Journey from the Fall

Infobox Film
name =Journey from the Fall

---

caption =Theatrical Poster
director =Ham Tran
producer =Lam Nguyen
Ham Tran
writer =Ham Tran
starring =Kieu Chinh
Long Nguyen
Diem Lien
Cat Ly
music =Christopher Wong
cinematography =Guillermo Rosas
Julie Kirkwood
editing =Ham Tran
distributor =ImaginAsian Pictures
released =23 March 2007
30 March 2007 (Expands)
runtime =135 min.
language =English
Vietnamese
budget =$1,600,000
imdb_id =0433398|

"Journey from the Fall" ( _vi. Vượt Sóng) is an independent movie by writer/director/editor Ham Tran, about the Vietnamese reeducation camp and boat people experience following the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. This drama was released on March 23, 2007 by ImaginAsian to sold-out screenings. The film is notable for having been financed entirely by the Vietnamese American community.

ynopsis

The movie traces the story of a family's struggle for survival in the aftermath of the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975 to North Vietnam's Communist regime. After her husband, Long, is imprisoned in a reeducation camp, Mai, her son Lai and her mother-in-law escape Vietnam by boat in the hopes of starting a new life in Southern California. Believing his family dead, Long gives up in the face of brutal conditions, while Mai struggles to keep her family from crumbling under the pressures of life in a new country. When Long learns his family is alive in America, he is reinvigorated and decides he must join them at any cost.

Reception

An early cut of the film was screened in April 2005 in sold-out one-day-only showings in Little Saigon, Washington, D.C., and San Jose to commemorate the 30 year anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. The movie was highly-praised by the Vietnamese diaspora as an accurate presentation of the experiences that many Vietnamese people had to go through. [cite news
url=http://www.nguoi-viet.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=57286&z=124
title=Sáu năm cho một cuốn phim Vượt Sóng - Journey from the fall (Kỳ 1)
author=Thanh Nguyên
publisher=Nguoi Viet Daily News
accessdate=2007-03-26
date=March 20, 2007] [cite news
url=http://www.nguoi-viet.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=57305&z=124
title=Sáu năm cho một cuốn phim Vượt Sóng - Journey from the fall (Kỳ 2)
author=Thanh Nguyên
publisher=Nguoi Viet Daily News
accessdate=2007-03-26
date=March 20, 2007] cite news
url=http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-ca-journey25mar25,0,3736612.story?coll=cl-movies
title=The departure from Vietnam, experienced
author=Howard Ho
accessdate=2007-03-27
publisher=Los Angeles Times
date=March 23, 2007] [cite news
url=http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_5512343
title=Chung: Film connects generations in aftermath of Saigon's fall
author=L.A. Chung
publisher=San Jose Mercury News
date=March 24, 2007
accessdate=2007-03-27] In the process of making the film, the director interviewed more than 400 former boat people, some of whom are cast in the movie even though they are not professional actors.

In the opening weekend, it played in packed theaters, generating $87,442 on just four screens, giving the film the largest per theater average for that weekend ($21,861) [cite news
url=http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_5526757
title=Per screen, `Journey' has other films in U.S. beat
publisher=San Jose Mercury News
date=March 26, 2007
accessdate=2007-03-27] .

The movie received mostly favorable reviews. In the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, it received an 92% "fresh" among all reviews and 100% among the "cream of the crop" and is currently in the Top 100(27th) Best Movies of 2007 [cite web
url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/journey_from_the_fall/
title=Journey From The Fall (2007)
publisher=Rotten Tomatoes
accessdate=2007-06-05] . Matt Zoller Seitz of "The New York Times" remarked that the director "achieves the impossible" and called it a "tearjerker" [cite news
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/movies/23jour.html?bl&ex=1174795200&en=cfa6961cfc348721&ei=5087%0A
title=Journey From the Fall: Surviving in the Aftermath of Vietnam
author=Matt Zoller Seitz
date=March 23, 2007
accessdate=2007-03-27
publisher=New York Times] . "The Los Angeles Times" called it a "superbly wrought saga of loss and survival" and "an example of sophisticated, impassioned filmmaking involving mainly people who lived through the harrowing experiences so unsparingly depicted" [cite web
url=http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-journey23mar23,0,2370960.story?coll=cl-mreview
author=Kevin Thomas
publisher=Los Angeles Times
date=March 23, 2007
title=Movie Review: Journey From the Fall
accessdate=2007-03-27] . Bruce Newman of the "San Jose Mercury News" called it "heartbreaking" and gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars [cite news
url=http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_5497381
title=Vietnam family's tale will break your heart
author=Bruce Newman
publisher=San Jose Mercury News
date=March 22, 2007
accessdate=2007-03-27] . Russell Edwards from "Variety" said it "deserves to be seen by a wider commercial audience" and is "frequently enthralling" [cite news
url=http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117928600.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0
publisher=Variety
title=Reviews:Journey from the Fall
author=Russell Edwards
date=October 18, 2005
accessdate=2007-03-27] . "New York Magazine" had a negative review of the movie, saying that it has "several powerful sequences" but "never quite come [s] alive" [cite news
url=http://nymag.com/movies/listings/rv_52844.htm
title=Journey From the Fall
publisher=New York Magazine
date=March 23, 2007
accessdate=2007-03-27] . Bill White of the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" was even more critical, suggesting that "this "Journey" doesn't know where it's going", criticizing the "careless cinematography" and "clumsy stag [ing] " [cite news
url=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/312343_journey20q.html
title=This 'Journey' doesn't know where it's going
author=Bill White
publisher=Seattle Post-Intelligencer
date=April 19, 2007
accessdate=2007-04-24] .

Controversies

The "OC Weekly", an alternative weekly in Orange County, California, published two reviews of the film. The first and longer review was written by R. Scott Moxley, praised the director for "bring [ing] to life the true South Vietnamese experience" [cite news
url=http://www.ocweekly.com/film/film/after-the-war/24978/
title=After the War
author=R. Scott Moxley
publisher=OC Weekly
date=April 20, 2006
accessdate=2007-05-23] . The second and much shorter review was published almost a year later, written by Scott Foundas. In his review, Foundas praised the film for being "one of the few movies to depict Vietnam and its aftermath through the eyes of the Vietnamese" but ultimately characterized it as "old-fashioned and even phony" [cite news
url=http://www.ocweekly.com/web/web/journey-from-the-fall-review/26953/
title=Journey from the Fall Review
author=Scott Foundas
publisher=OC Weekly
date=April 1, 2007] . This conclusion brought a flurry of letters to the paper, most disagreeing with Foundas and taking offense at his "phony" characterization [cite news
url=http://www.ocweekly.com/web/web/review-sparks-outcry/26951/
title=Review Sparks Outcry
publisher=OC Weekly
date=April 1, 2007
accessdate=2007-05-24] [cite news
url=http://www.ocweekly.com/columns/letters/letters/27112/
title=Letters
publisher=OC Weekly
date=May 10, 2007
accessdate=2007-05-24] , prompting Foundas to clarify his review, claiming that he was "by no means suggesting that the history depicted by the movie didn't happen, but rather that matters were not nearly as black-and-white as Mr. Tran makes them seem" [cite news
url=http://www.ocweekly.com/web/web/the-critic-responds/26952/
title=The Critic Responds
publisher=OC Weekly
author=Scott Foundas
date=April 1, 2007
accessdate=2007-05-24] .

In Vietnam, where the movie was neither filmed nor shown officially, pirated copies were so prevalent that the government issued orders to confiscate all DVD copies [cite news
url=http://english.vietnamnet.vn/lifestyle/2007/05/698083/
title=More illegal anti-government DVDs confiscated
publisher=VietNamNet
date=May 23, 2007
accessdate=2007-05-24] . The film was banned for its "reactionary" content. The government consider the film "defamation" and a "distortion" of its policy of sending people to reeducation camps after 1975. The film was considered such a threat that the Ministry of Public Security's newspaper "Công an Nhân dân" featured an article warning about the "poisonous film" and claiming that "most overseas Vietnamese are indifferent or critical of this movie"cite news
url=http://www.vnmedia.vn/print.asp?newsid=90986
title=Cảnh báo về một bộ phim độc hại
publisher=Công an Nhân dân
date=May 21, 2007
accessdate=2007-05-23] . The article also quoted Foundas and several random people in online message boards to bolster its claim.

Release

The movie is distributed by ImaginAsian Pictures, and released in Orange County, New York City, and San Jose on March 23, 2007 to sold-out screenings. With a total gross of $87,442 in its opening weekend, it has the highest opening weekend for any Vietnamese diasporic movie to date. The opening weekend's per-screen average of $21,861 was the highest of any movie that opened on the March 23 weekend [http://enderminh.com/blog/archive/2007/03/26/1586.aspx] , and the second weekend's average of $16,513 per screen was number one as well, despite expanding to two additional screens.

As of July 16, the film has grossed over $630,000, despite a limited release that never exceeded fourteen theaters at a time. [cite news
url=http://www.indiewire.com/boxoffice/070522.html
title=indieWIRE:BOT - Box Office Table for May 22
publisher=indieWIRE
date=May 22, 2007
accessdate=2007-02-23] .

Since its opening weekend on March 23, 2007 it has expanded to Dallas, Houston, Washington, DC, San Diego, Chicago, San Francisco, Mountain View, Daly City, Seattle, Berkeley, Honolulu, Atlanta, Portland, Sacramento, Vancouver, and is expanding to other cities throughout the summer in what is called a "rolling release".

Awards

* Grand Jury Prize - Amazonas International Film Festival, Brazil
* Winner, Best Feature Film – Anchorage International Film Festival
* Winner, Best Cinematography - Milano International Film Festival
* Winner, Long Nguyen, Best Actor - Newport Beach Film Festival
* Special Jury Prize - Newport Beach Film Festival
* Audience Award - San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
* Grand Jury Award - San Diego Asian Film Festival
* Jury Award - Dallas Asian Film Festival
* Winner, Ham Tran, Best Director - Asian Festival of First Film
* Winner, Lam Nguyen, Best Producer – Asian Festival of First Film
* Audience Award - Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
* Special Project Award - The Princess Grace Foundation, USA
* Best Feature Film – Boulder International Film Festival
* Winner, Best Feature Film – Vietnamese International Film Festival
* Best Independent Film - AZN Asian Excellence Award

The movie was not eligible for competition in the Sundance Film Festival even though it was an official selection, due to the fact that it was screened prior at a Korean film festival (only world premiere films at Sundance are eligible for competition).

DVD

The 2-disc DVD is being released on October 31, 2007 which includes a 38-minute "The Making of Journey from the Fall", a 135-minute roundtable discussion/commentary with cast and crew, a deleted scene and alternate ending, as well as original theatrical trailer and TV spots.

Cast

* Diem Lien as Mai Nguyen
* Kieu Chinh as Ba Noi (Grandmother)
* Long Nguyen as Long Nguyen
* Nguyen Thai Nguyen as Lai Nguyen
* Cat Ly as Phuong

See also

* Boat people
* Boat People (film)
* Overseas Vietnamese
* Vietnamese International Film Festival
* Bolinao 52
* The White Silk Dress (2007 film)

References

External links

* [http://www.journeyfromthefall.com Official Website]
* [http://enderminh.com/blog/archive/2006/01/13/1161.aspx Interview with Ham Tran]
* [http://cbs5.com/video/?id=[e-mail] CBS 5 TV interview]
* [http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=journeyfromthefall Journal from the Fall in YouTube]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/culturesport/story/2007/03/070326_vuotsong.shtml Hành trình "vượt sóng" qua phim] on BBC (Vietnamese)