Boat People follows the adventures of a Japanese photo-journalist, Akutagawa Shiomi (George Lam), who revisits Vietnam where he covered the Communist victory three years earlier. He befriends a local girl, Cam Nuong (Season Ma), an encounter that alters the course of their lives forever. Grappling unflinchingly with many of the dilemmas and controversies in the aftermath of war, the film captures with amazing finesse a cross-section of characters walking a fine line between suppression and freedom, death and survival, humanity and ideology. Used dexterously by Ann Hui, mise-en-scene, art and set designs combine to sublimate the expression of human struggle to an aesthetic form. Hsia Moon emerged from retirement in 1979 to found Bluebird and shrewdly and boldly invested on a non-commercial feature that took five million dollars and three years to complete. Hsia generously afforded her screenwriters seven months to incubate their ideas and refine their craft. The result was a box office sensation, a multi-winning Hong Kong Film Awards winner and a Cannes official selection.

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