Boat People

Every refugee from Vietnam I know has reported incidents depicted in this film. Nobody experienced all of them, and certainly not in the film's timespan, but none of the incidents are especially far-fetched.

I first watched Boat People when I was in high school about two decades ago. Today I watched it again with a heavy heart and totally new understanding. Although this movie is talking about the story of Vietnam, Chinese who know history can see it's also a story of China. And for Chinese, unfortunately, the history recur under the reign of the pretty soon emperor-to-be.......

Watching this now and although it is quite interesting, rather much has changed. Although we hoped that this would have been made in Vietnam but it is not at all and I'm sure the communist country must not have been so happy. Made by Hong Kong and on location in the Chinese island of Hainan which is rather well done but of course we really wanted to see Vietnam. Also we thought that we would see the 'boat people' but not really at all. In Chinese the title is literally, Run Towards the Angry Sea, which would have been much better although we do finally get to a boat. I know so little about Vietnam so it was pretty good for anything about this but it was so sad and violent. All the cast, including the Vietnamese and the rather naive Japanese cameraman were all Cantonese speaking people.

Boat People is a film that looks at the horrors that existed in Communist-controlled Vietnam after the war ended. I appreciate that they told the story through the eyes of a photojournalist from Japan so he starts off a bit naive. That allows us to gradually discover the truth with him. I also thought it was great that they utilized some young children to teach him, because that just enhances the horror of the things going on. They also did a nice job of showing how the government was trying to cover up the ugly truth. All that being said, while Boat People is effective film-making, it's hard to watch. I don't handle this kind of story all that well. I've seen my fair share of war movies (or post-war movies) and there's only so much you can take without a new or different perspective thrown in to make it more engaging. I was never bored by Boat People, but I'll pass on ever watching it again.

George Lam is a Japanese photojournalist whose assignment is in Viet Nam, shooting the people and events.... when the local authorities don't confiscate his film. As he goes on, he discovers the desperate poverty of the population; it's not about the Boat People, but more about the desperation that forces the people to, in the words of the Chinese title, "Flee towards the angry sea."

Shot just after the war between China and Viet Nam, that goes a long way towards why the authorities permitted Anna Hui and her Hong Kong crew to shoot on Hainan. It's a telling story, not the least because the director lets you know this is a pure point-of-view story; every shot is perfectly composed, often beautiful in its horror. Even after Lam abandons his camera, the beautiful images continue; he's trapped with his photographer's eye, seeing things as they really are, yet unable to see anything but the beauty of misery.