Boat People

1982 1h 49m CN

🙌

7.6

BANGER

★7.6TMDB · 62

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

George Lam Tsz-Cheung
Shiomi Akutagawa
Season Ma
Cam Nuong
Cora Miao
Nguyen's Mistress
Andy Lau
To Minh
Tung-Sheng Chang
Doctor
Qi Mengshi
Comrade Nguyen
Jialing Hao
Cam Nuong's Mother
Jia Meiying
Le Van Quyen

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ann Hui
Writers: Chiu Kang-Chien
Languages: Cantonese, English, Japanese, Vietnamese
Countries: Hong Kong

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

44 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 4 languages: Cantonese, English, Japanese, Vietnamese.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Part of the "Vietnam Trilogy" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

AWARDS

Did you know

Directed by Ann Hui, shot by Wong Chung-Gei. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Law Wing-Fai. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Kin Kin shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

George Lam Tsz-Cheung and Season Ma and Cora Miao carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ann Hui directs. Wong Chung-Gei behind the camera. Law Wing-Fai scores. Kin Kin cuts. Produced in Hong Kong. Dialogue in Cantonese, English, Japanese, Vietnamese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

144 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Dialogue crosses 4 languages: Cantonese, English, Japanese, Vietnamese.
3Part of the "Vietnam Trilogy" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
5Directed by Ann Hui, shot by Wong Chung-Gei. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Law Wing-Fai. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Kin Kin shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8George Lam Tsz-Cheung and Season Ma and Cora Miao carry the top of the cast.
9IMDB entry: tt0084807 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Only 62 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
11Classified under 8 themes, including "vietnam", "photography", "photojournalism", "woman director".

The technical file

Cinematography: Wong Chung-Gei
Original score: Law Wing-Fai
Editing: Kin Kin
Runtime: 109 min · 1h 49m
Status: Released
Box office: $1,988,145
Original language: CN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Boat People (1982)

Awards

Hong Kong Film Award for Best Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

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.