The Donut King

Who doesn't love donuts? I had great things about this and most docs are hit and miss. If you like donuts and immigrant stories, this is a must watch. Do yourself a favor and grab some donuts for when you watch this.

If you think this is about donuts, it is only half a story. Actually, it is more about life. Throughout all the ups and downs, there is peace in the end.

Most Asian people do not feel comfortable to wash their dirty laundry in front of others. This one indeed did that and even dug deeper. There are not many movies about Asian Americans' struggle and trimphone, This one has a well planted storyline and contents. To the end, I did not feel sorry for the donut king. He found peace in life and moved on. Life is the process itself. Most of time, we are too eager to get to the final and forget to enjoy the scenery on the way.

It is a nice film to watch without pretenses. I would recommend.

"The Donut King" (2020 release; 90 min.) is a documentary about the life and times of Ted Ngoy. As the movie opens, we are in today's southern California, as we are intro to various donut shops and its owners, talking about (in)famous Uncle Ted, who started it all back in the 1970s. We then go back in time as Ted Ngoy talks about his upbringing in Cambodia, and how he and his wife and kids fled the Khmer Rouge in 1075, ending up in a tent city in California, along with tens of thousands other Cambodian refugees. It's not long after that in Tustin, CA where Ngoy is introduced to donuts to his immediate delight, and he enrolls for donut-making training at Winchell's Donuts... At this point we are less than 15 min. into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the debut feature-length film for writer-director Alice Gu. Here she retells the improbable story of Ted Goy, who feels the civil war in Cambodia, only to find his feet in southern California, where eventually builds an empire of donut shops. And that is just the beginning of it! I must admit that I had never heard of this guy, and it was a delight to get to know more about his accomplishments (both successes and failures, I might add). Imagine the audacity of President Ford, imploring Congress in 1975 to open the borders to tens of thousands of Cambodian refugees as the Khmer Rouge is overtaking the last parts of Cambodia. Can you imagine it today? I say this as an immigrant myself (I arrived in the US for graduate studies in the early 80s and eventually settled here). Besides the immigrant story, the documentary of course also focuses on the donut industry. Along the way we learn that there are 5,000 (!) independent/family-owned donut shops in California, of which more than 90% are owned by Cambodian-Americans. Absolutely amazing. The last part of the film focuses on how these shops survive and even thrive in today's age against big corporations like Dunkin Donuts.

"The Donut King" opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, fully adhering to all COVID-19 protocols. Not that it mattered, as the early Saturday evening screening where I saw this at was attended dismally (1 other person besides myself). If you have any interest in watching a good ol' fashioned immigration story or are simply a lover of donuts, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater (if you can), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

Beautifully crafted, emotionally engaging, and filled in some of the blanks with my Cambodia in the 70s history. An Excellent Insight into an overlooked community. Powerful film that is certainly worth the 1.5 hour investment.

Los Angeles has Winchell's, Krispy Creme and, a new infusion of Dunkin' Donuts outlets, but, the breakfast pastry business is still dominated locally by independent Cambodian bakers and entrepreneurs.

Alice Gu's entertaining Documentary traces the history of that development through the life of Ted Ngoy, a Cambodian refugee who was a General in his homeland who fled to America at the end of the Vietnam war. 'Uncle Ted' as he became to be known by his larger Cambodian family, started off with one shop and soon built a mini-empire when he sponsored dozens of his fellow refugees and helped them set up their own donut stores (taking a cut, of course).

It's a fascinating tale of the American dream come true (Bush Sr. Even awarded Ngoy a Presidential Award. Unfortunately, Ngoy had personal demons, including a gambling addiction and lost it all. Even with his personal downfall, the Cambodian community has continued to have a strong presence in the local donut market with generations following in the footsteps of Ngoy and his extended family's in the business.

Director Gu does a good job piecing together her story using documentary footage (and some animation) to fill in on the history of the Cambodian conflict. She does seem to soft-pedal some of the negative aspects of Ngoy's personal life. There seems to be more to the story which is more hinted at than is shown here. Still, a colorful tale of how a tight knit and rather small community has battled the big corporations and more than held its own.