movie world

Ann Hui’s Boat People was a controversial watershed for the Hong Kong New Wave. Shot in mainland China not long after the Sino-Vietnamese War, the 1982 film was accused of being everything from pro-China to anti-communist. The French even removed it from competition at Cannes as a gesture of goodwill toward Vietnam.

Hui's impressive film sets out to explain why so many Vietnamese (mostly of Chinese descent) took to the South China Sea as refugees in the late 1970s. A Japanese photo-journalist covers the 'liberation' of Danang in 1975 and returns to report on 'New Vietnam' three years later. Initially a pawn of the propaganda bureau, he gradually starts to see cracks in the facade...

The title in Chinese literally means “Run Towards the Angry Sea”.

BD50 | 1080p AVC | 01:49:36 | 45.4 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Chinese
Subtitles: English

Director: Ann Hui
Cast: George Lam, Season Ma, Andy Lau, Meiying Jia, Mung-Sek Kei, Junyi Guo, Shujing Lin, Cora Miao, Jianzhou Cai
Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Drama

Extras:
• New conversation between Hui and filmmaker Stanley Kwan, who was the movie’s assistant director (26:58)
• Keep Rolling, a 2020 documentary about Hui made by Man Lim-chung, Hui’s longtime production designer and art director (1:58:16)
• As Time Goes By, a 1997 documentary and self-portrait by Hui, produced by Peggy Chiao (1:01:10)
• Press conference from the 1983 Cannes International Film Festival (29:06)