Crying in H-Mart
03-20-23 | 11:46 PM
#1
Thread Starter
DVD Talk Godfather & 2020 TOTY Winner
Crying in H-Mart
'The White Lotus' Star Will Sharpe to Direct 'Crying in H Mart' Film Adaptation: It Felt Very Familiar to Me'
"I found that it felt universal in its specificity," Will Sharpe says of the 2021 memoir Crying in H Mart by Japanese Breakfast singer, songwriter and guitarist Michelle Zauner
Will Sharpe doesn't just melt hearts on HBO's The White Lotus: He's a BAFTA Award-nominated writer and director who has a major new project on his hands.PEOPLE can exclusively reveal that Sharpe, 36, is set to direct the upcoming film adaptation of Japanese Breakfast singer, songwriter and guitarist Michelle Zauner's 2021 memoir Crying in H Mart for MGM's Orion Pictures.
The memoir, which spent over 60 weeks on The New York Times' best-sellers list, is based on an original essay of the same title Zauner, 33, first published in The New Yorker back in 2018. It centers around her relationship with her mother Chong-mi and her Korean heritage, following Chong-mi's Oct. 2014 death from cancer at age 56.
Sharpe, a Japanese-English filmmaker who has worked as a director and writer with the likes of Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch and David Thewlis on television series and films in the U.K., tells PEOPLE that he was immediately able to relate to the cultural background Zauner depicts in her memoir.
"There were lots of things that resonated with me as somebody who is half-Japanese, half-British, spent my childhood in Tokyo," he says of the book. "Some of the descriptions of being jet-lagged in your family's kitchen felt very familiar to me."
03-20-23 | 11:50 PM
#2
Thread Starter
DVD Talk Godfather & 2020 TOTY Winner
re: Crying in H-Mart
03-21-23 | 09:44 AM
#3
DVD Talk Godfather
re: Crying in H-Mart
I had never heard of Japanese Breakfast until their episode of SNL (which is the entire point) but this sounds cool.
I wonder if they had to get permission from H Mart to use the name for the movie (or the essay), or if it's just free publicity so they don't care (you'd think from the title alone there would be negative connotations)
I wonder if they had to get permission from H Mart to use the name for the movie (or the essay), or if it's just free publicity so they don't care (you'd think from the title alone there would be negative connotations)
03-21-23 | 09:58 AM
#4
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
re: Crying in H-Mart
I thought the original essay was extremely touching, but didn't get around to the book version. Admittedly, I spent a lot of years involved with Korean culture, and even still regularly shop in the H-Marts here 
, but I felt the story carried some very universal 'mother-daughter' truths (kinda like EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE in that sense). I can take or leave the music of Japanese Breakfast, but Zauner's storytelling (at least in the essay version) was solid. Sharpe seems to have some solid credits in his directorial cv as well.
, but I felt the story carried some very universal 'mother-daughter' truths (kinda like EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE in that sense). I can take or leave the music of Japanese Breakfast, but Zauner's storytelling (at least in the essay version) was solid. Sharpe seems to have some solid credits in his directorial cv as well.
03-21-23 | 10:08 AM
#5
DVD Talk Hero
re: Crying in H-Mart
Wish we had an H Mart here, won't even be getting a Lotte for another 2 years 
The reddit comments on one of the article titles made me laugh, "The White Lotus Star Will Sharpe to Direct Japanese Breakfast’s New Crying in H Mart Movie", since nobody knew that Japanese Breakfast was a band or H Mart was a store, it just reads like gibberish.
The reddit comments on one of the article titles made me laugh, "The White Lotus Star Will Sharpe to Direct Japanese Breakfast’s New Crying in H Mart Movie", since nobody knew that Japanese Breakfast was a band or H Mart was a store, it just reads like gibberish.
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Brian T (03-21-23)
03-21-23 | 10:49 AM
#6
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
re: Crying in H-Mart
The number of Asian grocery stores here -- most of them increasingly and successfully catering to Asians and non-Asians alike -- is staggering. There was a time when the whole notion was kind of an 'enclave' thing, with smaller, less-pretty stores existing only within those communities (Chinese, Korean), but now they're all over the place, and hard to resist. They're about to open another in the mall that sits right between my office building and my apartment. This could get costly.
Anyway, apologies for derailing the thread, but in light of the subject matter of Yauner's essay and book, and this movie, I suspect this won't be the first time.
Last edited by Brian T; 03-21-23 at 02:01 PM.
03-21-23 | 02:42 PM
#7
DVD Talk Hero
re: Crying in H-Mart
I'm in Northeast Florida, and yeah we have a few Asian/Korean Supermarkets, but nothing quite as extensive as the Lotte's and H-Marts of the world
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Brian T (03-22-23)
02-02-25 | 09:35 AM
#8
Re: Crying in H-Mart
The film adaptation of Michelle Zauner‘s best-selling memoir Crying in H Mart, first announced as in development in 2023, is currently on hold.
Zauner, who was tapped to adapt her tale into a screenplay, is best known as the frontwoman of the Grammy-nominated indie band Japanese Breakfast. She revealed the halt in the project in a recent interview and spread with lux fashion house SSENSE’s magazine.
“Well, it’s on pause. There were issues with the Hollywood strikes, and the director stepped away from the project,” Zauner said when asked about the film’s progress. “I spent a year working on the screenplay, which was a tough but rewarding process. I still have faith it will get made someday, but it’s not happening anytime soon. Right now, I’m focusing on other creative projects, so the film will have to wait.”
The White Lotus Season 2 star Will Sharpe was announced as the director for MGM’s Orion Pictures project. The beloved memoir — which spent 60 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has been immensely successful with a 17th issue reprinting in Korea — follows Zauner’s coming-of-age story as a daughter to a Korean mother and Jewish American father, who returns to her small Oregonian town to care for her mom amid her cancer diagnosis. Told through the lenses of Korean cuisine and the power of music, the book traces the oftentimes tumultuous relationship between strict mother and free-spirited daughter.
Sharpe, who has directed a number of projects, including the Benedict Cumberbatch-starring period drama The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain, will next be seen in Lena Dunham’s rom-com series for Netflix, Too Much, opposite Megan Stalter. As for Zauner, Japanese Breakfast will soon go on tour in support of the forthcoming album For Melancholy Women (& Sad Brunettes), due March 21.
Speaking with SSENSE, Zauner also teased a new novel, “The book will take at least two more years to write. I’ve been keeping a diary for the past year—over 500,000 words of raw material. Next year, I’ll start weaving it into a narrative. It’s very different from Crying in H Mart because this one’s written in real time, not retrospectively. It’s going to be a long process, but I’m excited about it.”
Zauner, who was tapped to adapt her tale into a screenplay, is best known as the frontwoman of the Grammy-nominated indie band Japanese Breakfast. She revealed the halt in the project in a recent interview and spread with lux fashion house SSENSE’s magazine.
“Well, it’s on pause. There were issues with the Hollywood strikes, and the director stepped away from the project,” Zauner said when asked about the film’s progress. “I spent a year working on the screenplay, which was a tough but rewarding process. I still have faith it will get made someday, but it’s not happening anytime soon. Right now, I’m focusing on other creative projects, so the film will have to wait.”
The White Lotus Season 2 star Will Sharpe was announced as the director for MGM’s Orion Pictures project. The beloved memoir — which spent 60 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has been immensely successful with a 17th issue reprinting in Korea — follows Zauner’s coming-of-age story as a daughter to a Korean mother and Jewish American father, who returns to her small Oregonian town to care for her mom amid her cancer diagnosis. Told through the lenses of Korean cuisine and the power of music, the book traces the oftentimes tumultuous relationship between strict mother and free-spirited daughter.
Sharpe, who has directed a number of projects, including the Benedict Cumberbatch-starring period drama The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain, will next be seen in Lena Dunham’s rom-com series for Netflix, Too Much, opposite Megan Stalter. As for Zauner, Japanese Breakfast will soon go on tour in support of the forthcoming album For Melancholy Women (& Sad Brunettes), due March 21.
Speaking with SSENSE, Zauner also teased a new novel, “The book will take at least two more years to write. I’ve been keeping a diary for the past year—over 500,000 words of raw material. Next year, I’ll start weaving it into a narrative. It’s very different from Crying in H Mart because this one’s written in real time, not retrospectively. It’s going to be a long process, but I’m excited about it.”
02-02-25 | 10:18 AM
#9
Thread Starter
DVD Talk Godfather & 2020 TOTY Winner
Re: Crying in H-Mart
Bummer.
