Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
The title of Steve James’ new documentary “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” refers to the phrase that was used for banks during the 2008 financial crisis, where it was said that they were “too big to fail” and needed rescuing by the US government in order to avoid total economic collapse. That period also confirmed what might be its most shameful legacy if you’re an executive at a multinational multi-billion dollar financial institution, nothing you do (no matter how stupid or even willfully criminal) can result in worse than a relatively small fine, which you might not even have to pay; but if you’re a small family owned bank in Chinatown well then things are different.
Apologies for the long sentence. The calculative facility from which this film takes its name is located on NYC’s Canal Street and is run by Chinese Americans who live in Greenwich, CT, commuting into Manhattan every day to oversee loans distributed against funds collected etc., until now seen fit only as background information about their lives. In other words: as with many events we think worth telling stories around there’s more going on here than meets eye initially; indeed it seems likely that Steve James has found himself again confronted by an instance where he must tell us not just one story but two or more connected ones through particular event.
In this case those events would be the prosecution of Abacus bank officials on conspiracy charges brought against them following an investigation into larceny and systemic fraud at said institution during 2015 trial; however wrapped up within such narrative framework lie others which concern immigrants assimilating over generations while still respecting home country laws only for adopted nations’ power structures to make examples out of such people based upon reasons which appear false or intellectually dishonest according his interpretation.
As we learn from movie presentation none member Sung family including couple Thomas & Hwei Lin Sung who founded together with four daughters (the oldest of whom didn’t know what had taken place until watching dad being handcuffed) were involved directly in any activities related to loans department shenanigans within chinatown district where bank is situated.
Offenses committed by employees there included bribery embezzlement larceny; when owners became aware that their workers weren’t entirely honest they immediately terminated them and reported matter authorities even supplying voluminous folders filled with papers relevant to case against accused persons d.a.’s office.
What I got from James’ work is an accusation against Cyrus Vance Jr., Manhattan District Attorney who allegedly threw Abacus under bus so he could show people how hard nosed white collar crime fighter looks like while knowing full well that such a move could only succeed because Chinese family owned small independent bank located community too insignificant influence his chances for reelection
According to various government and media witnesses, no one had ever seen anything like this treatment of Abacus bank employees by Vance’s office, both during the investigation and at trial. They were handcuffed in groups of fifteen and made to shuffle through public hallways with their wrists connected by cuffs; three of the people in that chain gang were Chinese-Americans who shouldn’t even have been there because they’d already been let out on bail.
(The picture is what Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi called “almost Stalinist.”) The Sungs are not shown to be guilty here of anything more than failing to catch what crooked employees were doing until it was too late. The film argues that theirs was a case of negligence or lax oversight, not willful conspiracy to break laws.
But as much as it works as an exciting courtroom drama, this movie is even more valuable as a community portrait. James, whose crew followed the Sungs all over Chinatown and into Connecticut for many months, has created a rich and illuminating context for this story one seldom if ever brought to American screens.
Here we have a movie full of Chinese people engaged in an underdog tale not unlike the one in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which happens to be among Thomas’ favorite films; it inspired him to go into finance. We get a strong sense of an aspirational but never entirely comfortable or accepted community that defines itself against mainstream American culture and rightly so. This is an uneasy psychic place for succeeding generations to inhabit, and it’s rare to see it depicted onscreen with such nuance and feeling.
What’s most immediately fascinating about the film, though, is its depiction of a successful Asian-American family whose members are all highly opinionated professionals obviously love each other deeply and don’t always agree but have great chemistry together some times around trial-related stuff but mostly about money law movies etc. Some of the most memorable scenes in “Abacus” have nothing to do with the trial per se.
They just show the Sungs sitting around a kitchen table or a booth in a Chinese restaurant, talking about one another and laughing at their own jokes or each other’s jokes. They talk over each other, interrupt each other, apologize for interrupting each other, tell stories on top of stories, tease, compliment they are always talking.
The sheer physical presence of these people onscreen is inspiring. As is the movie’s wealth of archival stills and documentary footage snippets and TV-news clips showing us Chinatown through the decades. There is history here. A whole world. And we finally get to see it. What happened to these folks was rotten; but this film is a blessing in disguise. You owe it to yourself or someone else you admire to see it.
Watch Abacus: Small Enough to Jail For Free On Solarmovies.