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Jeff Adachi hopes more people will get to know Jack Soo through his new documentary.
By Lynda Lin, Assistant Editor
Published July 3, 2009
To make "You Don't Know Jack," his new documentary on the legendary Japanese American actor Jack Soo, Jeff Adachi borrowed a theme straight from comic books.
By day, he protected the poor as San Francisco's public defender and late at night he worked to immortalize the story of the most famous Nisei actor you've never heard of.
Adachi, 49, will be the first to admit that it wasn't always a seamless transition. He didn't rush out of his office unbuttoning his shirt to reveal a costume with a big "S" (or would it be "PD" for California's only publicly elected public defender?).
"It was karmic how it came together."
The art of filmmaking is difficult to refine with a fulltime job, said Adachi, but it had to be done. Because as the film's title suggests, people don't know Jack, the actor best known for his roles in the 1961 Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical, "Flower Drum Song," and a long list of television shows including "Barney Miller" and "Valentine's Day."
"I wanted to tell the story of a man that would have otherwise been lost," said Adachi by phone from his public defender's office. "His legacy is there, but the details of his life would've faded away."
So the Yonsei filmmaker decided to color in the lines and fill in the blanks of Soo's life. "You Don't Know Jack," reveals the life of an extraordinary man born Goro Suzuki, who broke free from the World War II barbed wire internment camps to become a groundbreaking actor and the first Asian Pacific American signed to Motown Records.
Soo's friends called him the first APA hipster, who rubbed elbows with Joey Bishop and other Rat Pack members, and the APA Bing Crosby, partially because his singing voice melted butter, but likely also because of that crooked smile and the irrepressible twinkle in his eyes.
The film also reveals the patriotic side of Soo, who as a teenager won a JACL award for his essay on being American.
Adachi never met Soo, who died of cancer in 1979, but they share a common family history — along with thousands of other JAs who were swept up in WWII hysteria and placed in desolate internment camps. Soo was taken to Topaz, where he entertained internees with songs and skits. Adachi's parents were in Poston and Gila River.
In a time of oppression and discrimination, Soo represented hope.
"For my parents' generation, Frank Sinatra and Joey Bishop were like gods and standing right next to them was Jack Soo," said Adachi. "He was the kind of entertainer that broke all boundaries."
Adachi has always said that his family's internment history was the driving force behind his career — he wanted to give a voice to the defenseless. He's a public defender first, he said. Filmmaking is a hobby — one that took about a year to complete. And when asked about the budget, the lawyer in him emerges.
"A film like this takes $50,000," he said about the funding that came from family, friends and his own pockets.
But being a filmmaker, Adachi insists, is very much like being a trial lawyer. Skill sets include piecing a story together and making sure the facts presented are true.
"It's like solving a mystery," he said.
Three years ago, Adachi's first foray into filmmaking resulted in "The Slanted Screen," a documentary that examined the roles of APA men in movies. That's when he came across Soo's story - a JA actor who changed his name to pass as Chinese American.
Adachi grew up watching "Barney Miller," the television comedy series where Soo played Nick Yemana. "I remembered his face mostly, those droopy eyelids."
But questions about Soo's past kept haunting him. Why would he change his name? The lawyer decided to find out. Some thought Soo changed his name because of "Flower Drum Song," while others thought the film's director Gene Kelly insisted on it.
The truth is much simpler and perhaps more tragic. During WWII, Soo was allowed out of camp to perform at nightclubs. Adachi found an original letter that said one nightclub owner feared there would be a backlash if Soo went by his Japanese name, so Goro Suzuki became Jack Soo.
But the actor was proud of being JA, said Adachi. Every time Soo did a major interview, he talked about his ethnicity and he took a stance against playing stereotypical roles.
"What's different about Jack is that you get the sense that through the ups and downs, he was still determined," said Adachi.
He embodied the historical experiences of the JA community — from the darkness of the internment to the height of fame. But within the larger community story lies individual stories like Soo's that up until now haven't been documented.
Here, the usually unflappable public defender shows a moment of vulnerability.
When Adachi completed the documentary using testimonies, images and rare video footage to reconstruct Soo's life, he wondered if it captured the essence of the man.
"I wasn't sure what I captured was who he was."
The people who knew Soo best, including his daughter, said Soo poured out of every frame.
And if Soo had seen the film, Adachi is sure he would've downplayed his achievements.
"He was not a person who would feel superior. He was a regular guy. He was just Jack."
On the Web
www.jacksoo.com
Watch It
'You Don't Know Jack'
July 21
Asian Film Festival of Dallas
Info: http://2009.affd.org
July 25
Asian American Int'l Film Festival - New York
Info: www.aaiff.org/2009
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