Jang-Gae: The Foreigner (2020) on Netflix

Plot summary

A troubled mixed-race teenager who suffers from discrimination and bullying, wins scholarship to study abroad, while also discovering his father has been hiding cancer and has only days to live.

—Chih-wei Chang

Born and raised in Seoul, Korea. Gwang-Yong is a troubled youth of mixed-race. His father Jui-Hsiang, is second-generation Hwagyo (ethnic Chinese living in Korea), who is a man of both integrity and pride, and also a workaholic; whereas his mother Mi-Sook, is a witty Korean woman, who is the perfect combination of good wife and wise mother. Gwang-Yong has been struggling with his identity ever since childhood, not only does he often gets called "Jang-Gae" (derogatory word for Chinese) by Korean, but he also suffers from racial discrimination and school bullying after his father transferred him from an overseas Chinese school to a local Korean public middle school. One day, Gwang-Yong is informed that he has won a scholarship to study in America and was all excited to get a new lease of life, until he shockingly discovers that his family has been hiding his father's terminal cancer from him and now has only a few days left to live. As Jui-Hsiang's condition deteriorates, dark family secrets begin to unravel, whereas long-buried issues eventually drive the situation into a desperate crisis.