Boat People (1983)

Movie
Audience Score
76
Boat PeopleCriterion Channel logoWatch on Criterion Channel
R 1 hr 49 minNov 13th, 1983DramaVietnam Trilogy PosterPart of Vietnam Trilogy
A Japanese photojournalist revisits Vietnam after the liberation to document the nation, and begins following and documenting the young children from a poor Vietnamese family.
StarringGeorge Lam Chi-CheungSeason MaCora Miao
DirectorAnn Hui

Movie Details

Theatrical Release:November 13th, 1983
Movie Box Office Gross:$1,988,145 (Worldwide)
Production Companies:Bluebird Movie Enterprises
Movie Tags:
woman directorphotographyvietnamphotojournalismvietnamese womanhong kong new wavesafe passage bribesland mine finders

Vietnam Trilogy

Long before Hong Kong declared itself the ‘first port of asylum’ for Vietnamese refugees in 1979, tens of thousands of Vietnamese had already been flocking to the city by cargo ships in the four years prior. Ann Hui made her first creative endeavour to chronicle this chapter of Hong Kong’s history with acute insights in the TV drama Below the Lion Rock: The Boy from Vietnam. Subsequently, as Vietnamese migrants became an increasingly contentious issue in Hong Kong, Hui directed two more films on the same topic, The Story of Woo Viet and Boat People. Collectively, these three works became known as the Vietnam Trilogy, marking the stellar rise of Hui’s filming career.