The parents’ short-thrifted, hinted-at backstory > their offsprings’ laborious, lugubrious stories.

As evident from Ms. Purple and the superior Gook, Justin Chon — a filmmaker you probably don’t know, but should — seems to love him some slow burns that simmer and ultimately boil over into bloody crescendoes, violence that’s been brewing under the surface throughout, rooted in the class struggles of Asian-American communities in the Greater Los Angeles area.

Despite this darkness, he ends on hopeful notes of reconciliation, suggesting a path forward and the possibility of unity in these United States.