Boat People Page #3

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Why not take some?

Get clicking!

This is Akutagawa.

Do sit down.

Please!

What will you have?

A beer!

No, no beer today.

She has all kinds of spirits,

hidden away.

Today we'll have whiskey.

Fine!

Guess how old she is?

Thirty?

Past forty. You'd never guess.

She's Chinese. Her mother was

in the same line.

When the Japanese took Saigon,

she lived with a general.

When she was only 14 herself...

she was living with a French general.

When the French pulled out,

she moved on to Americans.

Can you imagine?

She still has figure of a 14-year-old.

It's as if all those French

and Americans...

never left a trace on her.

But she did learn

how to cook French good.

Her mother taught her Japanese cooking...

and how to make American hamburgers.

Steak tonight. Is that alright.

She gets steaks from the French Embassy.

How do you like it done?

Same as usual for you?

Tell me, who did you give

your virginity to?

A Chinese!

She gave the Chinese her best.

She can only do black-market business.

She has many connections,

but how long can she survive?

Maybe someone more powerful than me...

will share my taste for

her French cooking.

Sorry, I am serving these all at once.

Good vintage, 1968.

- Please help yourselves.

- Thank you!

Nice wine. Come on.

Serve yourself.

Enjoy the food.

Excuse me, where's the toilet?

Through the back.

What's wrong?

I'm sorry.

Today I watched two kids

help an old man carry corpses.

They had just been executed.

What do you want me to do?

Don't waste it. I can still

sell it tomorrow.

I should pay you for

the photo I'm taking, Cam Nuong.

I'll give you enough to start

your market stall...

but don't go to

the "chicken farm" any more.

The old man at the "chicken farm"

is good to us.

You should't hang around

a place like that.

We're later. Only a few small fish left.

This one isn't bad!

It's very expensive.

How much?

Two dollars per catty.

So expensive!

My Dad used to like fish.

Me too. Weigh it!

Won't let you pay.

Alright.

One catty, ten ounces. Call it 3 dollars.

Two and a half... Take it or leave it.

What... I'm going to close, it's a deal.

Ah Nhac will be pleased to see this.

Ah Nhac! Ah Nhac!

Sister!

Ah Nhac, we got a fish!

I'll be right there.

Ah Nhac...

Ah Nhac!

Cam Nuong!

Sister.

What do you mean, I'm too young.

I'm past 30.

I've been a revolutionary for 20 years.

Nothing to say?

Still hung up on Nguyen? B*tch!

I take this.

There's 2,000 dollars.

Enough for me, but not for Ah Thanh too.

I have more money coming,

if you can wait...

If I don't go back tomorrow...

they'll give me land-mine duty

as punishment.

It wouldn't count for anything then.

What, then?

Raise what you can,

I'll manage the rest somehow.

Comrade Vu will wonder

where this same from.

I want sausage and noodles.

Want the lot?

Three bowls of noodles,

one dish of chicken, one of sausage

Right!

Cam Nuong, have you thought about

your market-stall?

When do you want to start it?

Maybe you'd have to work too hard.

Did you think of moving to

a New Economic Zone?

That's not for us.

Why not?

We're not "bad elements".

We can earn a living here.

But things are tough for you here.

And I've seen how happy

the kids are in the N.E. Z

You might be better off there.

And the change would be good

for your mother.

Don't drag my mother into it!

If the N.E.Z. Is so great,

why do bad guys get sent there?

Where are you going?

To the "chicken farm".

More executions today.

You're taking Second Brother there?

Leave us alone, will you?

He's been there many times before.

Go away.

Don't you want to take him

handling the bodies?

You bring us bad luck!

That's why Ah Nhac died!

Go away, I don't want to see you again.

You're from a New Economic Zone?

How is it?

Not bad. Plenty of fresh air.

I've been there. It's better than that.

Which N.E.Z. Did you visit?

No. 16!

What's so funny?

That's the model one.

What do you mean?

It's the one that

"foreign friends" get to see.

They've trained the children there.

They all liked happy and healthy, right?

How do you know?

I was in No.15,

just over the mountain.

I thought that was an army camp.

You thought wrong.

What kind of work did you do there?

The lucky ones get farm work,

the rest dig for land-mines.

Why did they send you there?

I was a translator for the US Army.

Can you get this back to the bar for me?

Tell her I won't need it

on land-mine duty.

Anyway, it's not enough!

What was it for?

Easy-exit money.

You want to leave Vietnam?

Yes!

Now I see why

you wanted my camera so much.

You wanted it even more.

You fought for it...

as if it was your life itself!

If you can't get it back to her,

keep it yourself.

It'll cover your medical bill.

Akutagawa Shiomi, Japanese.

Yes!

I'm so sorry this has happened.

The police only just informed us.

How were you treated?

Fine, like a VIP.

They sat your head is hurt.

- Do you need a doctor?

- Yes.

No, it's just a scratch.

Actually, It's my responsibility.

If I had been with you...

it would never have happened.

It wasn't his fault. I know him.

He was broke.

I hope he won't be punished too severelt.

There'll be an open trial tomorrow.

Your camera seems to have survived.

Japanese products can take knocks.

You must be hungry.

Come, there's a good dinner waiting.

Driver, stop the car.

I'm sorry about the dinner,

but I must see a friend.

As you wish!

Uncle, Sister says you like noodles.

Her name is Cam Nuong. She's 14.

Akutagawa has been with her

a lot this week.

Three days ago, her brother

blew himself up...

He was foraging for scrap metal.

The photos he's been taking

could be damaging to us.

Any sexual relationship between them?

No, but the girl's mother

is a prostitute.

Sit down!

I've come from To Minh's trial.

He got ten years hard labour.

I know!

He asked me to bring this to you.

It was his fate.

You think he should stay in Vietnam.

I believe in fate.

I didn't know how much he needed it.

Don't feel quilty, it was for his friend.

He had enough for himself.

I want to see the N.E.Z.

Where they've sent him.

Can you help me get a pass?

Why not ask Officer Nguyen?

I've trouble him a lot already.

I can arrange it.

You help me by taking the money back

to To Minh.

Together with more for his friend.

Good. So you think he can change his fate!

He brought me a lot of trade.

He used to bring all the Gls

in town here.

All the bra-girls here liked him.

He dreams of opening his own bar

in New Orleans!

He wants me to run it.

He says I can work till I'm 70.

Mr. Akutagawa!

Comrade Vu!

Sorry to interrupt you.

We've finished our talk. I have to go.

There should be more places

like this in Danang.

Goodbye, Mr. Akutagawa.

Clever man, that Japanese.

How did he find way here?

Did Nguyen bring him?

Why was he here?

He wants a pass

to visit the N.E.Z.

Hasn't he been once?

He'll have to ask Nguyen.

He needs someone more powerful.

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