Educational Media Reviews Online

Approximately three-quarters of Vietnam’s population is under forty. The majority work as farmers in rural areas. Focusing on eight Vietnamese under thirty who live in various parts of Vietnam, this film explores how the country has changed since the end of the Vietnam, or American War, and how it is dealing with Western influences on its economic system and culture.

Those interviewed include: a returning Vietnamese-American business leader who was raised in the United States, an engineer working to construct the Ho Chi Minh highway, a farmer struggling to raise her son and provide for her parents and siblings despite losing part of her leg to a land-mine when she was seventeen, two teenage street children who sell lottery tickets to provide money for their aging mother, a married couple who struggle to maintain their cultural heritage while living in an increasingly Westernized city, and a young women who fled as one of the “boat people” when she was a teenager and returned to Vietnam to run an export company.

Despite the many topics and people discussed, the film achieves coherence through effective narration and its focus on the struggle between the opposing forces of tradition and progress, communism and capitalism. It includes interviews, family photographs, and footage of contemporary Vietnam and footage taken during the Vietnam war.

The picture and sound quality are good. The film is narrated in English, with English voice-overs or subtitles provided when Vietnamese is spoken.

This film is well done and provides a broad look at modern day Vietnam. Recommended for college or public libraries with an interest in Vietnam or post-colonialism.