Boat people, passeport pour l'enfer

Original title: Tau ban no hoi

1982
R
1h 49m

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

1.8K

YOUR RATING

Boat people, passeport pour l'enfer (1982)

A Japanese photojournalist revisits Vietnam after the Liberation and learns harsh truths about its regime and its "New Economic Zones".

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A Japanese photojournalist revisits Vietnam after the Liberation and learns harsh truths about its regime and its "New Economic Zones".A Japanese photojournalist revisits Vietnam after the Liberation and learns harsh truths about its regime and its "New Economic Zones".A Japanese photojournalist revisits Vietnam after the Liberation and learns harsh truths about its regime and its "New Economic Zones".

Director
- Ann Hui
Writers
- Cheung Gam Hung
- Kang-Chien Chiu
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

1.8K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Ann Hui
Writers
- Cheung Gam Hung
- Kang-Chien Chiu
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 6 wins & 7 nominations total

Shiomi Akutagawa
(as George Chi-Cheung Lam)

Cora Miao

Nguyen's Mistress
(as Cora Chien-Jen Miao)

Season Ma

Cam Nuong

Andy Lau

To Minh
(as Andy Tak-Wah Lau)

Meiying Jia

Le Van Quyen
(as Mei-Ying Jia)

Mung-Sek Kei

Junyi Guo

Van Lang
(as Jia-Ling Hao)

Shujing Lin

Comrade Vu
(as Shu-Jin Lin)

Jianzhou Cai

Monitor

Tung-Sheng Chang

Doctor

Gamhung Cheung

Ah Thanh

Shui-Chiu Gan

Hengbao Guo

Leader of Team 15

Jialing Hao

Cam Nuong's Mother

Tao Lin

Leader of Team 16

Pingmei Meng

Mrs. Pham

Mengshi Qi

Comrade Nguyen

Huangwen Wang

To Minh's Father

Director
- Ann Hui
Writers
- Cheung Gam Hung
- Kang-Chien Chiu
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
When Chow Yun-Fat turned down the role of To Minh, he recommended to producer Meng Xia a young actor, who had just worked with him on a TV series. Chow didn't know the actor by name. Leading man George Lam spoke of a young actor who played a small role in a movie starring Lam. The young actor made quite an impression and Lam thought the young man would fit in the role of To Minh. But he didn't know the actor by name. As the shooting began in Hainan Island and the role of To Minh was still undecided, the whole crew became anxious. Cinematographer David Chung suggested another young actor and Meng Xia went to meet with him. Xia finally cast the young actor as To Minh. The actor was Andy Lau, who happened to be the same unknown actor who Chow Yun-Fat and George Lam referred to.

Goofs
At the dinner a waiter pours a beer for the journalist with a head of 3-4 cm. After the cut to another angle, only 1 cm is left.

Quotes
Comrade Nguyen: They're too young, Comrade Le and Comrade Vu. They're too eager. They lose proportion. When I see how determined they are... I think I must have been weak when I was young. It makes me feel old.
Shiomi Akutagawa: You aren't old.
Comrade Nguyen: Recently I've been thinking a lot about my youth... here and Paris, drinking French wine, eating French food... even longing for a French woman. I must be old! The Revolution claimed half of my life. And now I realized I'm old. My mind still lives in the colonial past. Vietnam has won her Revolution. But I've lost mine! I know where to get the best French food in Danang. I'll take you there sometime.

Connections
Featured in Keep Rolling (2020)

Soundtracks
La Vie en Rose
Music by Louiguy
Lyrics by Édith Piaf
Performed by Édith Piaf

User reviews9

Featured review

8/10

The Beauty Of Devastation

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.