The Story of Woo Viet
(Woo Yuet dik goo si)

Prolonging the work begun with a TV film called The Boy from Vietnam (1978), Ann Hui brings attention to the Vietnamese refugees’ situation. If nothing seems outright ideological in this second part of a trilogy closed a year later with Boat People, the cutting B movie that is The Story of Woo Viet does not camouflage its true intentions under the genre’s usual traits. Conversely, the film imposes its action’s tragic coolness. Having arrived in Hong Kong from Saigon on a makeshift boat, Woo Viet (Chow Yun-Fat’s first, memorable, appearance) seems to create little illusion about having arrived safe and sound. He just hopes he won’t stagnate in the refugee camp from which a friend is meant to rescue him… JB