SAN JOSE, Calif. - “I want to bring the Vietnamese community together,” Ringo Le proclaimed before a crowd of students. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Ringo is the director and writer for the musical film, Saigon Love Story. He is a graduate of California State University, Los Angeles with a degree in Film and Television Broadcasting. Later he mentions to me that students gave him strange looks as if they found that hard to believe he could unite the community. I can only speculate what their hesitation would be. Is it hard to believe that a film can do that? Or perhaps given the history of the Vietnamese community in San Jose so far, bringing the Vietnamese together is farfetched and idealistic? Or perhaps he is merely trying to promote his film, and students are simply dimissing his statements as commercial hype. But whatever doubts filled those students mind, “for a brief moment, I saw the community united,” says Huy Duong, President of the United Vietnamese Student Associations of Northern California (UVSA).

On Saturday evening, a red carpet premiere was scheduled at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. Vietnamese journalists and television anchors snapped shots of the crowd and interviewed moviegoers. Calling the ticket hotline got you on the line with Ringo’s mother. The lobby was lined with tables selling soundtracks and t-shirts to the film, tabled by Ringo’s sister. And of course Ringo’s father, David Le, was one of the film’s Executive Producer. Adding his brother D.J. Le to the mix, with every family member having a role in bringing the film to success, you really got a sense of the independent feel of this film, produced with a budget of about $1 million. And despite Ringo’s initial assessment of “not doing so well” on ticket sales, it was clear that evening that tickets were mostly sold out, with the venue seating approximately 2,600 people. 

The premiere featured a concert performance by some famous local singers, and was to be followed by the screening of the film. Nguyễn Nam Lộc, a distinguished community activist, was the Master of Ceremony for the evening. Several singers graced the stage singing songs reminiscing of the city of Sài Gòn, including performances by Lưu Bịch, Hoàng Nam, Thanh Lan, and one of the most popular, Ý Lan. She charmed the crowd in her glittering áo dài regalia, though admitted it was not the most appropriate attire in order to rock the microphone singing Annie Lennox’s “Sweet Dreams Are Made of These.” But we also had a guest performance by lead actor Hứa Vĩ Văn singing the theme song to Saigon Love Story. 

After the concert, a raffle was conducted to give away furniture as prizes, donated by Ringo’s father, David Le, who owns a furniture store in Fremont. I found this to be unnecessary because people came and would have stayed to see the movie anyway. 

The film is screened before the audience, and takes place in late 1980s Vietnam, about a young boy, Danh who bows to pressure from his mother to fulfill a successful career as a furniture store manager and to marry the store owner’s daughter, Xuân. Unfortunately his true love lies with a street vendor, Tâm, who repays her debt to him for selling him a blank tape by serenading him with her song, “Saigon Love Story.” Thus Danh must choose between maintaining traditions or following his heart.

“It’s a choice many second-generation immigrants must face,” Ringo said, “Whether we uphold tradition, or create our own set of values.” 

I sometimes here a sniffle of tear from the row behind me because of the subtle yet meaningful references to life in Vietnam, such as the paper flapping against the spokes of a bicycle, or the family phở business that is run from inside their home with tables set up on the sidewalk. Ý Lan remarked earlier that films like these were important because it showed the nuances of Vietnamese culture that you normally would not see in dubbed Chinese or Korean films. Also, this was one of the first films to focus on life in Vietnam without emphasis on the war. 

“My goal was to make a film that looked at Vietnamese people intimately in their daily lives, and was not about war,”' says Ringo, “I wanted to look at the regular lives of people, not politics. Growing up, all we ever learned in school about Vietnam was the war. The rest of the country was like an afterthought.” 

But this film was different in that it was a musical, and so song was interwoven into the storyline, a marked departure from other works in the industry. Of particular note was a reference to a side character in the film was a victim of human trafficking, in which, according to her lines, she was sexually abused by her employer under the threat of witholding her salary from being sent to her impovershed family. Although this wasn’t a necessary scene, it underlines Ringo’s need to highlight this ongoing problem. I was also amazed that the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture and Information allowed him to shoot that scene, given their tendency to promote only a positive image of Vietnam. But perhaps Lê Hoàng’s 2003 “Bar Girls”, which looked at the grim reality of prostitutes in Vietnam, illustrated the increasing relaxation of the government’s censorship policies in cinema. 

After the film, I went to the VIP Reception where Ringo presented certificates to the sponsors who helped make the premiere happen. I asked Ringo if the film tour took time away from his ability to focus on the next film. 

“Yes it’s definitely a full-time job,” Ringo said, “I haven’t had time to focus on the next project, and I still have four more stops to do.” 

With several distinctions at film festivals around the world, including a nominee as “Winds of Asia – Best Film” at the Tokyo International Film Festival, and having to fly in to Shanghai, Hawaii, Houston and as of yet more cities, I feel lucky to have Ringo still consider the Bay Area his home. He has shown interest in mentoring students aspiring to become filmmakers, and has already supported the local Vietnamese Student Associations by donating a portion of the ticket sales back to the groups. 

So for a brief moment, Ringo Le did bring the Vietnamese community together, from students to elders, parents to children, and homeland Vietnamese to overseas Vietnamese. The next step, of course, is to sustain it. 

Author: Bao Thien Ngo is the Internal Vice President of the United Vietnamese Student Associations of Northern California, and a student at De Anza College majoring in Graphic Design.

Members of Vietnamese Student Associations gather in front of the Center for the Performing Arts in San Jose to watch the premiere of the musical film, Saigon Love Story.