{ "id": "eps40m37xj", "slug": "the-story-of-woo-viet", "title": "The Story of Woo Viet (胡越的故事)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1980s-films", "label": "1980s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1980s-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "China · 1946 to 2000: Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946", "label": "China · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Story of Woo Viet (胡越的故事) is a 1981 Ann Hui Hong Kong drama starring Chow Yun-fat as a Vietnamese refugee turned Manila hitman; second of her Vietnam Trilogy, first Hong Kong Film Awards Best Screenplay winner.", "snippet": "The Story of Woo Viet (胡越的故事) is a 1981 Ann Hui Hong Kong drama starring Chow Yun-fat as a Vietnamese refugee turned Manila hitman; second of her Vietnam Trilogy, first Hong Kong Film Awards Best Screenplay winner.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1980s-films", "markdown": "# The Story of Woo Viet (胡越的故事)\n\n**The Story of Woo Viet** (胡越的故事) is a 1981 Hong Kong drama film directed by Ann Hui (許鞍華), starring [Chow Yun-fat](https://www.edgepedia.org/chow-yun-fat) as a Vietnamese Chinese refugee who escapes to Hong Kong and is drawn into the Manila underworld as a hired killer. It is the second work of Hui's \"Vietnam Trilogy\", between the television film *Below the Lion Rock: The Boy from Vietnam* (1978) and *Boat People* (1982), and it won Best Screenplay at the first Hong Kong Film Awards.[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2015-11-1-20.html) • [2](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/mplus-restored/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / screenplay | Ann Hui; screenplay by Alfred Cheung (張堅庭), revised by script consultant Chiu Kang-chien (邱剛健)[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2015-11-1-20.html) |\n| Cast | Chow Yun-fat (Woo Viet), Cherie Chung (Shum Ching), Cora Miao (Li Lap-Quan), Lo Lieh[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2015-11-1-20.html) |\n| Production | Pearl City Films (珠城); producer Teddy Robin Kwan; cinematography Bill Wong (黃仲標)[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2015-11-1-20.html) • [3](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2026/program-cinema-2026-public/woo-yuet-dik-goo-si-story-woo-viet-2026-09-11-11-00) |\n| Release | 1981, Cantonese, color; the Hong Kong Film Archive lists 89 minutes, while M+, the Venice Film Festival, and the New York Asian Film Festival list 92 minutes[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2015-11-1-20.html) • [4](https://www.mplus.org.hk/tc/cinema/ann-hui-vietnam-trilogy/the-story-of-woo-viet/) • [3](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2026/program-cinema-2026-public/woo-yuet-dik-goo-si-story-woo-viet-2026-09-11-11-00) |\n| Award | Best Screenplay, first Hong Kong Film Awards[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2015-11-1-20.html) |\n| Place in Hui's career | Second installment of the Vietnam Trilogy; the first story Hui conceived herself after ending her partnership with screenwriter Joyce Chan[2](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/mplus-restored/) • [5](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/magazine/ann-hui-filmmaking-evolution/) |\n| Restoration | Restored in 4K in 2026 by M+ Restored; world premiere in the Venice Classics section of the Venice Film Festival[3](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2026/program-cinema-2026-public/woo-yuet-dik-goo-si-story-woo-viet-2026-09-11-11-00) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nWoo Viet, played by Chow Yun-fat, is a former soldier of [South Vietnam](https://www.edgepedia.org/south-vietnam) who smuggles himself to Hong Kong after the [Vietnam War](https://www.edgepedia.org/vietnam-war). While staying in a refugee camp he kills a [Viet Cong](https://www.edgepedia.org/viet-cong) agent who is pursuing him, and with the help of his pen pal Li Lap-Quan (Cora Miao), whom he meets there for the first time, he plans to smuggle himself onward to the United States. During the journey he falls in love with Shum Ching (Cherie Chung), a fellow refugee from Vietnam.[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2015-11-1-20.html) • [6](https://tcmb.culture.tw/zh-tw/detail?id=11000042574&indexCode=MOCCOLLECTIONS)\n\nThe two become stranded in Manila's Chinatown. Shum Ching is forced into prostitution by local triads, and to buy her freedom Woo Viet works for the gangs as an assassin, finally being betrayed by them.[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2015-11-1-20.html) The New York Asian Film Festival's synopsis adds that Woo dreams of a new life in New York City and stays in Manila to rescue Shum Ching after she is seized by sex traffickers, becoming one of the busiest mob enforcers in [Chinatown](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinatown).[7](https://www.nyaff.org/nyaff21/films/the-story-of-woo-viet)\n\nThe character's name was inspired by the pen name of the \"southbound writer\" Sze Ma Chang-fung (司馬長風).[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2015-11-1-20.html)\n\n## The Vietnam Trilogy and its context\n\nAnn Hui made three works about Vietnamese refugees, known as the \"Vietnam Trilogy\": the television film *Below the Lion Rock: The Boy from Vietnam* (1978), *The Story of Woo Viet* (1981), and *Boat People* (1982).[2](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/mplus-restored/) • [8](https://hk.heritage.museum/documents/HK-60-Audio-Tour-Script/Accessibility_passed_20230720/SC/SC_10.pdf) The films respond to the refugee wave that followed the Vietnam War, in which Hong Kong served as the \"first port of refuge\". Between 1975 and 2000 Hong Kong received more than 200,000 Vietnamese; about 143,000 refugees resettled overseas, more than 72,000 non-refugees returned voluntarily, and about 1,400 remaining refugees and boat people were eventually allowed to stay under an expanded local resettlement scheme.[8](https://hk.heritage.museum/documents/HK-60-Audio-Tour-Script/Accessibility_passed_20230720/SC/SC_10.pdf)\n\n*The Story of Woo Viet* continues the concern with Vietnamese refugees shown in *The Boy from Vietnam* but recasts it in the format of a thriller.[4](https://www.mplus.org.hk/tc/cinema/ann-hui-vietnam-trilogy/the-story-of-woo-viet/) M+ describes it as a thematic bridge between the two other works, depicting the refugees' plight through the lens of an action thriller and blending the assassin genre with social commentary.[2](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/mplus-restored/)\n\n## Style and structure\n\nThe Hong Kong Film Archive characterizes the film as maintaining a low-key, cool style throughout, with an ingeniously structured story that repeatedly expresses the protagonist's inner world through his letters.[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2015-11-1-20.html)\n\n**Narrative form.** Li Cheuk-to, Curator-at-large of Hong Kong Film and Media at M+, reads the film as having the most internal tension in Hui's repertoire. On the surface it is a conventional, easy-to-follow assassin story told largely from Woo Viet's viewpoint, but beneath the surface it introduces other perspectives through discordance between sound and image, casting doubt on the narrator's identity and even the narrative structure as a whole. In one example he cites, the off-screen narration of the third letter at the film's end is juxtaposed visually with Woo Viet burying Shum Ching at sea, an event that occurred before the letter was written.[5](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/magazine/ann-hui-filmmaking-evolution/)\n\nLi also situates the film against Hui's first two features, *The Secret* (1979) and *[The Spooky Bunch](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-spooky-bunch)* (1980), which centered on female protagonists and on characters burdened by the past. *The Story of Woo Viet* instead adopts the perspective of a passionate young hero willing to risk everything for love, and its characters strive to break free of the past; although the future is uncertain, the film represents hope for a new life. Hui merged commercial and artistic considerations in a low-budget assassin thriller infused with serious themes, using simple techniques and economical mise-en-scène.[5](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/magazine/ann-hui-filmmaking-evolution/) • [2](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/mplus-restored/)\n\n## Production\n\nThe screenplay was first written by Alfred Cheung, who rented a room from a Vietnamese Chinese landlord while preparing it, and was then revised by script consultant Chiu Kang-chien.[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2015-11-1-20.html) Stanley Kwan served as Hui's assistant director and Ching Siu-tung as action choreographer.[7](https://www.nyaff.org/nyaff21/films/the-story-of-woo-viet) The film was produced by Pearl City Films, with Teddy Robin Kwan as executive producer, Bill Wong as cinematographer, and Yee-shun Wong as editor.[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2015-11-1-20.html) • [3](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2026/program-cinema-2026-public/woo-yuet-dik-goo-si-story-woo-viet-2026-09-11-11-00)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nThe film won Best Screenplay at the first Hong Kong Film Awards.[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2015-11-1-20.html) M+ credits it with foreshadowing the themes of displacement and wandering that preoccupy Hui's later works, and notes that she distinguished herself among New Wave directors by infusing the assassin genre with a serious social message while balancing commercial viability and artistic expression.[2](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/mplus-restored/) The New York Asian Film Festival called it one of Hong Kong's first political dramas, using the plight of [Vietnamese boat people](https://www.edgepedia.org/vietnamese-boat-people) to reflect on wider issues from immigrant displacement to the casual cruelty of violence.[7](https://www.nyaff.org/nyaff21/films/the-story-of-woo-viet) A Time Out review described it as a doomed noir romance rooted in Hui's research into real-life \"boat people\" refugees, and highlighted Chow Yun-fat's charisma in a role that anticipated his evolution into an action hero.[9](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-story-of-woo-viet) • [7](https://www.nyaff.org/nyaff21/films/the-story-of-woo-viet)\n\nIn 2026 the film was restored in 4K under the M+ Restored initiative, supported by CHANEL, and had its world premiere in the Venice Classics section of the [Venice Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-film-festival) on 11 September 2026, with restoration by M+ Museum Limited and laboratory work by Cineric Portugal.[3](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2026/program-cinema-2026-public/woo-yuet-dik-goo-si-story-woo-viet-2026-09-11-11-00) • [10](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/press/mplus-announces-three-newly-restored-films-under-mplus-restored/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [胡越的故事, Hong Kong Film Archive](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/tc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2015-11-1-20.html)\n2. [M+ Restored: The Story of Woo Viet (1981), M+ Museum](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/mplus-restored/)\n3. [Woo Yuet dik goo si (The Story of Woo Viet), Biennale Cinema 2026, La Biennale di Venezia](https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2026/program-cinema-2026-public/woo-yuet-dik-goo-si-story-woo-viet-2026-09-11-11-00)\n4. [胡越的故事 The Story of Woo Viet, 許鞍華越南三部曲, M+博物館](https://www.mplus.org.hk/tc/cinema/ann-hui-vietnam-trilogy/the-story-of-woo-viet/)\n5. [Hope Against an Uncertain Future, by Li Cheuk-to, M+ Magazine](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/magazine/ann-hui-filmmaking-evolution/)\n6. [《胡越的故事》簡介, 國家文化記憶庫](https://tcmb.culture.tw/zh-tw/detail?id=11000042574&indexCode=MOCCOLLECTIONS)\n7. [The Story of Woo Viet, New York Asian Film Festival 2021](https://www.nyaff.org/nyaff21/films/the-story-of-woo-viet)\n8. [「瞧潮香港60+」展覽聲音導航文字稿《胡越的故事》電影海報, 香港文化博物館](https://hk.heritage.museum/documents/HK-60-Audio-Tour-Script/Accessibility_passed_20230720/SC/SC_10.pdf)\n9. [The Story of Woo Viet, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-story-of-woo-viet)\n10. [M+ announces three newly restored films under M+ Restored, M+ Museum press release](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/press/mplus-announces-three-newly-restored-films-under-mplus-restored/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1980s films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-story-of-woo-viet", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-story-of-woo-viet.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Story of Woo Viet (胡越的故事)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-story-of-woo-viet. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Story of Woo Viet (胡越的故事)](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-story-of-woo-viet)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-story-of-woo-viet](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-story-of-woo-viet). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Story of Woo Viet (胡越的故事)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-story-of-woo-viet. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Story of Woo Viet is a 1981 Ann Hui Hong Kong drama starring Chow Yun-fat as a Vietnamese refugee turned Manila hitman; second of her Vietnam Trilogy, first Hong Kong Film Awards Best Screenplay winner." }