Blue Bayou features fictional Antonio LeBlanc (played by director Justin Chon), who was adopted from Korea by a Louisiana Caucasian family at age 3. During the film he faces many challenge and almost reaches the point of suicide several times. Later in the story, filmviewers learn that his adoptive parents evidently could not accommodate him and gave him up to foster parents at a young age. He often tried to protect his foster mother when his foster father beat her, and he then was beat up as well. Eventually he moved out to live on his own, and at some point in his life he was caught stealing a motorcycle.

When Blue Bayou begins, Antonio has tattoos all over his upper body. He is happily married to Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and is a stepfather to her 7-year-old daughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske). Jessie’s birthfather is Ace (Mark O’Brien), a member of the New Orleans Police Department whom Kathy divorced. (But Antonio never acquired citizenship, a common practice for sponsored children and when an alien marries a citizen.) Kathy is now pregnant with a child fathered by Antonio, who is a gig worker in a tattoo shop. He looks for another job but is turned down because of his prior criminal offense. During much of the film Antonio’s kind personality is revealed, especially with Jessie. He takes her one day to see a small blue-colored bayou, which has been where he has found peace throughout his checkered life. Then one day, Antonio and Kathy have an argument in a supermarket and are approached by Ace and his partner Denny (Emory Cohen). The two cops try to intervene. When Antonio walks away, turning his back on Denny, the latter gets angry, and a fight ensues; as a result, Antonio stays overnight in jail, though he is released without charges the following day. However, an official from Immigration and Customs Enforcement spots Antonio, does research on him to discover that he is an immigrant with a prior criminal record, and arranges to have Antonio served notice for a hearing about his possible deportation. To pay $5,000 for a lawyer, Barry Boucher (Vondie Curtis-Hall), he joins his best friends in robbing a motorcycle dealer of several motorcycles. After the attorney tells him that the odds are against him unless he has his foster mother testify on his behalf, he indicates that he cannot. His wife Kathy, however, is upset to learn that he had a foster mother and lied that she was dead. Kathy’s mother then takes Kathy and Jessie to her home. Alone and desperate, he goes to visit his foster mother (Sage Kim Gray), begging her to testify on his behalf. The couple is reunited when Kathy gives birth to a baby girl. (A subplot involves Antonio doing a kind deed to a refugee who left Vietnam on a boat, Parker Nguyen (Linh Dam Pham), and the two develop a friendship, demonstrating that another Asian immigrant has problems of adjusting life in the United States.) Finally, the day comes for Antonio’s case to be heard in court. His wife and foster mother appear, but en route to court Antonio is beat up outside of town by Dennie’s pals and lacks transportation to appear. The final scene is at the airport as he is escorted to an airplane that will take him back to Korea. The saddest part of the film occurs on the runway, where he, his wife, and Jessie join in tears.

After the film ends, photos of actual cases appear along with dates of their adoption and deportation. Statements on screen indicate the scope of the problem and thereby the purpose of the fictional account, which the Political Film Society has nominated at the best film promoting human rights and best film exposé of 2021.  MH