Journey from the Fall

Make no mistake about it,the Vietnam war was a nightmare for all who were present. It was a war that we could have lost (and did!). Until now, any story of the Vietnam conflict was told mainly from the American perspective. Journey From The Fall is the first film (at least for us Americans) to tell the story from the Vietnamese experience. The plot seems to be a trilogy of stories during the fall of Saigon. A family is torn apart when the father is imprisoned by the Viet Cong and is sent to a re-education camp (read that as concentration camp)to be whipped into a proper Vietnamese citizen. The rest of the story concerns the rest of the family who manages to make it to America & be a part of the fabric that is the American experience. This is a film that is at times brutal to watch, but is a testament to the endurance of the human spirit. About 98 to 99% of the film is spoken in Vietnamese with subtitles, but don't let that keep you from seeing this heartbreaking, but uplifting & powerful film.

I want to thank Mr. Ham Tran and his team for making this true and tearful film.

It brought back many memories when life was full of hardships, sufferings and miseries.

It's now the past for so called "the boat peoples", however, the Communist is still controlling Vietnam.

Life is getting better after the fall of communism in the East Europe, but freedom is still the dream of the Vietnamese...

Wish them have all the courage and lucks ... till one day the sun will rise, the kites will fly ... in that wonderful country !

Filmmakers are always trying to find ways to innovate, trying to find a new story or way of telling their story that hasn't been done. The great majority fail in this quest, but there are a select few that do manage to change things, or to open a new door.

Journey From The Fall is one such film, a film that tells a story that other filmmakers have not. It is also a gorgeous, meticulous and incredibly moving piece of art. These two things coupled means that this film will hopefully stake a place in the medium, and have a chance to reach a wide audience -- because this is a story that must be heard.

I, myself, am Caucasian, and do not have ancestors that had to bear an inhuman journey in some stagnant, oppressive hold of a boat, crammed in with other families in the faint hopes of escaping the aftermath of the Viet-Nam war. And yet, I was so, so moved by this film. Its ability to connect with the viewer transcends race and history. Knowing that you're watching a true story, knowing that these people and so very many others have gone through what these characters have, I promise, it will rip your heart out.

I think the biggest question we have about prospective movies is, 'why do I want to see this?' to which I'd answer that this is such a huge piece of history that we simply haven't heard a thing about. All those stories about American troops going off to the war, coming home, living with the ghosts of the VC, agent orange, the Khmer Rouge, rejection at home, etc etc... with all of that, we have no idea what happened in that country after we left. It's time to start finding out -- and this film is the first step.

This is truly an achievement of artistic and technical brilliance, and stands out in every category a film can. Bring your tissue, you won't soon forget this.

i could not stop crying through the film, and i am not a crybaby. this case was different because it is the story of the refugees and the people that were left behind. i know it hit me deep down because i finally got to see a beautiful film about the struggles of my parents and grandparents. i hope that everyone else will still feel the impact of this story that is based on true events because it was a very difficult time for all the vietnamese families who lived through the war. my parents have yet to go back to viet nam and this film makes we want to take the journey for them to see their home land which they still love and had to leave behind, although we know it has changed a lot in thirty years. even to this day my parents are reconnecting with people they new in viet nam and they are all over the place, here in southern California, also in northern California, Texas and in new york.

Great work for your first (public) movie, producers. And of course, it has to be a great teamwork for such a successful film. Although the movie is a bit abstract, it serves to bring back the painful memory of Vietnamese boat-people and remind our people of the cost we, our family members, our loved ones, had paid for where we are today. Freedom has its costs. The movie really shows how passionate you are about making movies and the missing part of Vietnamese history and writing about it in cinema pictures. The casting job was very well done. Long Nguyen and Diem Lien are very true to their roles. Kieu Chinh is irreplaceable. The lighting can be improved.