Released in 2008, just a month after Barack Obama was first elected president, “Gran Torino” was widely hailed as a post-race, “Obama era” film. In many ways, my siblings and I, along with our cousins, were the children of the Twin Cities Schenk imagined with zealous enforcement. When Eastwood’s Walt Kowalski ultimately embraces his Hmong American neighbors in “Gran Torino,” it augurs a change promising that yet-unrealized Obama-era vision. Bee Vang is an actor, writer and inaugural artistic director of the Minnesota Asian American Film Festival. He played Thao in the 2008 film “Gran Torino.” This commentary is the columnist's opinion.

Source: Los Angeles Times February 09, 2026 13:43 UTC