The University of Hawaii’s Southeast Asian Film Translation Project recently produced two subtitled Vietnamese language films, now available for public viewing in the United States!

BONG SEN (1998) is a remarkable co-production between Algeria and Vietnam. The film won Third Prize at the Seventh Festival of African Cinema in Morocco. In the 1950s, the French Army sent thousands of indigenes, soldiers conscripted from colonies in North Africa, to fight in the so-called “Dirty War” in Indochina. Set against the growing Vietnamese struggle for independence is a love story involving Ali, portrayed by Algerian actor El-Mellouhi Niddal, and Lien (Nguyen An Chinh), a beautiful Viet Minh guerrilla.

PASSERINE BIRD (1962). The Vietnam Film Institute stumbled upon a deteriorating 16mm print of this lost classic which the Hong Kong Film Archive restored and the Center subtitled. The film offers a lyric view of village level resistance to French colonial aggression in Viet Nam in the 1950s. Nga, a young girl, is thrown into the bitter struggles of her fellow countrymen as images of innocent youth are bled away, turning into the steadfastness of nationalist resolve.

In 2008, the University of Hawaii’s Southeast Asian Film Translation Project produced the first subtitled Burmese language film available for public viewing in the United States.

The Legend of Lady Hill is a supernatural melodrama. When young rich city boy, Tun, visits the town Lady Hill and impetuously flirts with a pretty village girl named Thuzar he unknowingly disrupts a village spirit ceremony. When Thuzar’s husband dies in an accident that evening, she and the rest of the village believe it is the vengeful punishment of Ma Ma U, the protective spirit who guards the village. Thuzar and angry villagers blame the recalcitrant Tun and chase him from the village. Twenty years later the repercussions of this sad event are still being felt. When Tun’s son, La Min, visits the same village and meets the beautiful Pha-yaung Ban, all sorts of trouble befalls them. Have the spirits cursed this couple? Or are more terrestrial forces working to keep them apart?

The Legend of Lady Hill is a soap opera love story transfused with Buddhist ethics and Myanmar’s rich religious culture. Scenes rich with traditional music and religious ceremony will please those with an interest in Burmese culture.