Ryan Coogler’s family influenced Sinners in more ways than one. In an interview with Variety, Coogler shared that he was listening to a lot of blues music during the press tour for Wakanda Forever as he was mourning his Uncle James, who was a blues lover from Mississippi, and the song “Wang Dang Doodle” inspired the overall premise of the movie. However, it wasn’t the only way his family was connected to Sinners. Filmmaker and cultural consultant on the film, Dolly Li, explained how Coogler discovered that his father-in-law had Chinese Delta ancestors, like characters of Grace and Bo (played by Li Jun Li and Yao), who were based on grocery store owners of the time period. “Ryan and I first connected last year because he discovered my Mississippi Delta Chinese doc for AJ+ and was inspired to include the community in Sinners after his father-in-law learned that he had Delta Chinese ancestors,” Li shared on Instagram. “Sinners happens to be set in Clarksdale, Mississippi, during the Jim Crow era, which was also the height of Chinese grocery stores’ popularity in the Delta.”
The small details taught by Li showed, for example, how Grace and Bo had two grocery stores across the street from each other. Li concluded on X, “I 100% know that Ryan could’ve made the store owners white or black and nobody would’ve batted an eye. to insist on including them—which has resurfaced this doc & history—now that is camaraderie.”
