Originally published April 20, 2007 at 12:00 AM | Page modified April 20, 2007 at 2:01 AM
Movie review
"Journey From the Fall" portrays family's anguish in postwar Vietnam
"The Americans have abandoned us. They broke their promise. " These are not the words of a nervous, liberated Iraqi but of a midlevel bureaucrat...
Special to The Seattle Times

"Journey From the Fall," with Long Nguyen, Diem Lien, Kieu Chinh, Nguyen Thai Nguyen, Jayvee Mai, Cat Ly. Written and directed by Ham Tran. 135 minutes. Rated R for some violence. In English and Vietnamese with English subtitles. Columbia City, Meridian.
"The Americans have abandoned us. They broke their promise."
These are not the words of a nervous, liberated Iraqi but of a midlevel bureaucrat watching American forces withdraw from Saigon in 1975.
Devouring the final moments of a free Saigon, insurgents flood the streets striking confusion and terror into the South Vietnamese who believed American troops would always protect them. Thus begins the remarkable, deeply moving portrait of a little-known epoch of cultural history that is "Journey From the Fall."
Movie review 
![]()
![]()
Showtimes
"Journey From the Fall," with Long Nguyen, Diem Lien, Kieu Chinh, Nguyen Thai Nguyen, Jayvee Mai, Cat Ly. Written and directed by Ham Tran.
135 minutes. Rated R for some violence. In English and Vietnamese with English subtitles.
Bewildered by communist rulers invading from the north, Long (Long Nguyen) and his wife, Mai (Diem Lien), reluctantly decide for safety's sake that he stay behind while she, their young son and his mother escape by joining the "boat people" until he can reunite with them.
Apart from a few wrenching scenes in movies like "The Killing Fields," we've never seen such an anguished and expressively precise study of the Vietnamese postwar experience. Making his feature debut, writer/director Ham Tran (who arrived in this country as a boat person when he was a toddler) gives extraordinary shades of nuance to his broadly stoked story of parallel journeys. They are intercut — though not always in simultaneous narrative threads — to show the father's futile existence in various "re-education" camps and his family's equally traumatic experience on their passage to a new life in Orange County, Calif.
Torture and boredom are glimpsed with comparable significance in the camp, alternately represented by beatings and "the box" or an earnest conversation on the proper way to consume insects. On the boat, the prospect of starvation, thirst and disease are nearly as fearsome as an assault by pirates.
A first-rate cast, script, committed director and physical production that burns with authenticity make "Journey From the Fall" affecting history for all who wish to avoid the doom of forgetting its lesson.
Ted Fry: tedfry@hotmail.com
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company
Bellevue's new Summer Outdoor Movies in the Park series kicks off
Carole Lombard's slapstick legacy shines at Seattle Art Museum
Train promoting Disney's upcoming "A Christmas Carol" makes a Seattle stop
Movie review: "Moon": Inspired lunacy from Sam Rockwell
At a Theater Near You: Live in Fremont: The undead gather to break a record, watch a film

2009 fireworks time lapse
With strict parking rules enforced at this year's July 4th celebration on Wallingford Ave North, less cars and more spectators filled the streets.
Entertainment | Top Video | World | Offbeat Video | Sci-Tech
shopping

events for Monday, Jul. 6th
- IKEA Summer Sale
- Blackbird Spring Half-Yearly Sale
- Seattle Premium Outlets July 4th Summ...
- Evo Independence Sale
editors' picks
More shopping guides- Landmark Smith Tower mostly vacant
- Property taxes: Appeals shoot up in King, Snohomish Counties
- Palin links resignation to 'higher calling' and blasts media in Facebook posting
- Former NFL MVP McNair killed
- Hard times for tourist towns means good deals for travelers
- Shooting unveils very different sides of McNair
- Tukwila residents rally against light-rail noise
- Quincy Jones remembers "the biggest entertainer on the planet": Michael Jackson
- Confessions of an Idol Addict | "American Idols" on tour: Live coverage from opening date
- Plasma and LCD beware; OLED screens ready to go mainstream
- Seattle Mariners at Boston Red Sox: 07/05 game thread
247 - Palin links resignation to 'higher calling' and blasts media in Facebook posting
172 - Hatred for the NBA runs deep, but don't take it out on the players
137 - Tukwila residents rally against light-rail noise
125 - Former NFL MVP McNair killed
112 - Property taxes: Appeals shoot up is King, Snohomish Counties
103 - Tent City on campus: UW stalls decision
100 - Anti-tax rally in Olympia attracts about 1,500
68 - Seeking your questions
53 - Mariners did their part, now they need help
46
- Property taxes: Appeals shoot up in King, Snohomish Counties
- Hard times for tourist towns means good deals for travelers
- Landmark Smith Tower mostly vacant
- Plasma and LCD beware; OLED screens ready to go mainstream
- Tent City on campus: UW stalls decision
- The People's Pharmacy | Estrogen mimicker found in sunscreen
- Toyota's Toyoda scolds execs for emulating U.S. car companies' mistakes
- Tukwila residents rally against light-rail noise
- Outdoor-theater season kicks off at Volunteer Park
- Seattle safety project: A snake shelter on Beacon Hill
