A QUIET LITTLE TOWN
A film review by Thomas E. Billings
Copyright 1989 Thomas E. Billings
Synopsis: On the way to a wedding in a rural area, an important government official, a Minister, is injured when his car hits a slow-moving wagon. However, all the passengers of the car are unconscious - which one is the Minister? Two counties vie for the honor of giving medical treatment to such an important official, and a comedy of errors ensues. An extremely funny satire of the bureaucracy that controls the smallest details of life in Vietnam.
Vietnam (English subtitles), black and white, 1986, 90 minutes. Director: Le Duc Tien
It is a Sunday; an important wedding is to take place in a rural county in Vietnam. The bride is related to the previous County (Communist) Party Committee Chairman, and the groom is related to the present County Party Chairman. An important government Minister has been invited to the festivities; he is coming (by car) from Hanoi.
Enroute his car has an accident, and all persons are thrown out of the car in the accident. Two ambulances arrive, one from each of two neighboring (and rival) counties. They remove the injured to their respective County Medical Clinics. From here on, action is centered in one of the Counties.
It turns out that Government regulations prevent the Clinic from operating on their patient; their facilities are not the correct "class" (Ministers, being high officials in the "classless" socialist society that Vietnam is, receive, by law, a much higher class of medical service than do the ordinary peasants.)
The previous and present County Party Chairs seize the opportunity to try to "save" the Minister. They plot and scheme to try to coerce the Director of the County Clinic into operating on the Minister, thereby "saving" him. They want to exploit the affair to promote their County and also gain favors with corrupt Hanoi officials.
Meanwhile the young bride waits for her groom to appear. However, he is busy helping the current County Party Chairman with his plans for the Minister. The crazy farce continues, with many interesting twists.
All in all, this is an excellent film, and a biting satire of the corruption and mindless bureaucracy that controls the smallest details of life in Vietnam. There is an interesting scene where two men who have just been discharged from the Medical Clinic are complaining that they are still sick. As they walk out, they encounter the Clinic's ambulance driver, who explains that the Clinic meets its production quota for diagnoses and treatments by discharging and readmitting the same patient multiple times! He then reassures the men that they are surely good for at least 3 discharges and readmissions; he tells them to come back the next day!
It is a very pleasant surprise that such a wickedly funny satire (with a decided anti-government slant) was made in Vietnam. As such, this is one of the first examples of liberalization in Vietnamese cinema. Compared to the two Vietnamese films previously reviewed (WHEN THE TENTH MONTH COMES, THE ABANDONED FIELD), this film is vastly superior. Overall, an excellent film; definitely worth seeing.
Distribution. This film is in limited distribution as part of "The Vietnam Film Project," a touring exhibition organized by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, with assistance from The Asia Society (New York) and the East-West Center (Hawaii).
Reviewer: Thomas E. Billings, Department of Statistics University of California, Berkeley Reviewer contact: teb@stat.Berkeley.EDU
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