Surname Viet Given Name Nam
‘Surname Viet Given Name Nam’ is a lyrical and skilfully constructed filmed essay on the repression of women in Vietnamese society. Film-maker Trinh T Minh-Ha elicits confessional interviews from five Vietnamese women as the cornerstone of her film. Her subjects include a doctor, an embassy maid, a former refugee, a student who has grown up in America, and a woman whose husband was imprisoned after the Communist take-over of South Vietnam. According to the documentary, the Communist triumph in the Vietnam war brought no change to the time honoured status of women as chattels. The popular concept of a woman's life divides it into three stages: a “lady” before marriage, a “maid” during marriage and a “monkey” after marriage.
Of marriage and loyalty: 'daughter she obeys her father; wife she obeys her husband; widow she obeys her son.' The film plays on the questions of identity, memory and culture. It focuses on aspects of Vietnamese culture as seen through the history of women's resistance in Vietnam, the oral tradition, images promoted by the media and the lives and visions of Vietnamese women.
Description Source: Cinenova Catalogue (1994). Edited by Kate Norrish. Editorial committee: Elaine Burrows, Liane Harris, Helen de Witt