Boat People Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Boat People Blu-ray Movie Review

Chinese democracy.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III January 4, 2023

Ann Hui's often overlooked documentary-style drama Boat People is now seen as an early landmark in the Hong Kong New Wave movement, performing well theatrically in its home country and earning plenty of critic cred... but it was also pulled from competition at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival following the protests of certain left-wing sympathizers for its politically-charged content. It's a startling at at times emotionally brutal experience, one that flatly juxtaposes vérité camerawork and an arm's-length narrative with the absolutely devastating treatment of Vietnamese people after their country's post-war takeover by communist China. The surprisingly stoic vibe of its warts-and-all approach clearly makes for a unique cinematic experience, but one you likely won't return to on a regular basis.

Rough road lies ahead, but luckily Boat People takes the sensible approach of showing its content from an outsider's perspective: that's Shiomi Akutagawa (George Lam), a Japanese photographer reporting on post-war life who's given cart blanche by smiling officials. Things start off innocently enough, as Shiomi captures a group of happy schoolchildren playing outside while singing the virtues of former Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh... but this is a carefully staged event, much like grandiose Olympic ceremonies meant to distract from extreme poverty lurking outside stadium walls. Cracks in the façade appear soon enough: Shiomi is assaulted by local police officers for photographing their treatment of a "reactionary", and a family is forced to leave the city for a New Economic Zone. His outlook permanently changes after meeting Cam Nuong (Season Ma) and family including her prostitute mother, as well as To Minh (Andy Lau), who Shiomi eventually follows outside city boundaries to discover the horrific treatment of inmates.

Although these realizations allow us to follow along with Boat People's narrative, the cold and detached nature of its presentation gives it more of a neutral message that works in its favor. Shiomi makes for a compelling everyman, and George Lam's understated performance hits all the right notes. Yet its combination of fly-on-the-wall visuals and brutal behavior, which purposefully creates a kind of emotionally numbing effect that might be extremely off-putting to more sensitive viewers, makes Boat People more of a sobering history lesson that, now over four decades removed from its release (and even further from the subject matter it depicts) is recommended for an even narrower audience. But it's a film you'll remember for all the right or wrong reasons, and that's certainly a feather in its cap.

More than most entries in its ever-growing library, Criterion's treatment of Boat People feels like a natural fit. This new Blu-ray edition actually serves as the film's domestic home video debut -- which, as far as I can tell, even includes VHS and laserdisc -- which makes their new 4K-sourced 1080p transfer an outstanding effort almost by default. Although I have a few reservations about its visual presentation (as well as the state of the audio mix), everything else about this release is top-tier Criterion, from the nicely-appointed booklet to a surprisingly deep collection of bonus features that mix first-hand retrospective comments with a feature-length celebration of director Ann Hui's career. Overall it's a great package, though one that's still hard to recommend to anyone but established fans: as mentioned before Boat People is a pretty difficult watch, and one that doesn't include a particularly high level of replay value.

Boat People Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Criterion's 1080p transfer of Boat People was sourced from their recent 4K resolution scan of the original 35mm camera negative; from that angle, it's hard to find fault with what appears on-screen here. Long-time fans of the film will likely be impressed; its lack of previous domestic home video editions makes this a strong debut indeed, one with incredibly strong organic qualities including a high degree of fine detail, plenty of film grain, and an overall consistent textural appearance that holds up nicely during all but the darkest scenes. My only two areas of concern are what looks to be the obvious teal push of certain sequences (screenshot #4, for starters), which indeed creates plenty of contrast but doesn't exactly look authentic for typical films released during this era. But since I have no concrete evidence for this potential re-grade, it's hard to critique too harshly. One less visible element that's tougher to ignore is the occasional macro blocking, which for the most part is hidden by the copious amounts of natural film grain but can still be spotted along the way. Overall, though, this is a largely pleasing effort that nonetheless looks quite good in motion.

Please note that a German Blu-ray edition from Cargo Records was released in November and, while our database lists it as a single-layered disc, it's unknown how that release fares from a color and encoding standpoint.

Boat People Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Though perhaps through no fault of its own aside from the state of the original 35mm source, Criterion's lossless LPCM mono track is a pretty rough listen at times. Hiss and popping are present but not pervasive and of course there's no significant amount of depth and overall dynamic range, but the real sore-thumb standout is harsh sibilance, which dominates this track to an almost overwhelming degree. Having not seen Boat People before, I can only assume this is how it's always sounded... so at the very least, while this is clearly a below average track to layman's ears, it's at least probably the best possible version of "below average" currently available given the studio's track record.

Optional English subtitles are included during the film and select bonus features for translation purposes only. The former are advertised as a new translation, but I'll have to defer to long-time fans on that one.

Boat People Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in Criterion's typical stocky keepcase with an interior print and a handsome booklet with technical specs, cast/crew credits, and two essays: "Persistence of Vision" by Justin Chang and "Becoming Refugees" by Vinh Nguyen. The bonus features are quite substantial in length and all well worth looking through.

• Ann Hui and Stanley Kwan (26:58) - This recent interview -- subtitled "A Conversation About Boat People" -- was recorded in Hong Kong in August 2021 exclusively for Criterion, and features the director and assistant director as they discuss their longtime friendship, the state of filmmaking past and present, two earlier films by Hui that would unintentionally be part of a thematic trilogy... and of course their collaboration on Boat People, which would eventually be regarded as a cherished landmark of the Hong Kong New Wave.

• Cannes Press Conference (29:06) - A valuable slice of history indeed! This rare press conference from the 1983 Cannes Film Festival captures a point in time when Boat People was initially met with controversy: due to misunderstandings regarding the film's political message, it was unexpectedly pulled from competition before its first screening and includes a defense of the film by director Ann Hui and lead actor George Lam. This piece is mostly in English but unfortunately several exchanges in French do not include optional subtitles.

• As Time Goes By (61:10) - Another rarity, this autobiographical film by director Ann Hui -- which plays out like a series of short interviews -- was made in 1997 at the beginning of Hong Kong's handover from colonial British rule to Mainland China. Among other topics, it includes her memories of childhood, formative school years, family life, and how different aspects of life affected her uniquely humanist approach to filmmaking.

• Keep Rolling (118:16) - Perhaps the centerpiece of these extras, this feature-length documentary was made in 2020 by Ann Hui's longtime production designer and art director, Man Lim-chung. It offers an intimate look at the prolific director's life and career, combining rare archival photos and video clips with interviews from Hui along with Asian cinematic giants including Tsui Hark, Fruit Chan, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Jia Zhangke.

Boat People Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Ann Hui's Boat People is a sobering and often misunderstood drama whose stature has stayed consistent with age. The combination of vérité-style filmmaking with a progressive narrative makes it frequently captivating, yet it's cold and distant by design which makes it more of an occasional watch than something you'll return to often. (Then there's the on-screen violence, which may prove too much for many viewers.) Regardless, it's well worth a watch and Criterion's new Blu-ray is a fine effort, offering solid A/V merits -- with a few reservations, some possibly unavoidable -- and a terrific slate of extras that totals roughly four hours in length. Firmly Recommended to the right audience.