TV REVIEWS : ‘Sa-I-Gu’: L.A. Riots From a Different Focus

Since the media are attuned to following the loudest, the biggest and the bloodiest, it was inevitable that quiet, hard-working Korean-Americans caught in the cross fire of the Los Angeles riots last year were going to be the last group to be heard from. “Sa-I-Gu” (at 10 p.m. Sunday on KCET-TV Channel 28, on the “P.O.V.” series) is only a start in making reparation, but an unexpected one.

The Korean men seen toting guns during the riots aren’t the focus of this work by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, Elaine H. Kim and Christine Choy; rather, the women who tend the stores and raise their children (and sometimes bury them) take center stage.

They all recall “Sa-I-Gu”--April 29, start date of the riots--as both a stain and a turning point. Before “Sa-I-Gu,” America was the “dreamland,” in the word of Young Soon Han. After that day, says Choon Ah Song, “I feel there is a huge hole in America.”

Han, Song and Jung Hui Lee tell of their classic immigrant hopes and a work ethic so single-minded that Han, for example, hadn’t followed the Rodney G. King case at all until the Simi Valley verdict was announced. It was a virtue, perhaps, that became a tragic flaw: Complete dedication to one’s business--blinded, in some cases, to the rest of the community the business serves.

That, and profound cultural differences between the store owners and their black and Latino customers, bred a hostility that led to many Korean-American-owned businesses being targeted during the riots.

Because this is a film of testimony and emotions purged, such analysis is rarely stated. But what is clear is how these women, while remaining enraged, are seeking some kind of reconciliation with their neighbors.