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Logline

1990s Chicago—Korean immigrant Luke Jung opens a store in the Mexican enclave of Little Village, but his ambitions are challenged by cultural clashes and systemic forces in an increasingly globalized world. Hypnotized by the American Dream, he struggles to keep up with a system that moves fast and waits for no one.

Synopsis

Mucho Power follows Luke Jung, a Korean immigrant who arrives in 1980s Chicago with his wife Gemma, a nurse. Determined to build a life in America, Luke works a steady job at a telecommunications company while Gemma pulls graveyard shifts at a city hospital. When Luke is passed over for a promotion in favor of a less qualified colleague, he begins to question the limits of the path he’s chosen.

A wrong turn through the vibrant Mexican enclave of Little Village plants the seed of a new idea. Luke opens LJ Merchandise, a small electronics and general goods store on W. 26th Street, financing the venture through family loans and a Korean community microloan system called a Kye. With the help of Ventura Flores, a charismatic local woman who becomes his star employee, the store slowly finds its footing. Business flourishes through the late 1980s and into the early 90s, allowing the Jungs to move to the suburbs and build the middle-class life they dreamed of.

But the arrival of big-box retailers, the passage of NAFTA, and the collapse of the gray market supply chains that sustained small businesses like Luke’s begin to erode everything he built. As his wholesalers disappear and competition from corporate stores becomes impossible to match, Luke makes increasingly desperate choices to keep the lights on.

As his business declines, Luke grows increasingly desperate, resorting to questionable inventory and clinging to fading strategies. Personal losses, including his father’s death, compound his sense of failure. By the early 2000s, his store is nearly obsolete.

In a final act of quiet surrender, Luke gives away his remaining inventory as he sings alone in his empty shop. His journey, from hopeful immigrant to disillusioned small business owner, reflects the fragile promise of upward mobility in an unforgiving economic landscape.

Meet the Filmmakers

Gerry Kim — WRITER / PRODUCER
Gerry Kim ( runs the production company, PPW Films, which is committed to diverse and issue-based storytelling. As a producer, his previous films include: Iris Shim’s THE HOUSE OF SUH, Jennifer Kroot’s TO BE TAKEI, and Esra Saydam and Nisan Dag’s ACROSS THE SEA. His most recent film, Fernando Frias de la Parra’s I’M NO LONGER HERE, was released as a Netflix Original worldwide in 2020. Gerry was awarded the Producers Award as part of the 2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards, and was selected as a Creative Producing Fellow at the Sundance Institute in 2014. An alum of Columbia University’s Graduate Film Program, Gerry has also directed, written and produced several short films, including the DGA award winning short, LIVING THE DREAM. His script, THE CAMFORD EXPERIMENT, was a semifinalist in the 2024 Nicholl Fellowship Screenwriting competition, while MUCHO POWER received the SFFILM RaininGrant in 2024.

Fernando Frías de la Parra — Director/Writer/Producer
Fernando Frías is a Mexican documentary filmmaker, screenwriter, and award-winning director. Fernando wrote, directed, and produced I’M NO LONGER HERE, which was selected for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and won Best Film and Audience Award at the Morelia Film Festival in 2019 and Best Film at the Cairo International Film Festival. It won 10 Mexican Academy Premios Arieles, including Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Script. It was nominated at the 2021 Goya Awards and shortlisted for Best International Film at the 2021 Academy Awards. His third feature film, NO VOY A PEDIRLE A NADIE QUE ME CREA, was released worldwide by Netflix in 2023, and in 2025, Fernando directed DEPECHE MODE: M, the eponymous concert film that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and later released in IMAX worldwide.

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