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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.
Following Ah Man’s arrival in Hong Kong as a stowaway, the Vietnamese teenager seeks out his cousin for help to earn a living. Thereafter he becomes an apprentice with a compatriot Vietnamese painter. One day, Ah Man accidentally discovers his cousin’s disgraceful secret, while the painter faces deportation for his own illegal residency status. The Boy from Vietnam marked the debut of Ann Hui’s Vietnam Trilogy.
The Story of Woo Viet, seven years before they traded wistful looks in An Autumn's Tale. Chow, in one of his earliest and meatiest film roles, plays the title role of Woo Viet, a Vietnamese refugee who hopes to immigrate to the United States.
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.