CAAMFest 2024: Smoking Tigers

Hayoung, a Korean American teenager dealing with her parents’ separation, longs to belong somewhere. When her mother enrolls her in a competitive summer school, she begins lying to fit in with her wealthy classmates, including a handsome boy named Joon. Soon Hayoung finds herself in a pressure-cooker of her own creation, hiding her upbringing from her new friends and the growing pains in her family life. As summer fades to fall, she learns what it truly means to grow up. Set in early 2000s Los Angeles, Smoking Tigers made its premiere at Tribeca Film Festival and marks writer-director So Young Shelley Yo’s intimate debut feature.