Oh, Saigon - Wikipedia 2007
Oh, Saigon - Wikipedia
===
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Review by AntoniusBlock7 Pro
Oh, Saigon 2007
★★★★
21 Sep 2024
AntoniusBlock7’s review published on Letterboxd:
Stories like this always bring me to my knees, in part because of their emotional power, and in part because they remind me that however I might view my troubles in life, they’re ridiculously small in comparison.
Oh, Saigon is an organic, one hour documentary from Doan Hoang, a Vietnamese American who escaped the fall of Saigon with her family when she was three years old, and at 35 was probing their history, which had often been left unspoken and included relatives she didn’t know about. There may be some of the usual types of experiences and tensions for first generation immigrants, e.g. bullying at school for her brother, and her parents desire to have them be “American” outside the house, “Vietnamese” at home, but when it comes to the aspects of leaving Vietnam and then returning to it decades later to see old family members, there are some really hard to fathom, heartbreaking elements.
Hoang’s father had gone to the equivalent of West Point in Vietnam and fought his whole life against the communists, then had to flee with his family literally on the last helicopter out of Hanoi. He describes climbing over a gate jam-packed with people, flying away from his homeland that he never wanted to leave, and feeling like a failure. He’d gone from flying planes to washing them in America, and his wife had gone from socialite to seamstress. He has brothers back in Vietnam, one of whom fought with the communists from a very young age, who view him as a traitor to their country, something which came out during a rather shocking interview. The mother explains that he never made friends in Louisville, their adopted home, and simply watches television at night.
The mother describes the terror of leaving Saigon as the communists closed in, hiding in a creek bed while being shot at, and we see footage of families in a similar situation at the time, absolutely terrified. She also describes her guilt over losing track of her eldest daughter from her first husband (who was killed in the war), and then having to leave the country without her.
This daughter, Hoang’s half-sister, then escaped the country as a “boat person” six years or so later, enduring an attack from Thai pirates in which they sank her boat, took her aboard, and (after presumably raping her for days; she doesn’t want to talk about it in the present) threw her overboard. Kept afloat by a barrel, she somehow managed to swim to a beach, where she was pummeled by storms for a week. When she made it to America she fought with her parents and left for California, but has now reunited with the family for the film, and to go visit Vietnam for Tet.
As the family travels in Vietnam towards what is now Ho Chi Minh City, they argue, with the eldest daughter often dawdling at stops or to get to the van – almost as if she’s subconsciously testing them or forcing them to wait for her when they didn’t all those years ago. What initially seemed like mundane squabbling soon became riveting when things boil over with her parents, forcing the airing of the painful emotions that had been buried. There are so many ways this family is fractured – along ideological lines, by “Americanization” of the kids, and through traumatic events during the war – and yet the film is an affirmation of their common bond, both as Vietnamese and as family.
This would pair well with other accounts, like Thi Bui’s graphic novel The Best We Could Do, or with any of Hollywood’s big films about the war, like Apocalypse Now, for a refreshing perspective shift. I’m really glad I caught it on the Criterion Channel.
17 likes
Oh, Saigon
| Oh, Saigon | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Doan Hoang |
| Written by |
|
| Produced by | Doan Hoang |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography |
|
| Edited by | Bret Sigler |
| Music by |
|
Release date |
|
Running time | 57 mins |
| Countries | United States, Vietnam |
| Languages | English, Vietnamese |
Oh, Saigon is a 2007 autobiographical documentary by Vietnamese American director Doan Hoang about her family's separation during the fall of Saigon and her attempt to reunite them afterwards. Oh, Saigon was executive produced by Academy Award and Emmy winner, John Battsek. Oh, Saigon received film grants from the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund, ITVS, and the Center for Asian American Media, and after its release, received a number of film festival awards and accolades.
Synopsis
[edit]Airlifted out of Vietnam on April 30, 1975, Doan Hoang’s family was on the last civilian helicopter out of the country at the end of the Vietnam War. Twenty-five years later, she sets out to uncover their story. Her father, a former South Vietnamese major, confronts his political differences with his brothers, whom he never mentioned to his children. Meanwhile, Hoang tries to reconcile her own survivor guilt with her half-sister, who was mistakenly separated from the family during the escape.
Cast
[edit]The main characters in the film are the Hoang family:[1]
- Nam Hoang as Nam - a South Vietnamese pilot who pulls his family out of Vietnam to settle in Kentucky
- Doan Hoang as Doan - Nam's daughter and the film's narrator.
- Hoang Hai as Hai - a Communist soldier who is Nam's older brother.
- Hoang Dzung as Dzung - Nam's younger brother. He is a fisherman.
- Anne Hoang as Anne - Nam's wife. She was a socialite in Saigon, but after the relocation, she works as a seamstress.
- Van Tran as Van - Anne's daughter and Doan's secret half sister. On the day of the airlift, she is left behind.
Also includes the following family members:[2]
- Nhat Hoang
- Dylan Tran Le
Development
[edit]Hoang developed the film over seven years, where she documented her family. In 2005, the Sundance Institute awarded Hoang a grant for the then titled Homeland.[3] She also received funding from the Independent Television Service (ITVS),[4] the Center for Asian American Media,[5] and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.[4]
Filming was done in the United States and Saigon. According to the official website: "The subjects are shot on location in the expanse of America and its suburbs, as well as Saigon’s vibrant, noisy streets, and the rarely-seen breathtaking backwaters of Vietnam – emphasizing the physical differences between two countries that shared a war. Archival footage, moody Super8mm landscapes, and motion-graphics-animated family photographs juxtaposed to clear, colorful DV, shot in a fluid cinema verité–style highlight changes and similarities between past and present."[6]
Release
[edit]![[icon]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small}
Hoang premiered Oh, Saigon in March 2007 at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival[7] She then showcased the film at various film festivals, universities, and museum venues.
Hoang took the film to 16 countries, including a tour of Spain in 2011 and 2012 tour of Vietnam for the US State Department and American Documentary Showcase.
The film is currently available to view on Netflix[8] and Amazon.com.[8]
Reception
[edit]Awards and nominations
[edit]- Grand Jury Prize for Non-Fiction Feature Film – Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, May 2008
- Best Documentary Award - 42nd Brooklyn Arts Council International Film Festival, May 2008
- Best Brooklyn Film - 42nd Brooklyn Arts Council International Film Festival, May 2008
- Best of the Fest – Austin Film Festival, February 2008
- Best Documentary Nominee - San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, March 2007
- Grand Jury Prize Nominee – Vietnamese International Film Festival, April 2009 [4]
References
[edit]- ^ "The Characters". Oh, Saigon.
- ^ Oh, Saigon closing credits
- ^ "Indies : Sundance Documentary Fund Announces Grants For Thirteen Documentary Projects". Filmmakers.com. Media Pro Tech. 2005-11-20. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
- ^ a b c "Oh, Saigon - Photos and Press Kit". ITVS. 1975-04-30. Archived from the original on 2014-02-23. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
- ^ "Funded Projects Archive". Center for Asian American Media. 2009-07-21. Retrieved 2014-02-20.
- ^ "About the film". Ohsaigon.com. - select tab "about the film"
- ^ "SFIAAFF : Browse - Documentary Competition". Festival.asianamericanmedia.org. Archived from the original on 2014-02-24. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
- ^ a b "Oh, Saigon".
===
Oh, Saigon Reviews
Jan 6, 2014
I'm watching this wrenching documentary on streaming Netflix and it's touching me on many levels, first as a Vietnam vet who served a year in Saigon where this family lived - and escaped on the day before the city fell to the North Vietnamese Army in 1975. Secondly, I'm watching it as that naive young Army captain, a two-time participant in that tragic civil war that American hubris and ignorance drew us into and that destroyed or separated millions of Vietnamese families like this one. And, thirdly, I'm also experiencing it as a kind of expatriot from my own family, too, in a sense, and appreciating the healing and uplifting power of family as I watch this Vietnamese family living a refugee's life in an American culture largely alien to them in Louisville, KY, finally make their journey back to their homeland after thirty years in the States - and see the reconciliation between the brothers, one of whom the father of the family hadn't seen in sixty years.
====
Aug 4, 2013
A beautifully told personal movie about how family relationships change and don’t change when going through a traumatic event such as war. Shot over a period of 5 years, Oh, Saigon is about a family who have a lot of different perspectives, from the Fall of Saigon, to the boat people, to assimilating as refugees and their children in America, and those who stayed in Vietnam after the war on both sides. I have seen this movie several times and get more and more out of it with each viewing. Highly recommended.
====
Jun 7, 2009
Awesome film about a family in the Vietnam War. Very real, deep & honest. It's good to see the Vietnamese side of the war, instead of the way they were portrayed in American movies. It makes other Vietnam war films seem very limited in perspective. This film takes the war from the angles of not just soldiers, but of women affected by war as well.
===
May 27, 2009
Really amazing documentary about a Vietnamese family in the Vietnam War - a side that we don't get to see much in the US. Very revealing and moving.
Content collapsed.
Jul 24, 2008
I can't wait to see this. Especially because my friend Christina Goodness helped shoot it! :)
Apr 15, 2008
I've seen this movie three times, and it gets better everytime! So much going on. Very rich and interesting.
Apr 15, 2008
Really moving, beautiful film about a family and the Vietnam War. Inspiring and personal.
Content collapsed.
Avatar
Oct 12, 2007
A powerful story of one family's escape before the fall of Saigon and eventual return to Ho Chi Minh city. Extremely powerful on an individual level and in examining the way war impacts civilians. This short film will air on PBS is May for Asian American History Month.
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Storyline
"If I could put my finger on the moment my family fell apart, it would April 30, 1975," says filmmaker Doan Hoang. On that day, Doan was on the last American helicopter taking civilians out of Saigon on the last day of the Vietnam War. Doan's older sister, Van, was left behind in the chaos while her family fled to the United States. Twenty-five years later, Doan returns to Vietnam to meet the people she left behind. She uncovers what became of her sister in the aftermath of the war. She also learns that her father, who had fought for South Vietnam, had two brothers he never told her about: a North Vietnamese Communist who fought against him, and an anti-war Southern army deserter. In order to heal her family, Doan must convince them to face their divided past and reconcile in Vietnam. Accompanied by gripping images from the war, Oh, Saigon is an intimate, fascinating portrait of a family the demonstrates the bitter consequences of split-second choices and the bitter legacy of war that lives long after the fighting stops.—Jasper Sharp
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8
/10
Gripping
Stories like this always bring me to my knees, in part because of their emotional power, and in part because they remind me that however I might view my troubles in life, they're ridiculously small in comparison.
Oh, Saigon is an organic, one hour documentary from Doan Hoang, a Vietnamese American who escaped the fall of Saigon with her family when she was three years old, and at 35 was probing their history, which had often been left unspoken and included relatives she didn't know about. There may be some of the usual types of experiences and tensions for first generation immigrants, e.g. Bullying at school for her brother, and her parents desire to have them be "American" outside the house, "Vietnamese" at home, but when it comes to the aspects of leaving Vietnam and then returning to it decades later to see old family members, there are some really hard to fathom, heartbreaking elements.
Hoang's father had gone to the equivalent of West Point in Vietnam and fought his whole life against the communists, then had to flee with his family literally on the last helicopter out of Hanoi. He describes climbing over a gate jam-packed with people, flying away from his homeland that he never wanted to leave, and feeling like a failure. He'd gone from flying planes to washing them in America, and his wife had gone from socialite to seamstress. He has brothers back in Vietnam, one of whom fought with the communists from a very young age, who view him as a traitor to their country, something which came out during a rather shocking interview. The mother explains that he never made friends in Louisville, their adopted home, and simply watches television at night.
The mother describes the terror of leaving Saigon as the communists closed in, hiding in a creek bed while being shot at, and we see footage of families in a similar situation at the time, absolutely terrified. She also describes her guilt over losing track of her eldest daughter from her first husband (who was killed in the war), and then having to leave the country without her.
This daughter, Hoang's half-sister, then escaped the country as a "boat person" six years or so later, enduring an attack from Thai pirates in which they sank her boat, took her aboard, and (after presumably raping her for days; she doesn't want to talk about it in the present) threw her overboard. Kept afloat by a barrel, she somehow managed to swim to a beach, where she was pummeled by storms for a week. When she made it to America she fought with her parents and left for California, but has now reunited with the family for the film, and to go visit Vietnam for Tet.
As the family travels in Vietnam towards what is now Ho Chi Minh City, they argue, with the eldest daughter often dawdling at stops or to get to the van - almost as if she's subconsciously testing them or forcing them to wait for her when they didn't all those years ago. What initially seemed like mundane squabbling soon became riveting when things boil over with her parents, forcing the airing of the painful emotions that had been buried. There are so many ways this family is fractured - along ideological lines, by "Americanization" of the kids, and through traumatic events during the war - and yet the film is an affirmation of their common bond, both as Vietnamese and as family.
This would pair well with other accounts, like Thi Bui's graphic novel The Best We Could Do, or with any of Hollywood's big films about the war, like Apocalypse Now, for a refreshing perspective shift. I'm really glad I caught it on the Criterion Channel.
==Letterboxd — Your life in film
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JournalSearch:
Oh, Saigon (2007)Where to watch
SBS On Demand AU
Criterion Channel US
Go Pro to customize
…JustWatch
Review by AntoniusBlock7 Pro
Oh, Saigon 2007
★★★★
21 Sep 2024
AntoniusBlock7’s review published on Letterboxd:
Stories like this always bring me to my knees, in part because of their emotional power, and in part because they remind me that however I might view my troubles in life, they’re ridiculously small in comparison.
Oh, Saigon is an organic, one hour documentary from Doan Hoang, a Vietnamese American who escaped the fall of Saigon with her family when she was three years old, and at 35 was probing their history, which had often been left unspoken and included relatives she didn’t know about. There may be some of the usual types of experiences and tensions for first generation immigrants, e.g. bullying at school for her brother, and her parents desire to have them be “American” outside the house, “Vietnamese” at home, but when it comes to the aspects of leaving Vietnam and then returning to it decades later to see old family members, there are some really hard to fathom, heartbreaking elements.
Hoang’s father had gone to the equivalent of West Point in Vietnam and fought his whole life against the communists, then had to flee with his family literally on the last helicopter out of Hanoi. He describes climbing over a gate jam-packed with people, flying away from his homeland that he never wanted to leave, and feeling like a failure. He’d gone from flying planes to washing them in America, and his wife had gone from socialite to seamstress. He has brothers back in Vietnam, one of whom fought with the communists from a very young age, who view him as a traitor to their country, something which came out during a rather shocking interview. The mother explains that he never made friends in Louisville, their adopted home, and simply watches television at night.
The mother describes the terror of leaving Saigon as the communists closed in, hiding in a creek bed while being shot at, and we see footage of families in a similar situation at the time, absolutely terrified. She also describes her guilt over losing track of her eldest daughter from her first husband (who was killed in the war), and then having to leave the country without her.
This daughter, Hoang’s half-sister, then escaped the country as a “boat person” six years or so later, enduring an attack from Thai pirates in which they sank her boat, took her aboard, and (after presumably raping her for days; she doesn’t want to talk about it in the present) threw her overboard. Kept afloat by a barrel, she somehow managed to swim to a beach, where she was pummeled by storms for a week. When she made it to America she fought with her parents and left for California, but has now reunited with the family for the film, and to go visit Vietnam for Tet.
As the family travels in Vietnam towards what is now Ho Chi Minh City, they argue, with the eldest daughter often dawdling at stops or to get to the van – almost as if she’s subconsciously testing them or forcing them to wait for her when they didn’t all those years ago. What initially seemed like mundane squabbling soon became riveting when things boil over with her parents, forcing the airing of the painful emotions that had been buried. There are so many ways this family is fractured – along ideological lines, by “Americanization” of the kids, and through traumatic events during the war – and yet the film is an affirmation of their common bond, both as Vietnamese and as family.
This would pair well with other accounts, like Thi Bui’s graphic novel The Best We Could Do, or with any of Hollywood’s big films about the war, like Apocalypse Now, for a refreshing perspective shift. I’m really glad I caught it on the Criterion Channel.
17 likes
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