GREENVILLE — When Rioin Oshiro directed his first feature film, he didn’t plan to be nominated for a prestigious James Beard Foundation award. He just wanted to make a food-based promotional video for his new production company, Undercurrent Film Company . Then he met Khailing Neoh, and his plans changed after he learned more about the young entrepreneur who jumped from engineering to opening Greenville’s only dim sum restaurant, Sum Bar.
Email Sign Up! It evolved into “ Great Wall ,” a 21-minute film about her journey to starting a restaurant that pays homage to her heritage as a first-generation Chinese American, despite concerns from her parents. They had spent decades in the grueling industry in rural Ohio, feeling forced to trade authentic Chinese food for an American-style restaurant. "This is about someone who is wrestling with trying to honor her parents and understand how much they've sacrificed," Oshiro said, "but at the same time following her dream of going back to the very thing that her parents were trying to prevent her from.
" The short movie was recently nominated for a James Beard media award, considered the Oscars of the food industry. “Great Wall,” named after her grandparents' restaurant, joins multiple James Beard nominees from Greenville in other categories, including Topsoil Kitchen & Market, Scoundrel and the Charleston-based O-Ku, which has a Greenville location. The award winners will be announced in Chicago on June 8, where the movie w.
