In his HBO series ‘The Sympathizer,’ South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook uses fireworks as a metaphorical interpretation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Through flashbacks and interrogations, the series explores the complex identity and fractured memory of a half-white, half-Vietnamese double agent during and after the Vietnam War. Park’s meticulously crafted vision, inspired by his background as a film critic, examines the danger of ideological authority and the suppression of individuality.