Gai nhay

This film essentially begins with a newspaper journalist by the name of "Thu" (Kieu Thanh) turning in an article to her newspaper editor concerning the bar scene there in downtown Saigon. Not at all impressed with her writing he sends her back out to gather more information from a more personal perspective. She dutifully complies and after dressing up in suitable attire tries to mingle with a couple of the bar girls in one of the clubs. Unfortunately, not realizing that she is a journalist, they mistake her for a rival competing for the favors of the clientele in that particular night club and severely beat her up in a dark alley a certain distance from there. Two weeks later, after finally being released from the hospital, Thu then goes about trying to track down and identify the women who did this to her. But in her quest to have justice served she gets to know two of these women, "Hoa" (My Duyen) and "Hanh" (Thu Minh) more intimately and discovers that their lives are much more difficult than she ever could have imagined. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film caused quite a sensation in Vietnam at the time due to its blunt depiction of the rather sordid night life in Saigon-especially regarding the issues of illegal drugs and HIV which are more characteristic of capitalistic societies than their communist counterparts. Be that as it may, while this picture certainly had critical and artistic acclaim, I thought the tone was a bit too politically influenced compared to other films of this nature. Likewise, I thought that the overtly spoiled and somewhat feminist character of Hoa was oddly out-of-place in this particular area of the world which lessened the realism to a certain degree. That being said, I found this to be a rather dark and depressing film and considering the faults just mentioned have rated it accordingly. Average.

Gai Nhay ("Bar Girls") is the story of how the other half lives, with a twist. Southeast Asia being known for the multitude of bar girls ready to be "borrowed" for a (usually quite cheap) price, the life these girls live--and the motivations and tribulations that lead them to it--are usually hidden to their oblivious clientéle.

Although this film has less-than-professional cinematography, and a bit of melodrama (which is not too bad until the final monologue "dressing down" an assembled crowd of government and health-organization VIPs), it nonetheless represents a sea-change for domestic Vietnamese film simply in that the authorities in Saigon allowed this film to be shown there at all. It deals with some fairly edgy issues for a conservative, Communist-dominated society (e.g., prostitution, sexuality, HIV/AIDS, class and wealth), but despite its blemishes manages to tell a decent story and develop some believable, sympathetic characters.

Beyond that, anyone familiar with life in modern Saigon will recognize the gritty streets juxtaposed against the fenced, luxurious villas (complete with manicured lawns) of the Vietnamese nouveau-ríche.