Akutagawa is a Japanese reporter invited by the Communist authorities to make photos of the country after the Vietnam War. However, he is more interested in capturing the dark side of the new order, including persecution of people defying Communism. Akutagawa becomes friends with Cam Nuong, a poor teenage girl who lives with her two brothers and prostitute mother. Akutagawa is almost robbed by To Minh, but has pitty on the lad and tries to help him escape the country. To Minh bribes a guard to board a boat leaving the country, but it is a trap, and all the people are shot by the army in an ambush. Akutagawa is shot and killed while fleeing from the army, but is able to help Cam Nuong and her brother board a boat leaving the country.
Even though a political film, "Boat People" is an interesting and honest achievement, a rare depiction of the state of things after the end of the Vietnam War, and one of the more famous achievements by director Ann Hui. Shown from the perspective of the Japanese reporter Akutagawa, it is assembled of small vignettes and episodes in life, which slowly turns from light neart the start to a darker tone near the finale. These darker moments are more expressionistic and inspired: in one of them, Cam Nuong's little brother Nhac scavenges along the cannal, randomly undigs a bomb, holds it in his hand, and it explodes in the same scene, shocking both Akutagawa and Cam Nuong who saw that. The fact that this happens just so casually, in a minute, is scary. This ties in with the film's theme, in which it digs itself under the surface of the Communist government to unearth the unpleasant, dark side of society. It shows more and more such sad scenes (To Minh is forced to crawl and search for hidden land mines on the countryside, and when his friend is killed in an explosion, the former is locked up inside a hanging barrel as a punishment; people trying to escape the country on a boat are machine-gunned in an ambush), and it seems it follows a fear at that time of what could happen once Hong Kong is returned to Communist China. Despite a couple of melodramatic moments and a slow pace, the film has weight and meaning, whereas George Lam is excellent as Akutagawa.
Grade:++
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