... directed by Steve James ("Hoop Dreams) which chronicles the story of the only U.S. bank and those running it to be prosecuted to date and after the financial crisis of 2008, and its affect upon the Chinese-American Sung family which started and has run the Abacus Bank's operations of New York City's Chinatown for 31 years.
It had me glued to my TV, and was as dramatically presented and riveting as anything I've seen in some time. I could tell from the beginning that the director's heart was with the Sung family and their plight, what with the opening scene showing the Sung family patriarch and his wife watching "It's a Wonderful Life" in their home as they talk about how much they've always enjoyed that movie and have always identified quite a bit with the George Bailey character. Others involved in this story are then later brought in for your examination.
However and to be fair-handed, director James also presents the government prosecutors' points of view and the rationales for their prosecutorial efforts. A couple of the jurors are also given time to explain how they would arrive at their verdict.
What I got from all this was that these efforts were instigated against the Sung family's small bank because of the cowardly attitude of these prosecutors that they couldn't or wouldn't go after the heads of the really BIG financial institutions so greatly responsible for the so-called "Great Recession" because THEY were "too big to fail", and so they went after the little guy banker because, as the title of this film says, they were "small enough to jail".
You'll be happy to know that this story had a happy ending. Well, that is if you don't factor in the ten million dollars in court costs and lawyer fees the Sungs were stuck with afterward.
It had me glued to my TV, and was as dramatically presented and riveting as anything I've seen in some time. I could tell from the beginning that the director's heart was with the Sung family and their plight, what with the opening scene showing the Sung family patriarch and his wife watching "It's a Wonderful Life" in their home as they talk about how much they've always enjoyed that movie and have always identified quite a bit with the George Bailey character. Others involved in this story are then later brought in for your examination.
However and to be fair-handed, director James also presents the government prosecutors' points of view and the rationales for their prosecutorial efforts. A couple of the jurors are also given time to explain how they would arrive at their verdict.
What I got from all this was that these efforts were instigated against the Sung family's small bank because of the cowardly attitude of these prosecutors that they couldn't or wouldn't go after the heads of the really BIG financial institutions so greatly responsible for the so-called "Great Recession" because THEY were "too big to fail", and so they went after the little guy banker because, as the title of this film says, they were "small enough to jail".
You'll be happy to know that this story had a happy ending. Well, that is if you don't factor in the ten million dollars in court costs and lawyer fees the Sungs were stuck with afterward.
