Boat People

In celebration of Ann Hui's record-breaking 5th win of BEST DIRECTOR in HONG KONG FILM AWARDS for her epic THE GOLDEN ERA (2014), which is also the eventual recipient of BEST PICTURE, it is an opportune time to track back her first win at the age of 35 for her fourth feature BOAT PEOPLE, which has established her as a pioneer in the New Wave movement of Hong Kong Cinema.

One requisite notion before watching this film is that the whole account is as fictional as in the movie where the entire Vietnamese populace including our Japanese protagonist, Shiomi Akutagawa (Lam), all speak fluent Cantonese. In fact, the script is a purely fabricated by the screenwriter Kang Chien Chiu, at a time when Hong Kong people were uncertain of their future and for fear of the social overhaul if Chinese Communist Party would eventually take over the colonised financial hub. Chiu's anti-communist slant is the elephant-in-the-room although Hui has tried to sidestep the politics-sensitive issue by emphasising that the film is more focused on personal struggle under the extreme circumstances.

Shot in Hainan island of China as a stand-in for a tropical Ho Chi Minh City, Shiomi is a Japanese photography who has been granted a license to shoot the new life of Vietnamese people under the government of Communist party after the Vietnam War. The commencing flourishing impressions are disrupted when Shiomi decides to roam the city alone without the company of the bureaucratic officials, soon, he is attracted by an impecunious girl Cam Nuong (Ma) on the street, who has two younger brothers and a sick mother (Hao) to raise. Slowly Shiomi realises all his previous photo-shooting visits are the front arranged with the government to give a grand veneer for foreigners, the harsh reality stuns Shiomi, he witnesses extreme poverty, the utter disregard for human life and death can happen anytime anywhere, no one cares, the poor refuses to be relocate to the so-called "new economic district" because young men are violently man-handled to manually remove land mines under cruel administration from the authorities. Disillusioned and unsettled by the darkness and savagery, Shiomi decides to help Cam Nuong and his younger brother flee from this country, but the sacrifice might exceed his expectation.

The film doesn't recoil at the blood-letting casualties, and the intensity of waiting for a land- mine to explode at any moment is excruciatingly taxing, although Hui doesn't intend to let those scenes to be too startling with long cues as a ballast. The murky and repressing air engulfs lives without hope, except fro Cam Nuong, she is precocious but has yet been contaminated by the vice around her, sincere laughters can still burst out between her and Shiomi, Season Ma injects a spirited purity and spunky pizazz into Cam Nuong in her career-debut performance. George Lam exhibits an affable persona as an outsider involuntarily elevated to be a true hero with unyielding ethical virtues.

This is also Andy Lau's screen-debut too, the subplot around him can evoke quite a harrowing weep. Cora Miao, who play's a 40-year-old mistress using her body as the leverage of survival under the tumultuous situation, configures a mesmerising presence with intriguing back-stories left unfinished. Mengshi Qi is Nguyen, the bureaucrat who finds a camaraderie in Shiomi, represents both the executioner and the victim of the government, his poetic reflection "The revolution of Vietnamese is successful, but my own revolution fails" - narrated beautifully with a golden sunset in the background.

The production looks a bit dated by today's standards, and certain editing hiccups are rather noticeable but if we can be impartial to the story's pejorative nature regarding to the Communist regime, the film is a well-considered ode to humanity and altruism when it is urgently needed, also more remarkably, it would be an impossible task for Ann Hui to get a green light under today's cinematic weather neither in mainland China nor in Hong Kong.

BOAT PEOPLE is a hard-hitting slice of social commentary from director Ann Hui, telling the plight of the Vietnamese people following the North's win in the Vietnam War. She based her film on stories told to her by refugees and filmed this movie on Hainan Island which adds to the authenticity of the picture. This fits well into that early '80s grittiness you see in the likes of THE KILLING FIELDS. George Lam, playing a Japanese photographer, is the nominal protagonist but the film is much more interesting when depicting local lives; in particular, Season Ma really shines as the innocent girl and Andy Lau wows in a star-making turn.

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.

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.......

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.