Boat People (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)

Product Description

The third film in acclaimed Hong Kong director Ann Huis "e; Vietnam Trilogy"e;, Boat People won Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Art Direction, & New Performer at the 2nd Hong Kong Film Awards. A follow-up to 1981s The Story of Woo Viet, the humanist melodrama is set in 1978 Vietnam, three years after the fall of Saigon. Shot in almost documentary-style, the film depicts life in a postwar Vietnam devastated by poverty & brutality, & the dangerous lengths people will go through to escape the country. Released in 1982, Boat Peoples sensitive subject & uncompromising portrayal invited controversy & debate given the political world climate at the time, & the films distinction of being the first Hong Kong film to be shot in Mainland China with government approval.

Ann Hui constructed Boat Peoples story after conducting hundreds of interviews with Vietnamese refugees, "e;boat people"e; who fled to Hong Kong in great numbers from the 1970s to 90s. The film sees postwar Vietnam through the eyes of an outsider, a Japanese journalist played by George Lam (A Queer Story), who returns to the country three years after the wars end. He is gradually overwhelmed by the tragedy, poverty, tyranny, & corruption that weigh down on the daily lives of the locals he encounters, embodied by award-winning newcomer Season Ma ( Silent Love), Cora Miao ( Women), & Andy Lau in his feature film debut. Unable to look the other way any longer, Akutagawa decides to help a local girl & her family leave Vietnam.