esther Chung and Ryan Jinn in “Kim’s Convenience” at the Ahmanson.

(Dahlia Katz)

Seo’s Janet is as feisty as she is loyal, making it easy to root for her and her quickly budding romance with McKnight’s worthy Alex. Chung’s Umma doesn’t take up a lot of room in the play, but her maternal presence registers sharply nonetheless. Jinn endows Jung with hidden dimensions of pain and regret.

But the most vivid performance might in fact be the convenience store itself, brought to fluorescent, sanitized, colorful life by scenic designer Joanna Yu and lighting designer Wen-Ling Liao. Nicole Eun-Ju Bell’s video and projection designs subtly transpose the setting when, for instance, Umma meets up with her son at church. The production seems right at home at the Ahmanson, a function of both the broad sitcom-friendly style and the warm Korean American reception that was audible at Tuesday’s opening.

“Kim’s Convenience” has an eager-to-please TV sensibility that can seem formulaic at times. But representation, particularly these days, can be a radical act, and there’s something heartening at the sight of the Kim family enjoying their turn in the mainstream spotlight.

March 3 (Asia Today) — North Korea’s ninth congress of the Workers’ Party, held in Pyongyang from Feb. 19 to 25, reinforced leader Kim Jong Un’s centralized rule and reaffirmed the country’s nuclear posture, according to Cho Young-ki, secretary general of the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of the Korean Peninsula.

The party congress, convened every five years as the party’s highest decision-making body, drew about 5,000 delegates. It reviewed the Central Committee’s work, revised party rules and elected key leadership posts. Cho wrote that while the congress is formally tasked with deliberation, it primarily ratifies decisions already made by Kim and the leadership.

Kim declared that the past five years produced economic achievements “worthy of pride” despite internal and external challenges and said the country had permanently secured its status as a nuclear power. He pledged to pursue qualitative economic development under a “people-first” principle in the next five-year period.

Kim also defined inter-Korean relations as those between hostile states, dismissed Seoul’s reconciliation policies and reiterated North Korea’s nuclear deterrence. At the same time, he left open the possibility of negotiations with the United States if Washington withdraws what Pyongyang calls a hostile policy.

A key feature of the congress was renewed emphasis on what the regime calls a “Five-Point Party Building Line,” first proposed in 2022 and formalized in 2023. The line centers on strengthening political, organizational, ideological, disciplinary and work-style controls within the party.

Cho argued that reaffirming the five-point line formalizes Kim’s governing ideology and tightens centralized discipline under a party-centered system. The congress re-elected Kim as general secretary, revised party rules and reshuffled leadership posts.

Notably, the Political Bureau Standing Committee expanded from four to five members, and Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, was reinstated and promoted, reinforcing what Cho described as a patronage structure around the leader. Twenty-three of 39 executive members were replaced in a generational reshuffle. Senior official Choe Ryong Hae was reported to have stepped back from his previous role near the top of the hierarchy.

Cho wrote that the five-point line ultimately serves to justify and entrench Kim’s centralized authority. He argued that the congress underscores North Korea’s lack of intention to abandon its nuclear weapons and signals a hardening of its stance toward South Korea.

Since the mid-1990s, Cho wrote, South Korea has operated under what he described as illusions that goodwill or dialogue alone could persuade Pyongyang to denuclearize. He said the latest congress challenges those assumptions.

Cho concluded that outside information remains one of the few factors that authoritarian systems fear. He pointed to North Korean laws enacted in recent years aimed at blocking foreign cultural and ideological influence, arguing they reflect the regime’s sensitivity to external information flows.

He said South Korea has a responsibility to expand technological and institutional means for North Koreans to access outside information, enabling independent thought and action.

Cho Young-ki, secretary general of the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of the Korean Peninsula and former professor at Korea University

※ The views expressed in this column are those of the author and may not reflect the position of this publication.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260303010000561