Why you should watch this blockbuster about the war in Vietnam: opinion

Editor's note: This piece reflects the personal opinion of Ray Kuschert, an Australian married to a Vietnamese woman and living in Ho Chi Minh City for more than 10 years, after watching the Vietnamese movie Mua Do (Red Rain), released in August this year.

Cinemas across Vietnam have ignited with excitement over the release of a Vietnamese movie that has taken the country by storm: Mua Do.

Mua Do is a depiction of a time in Vietnam's history that we all wish hadn't happened—but we must acknowledge the amazing passion and pain that shaped the culture we admire today. 

But as a Westerner, is this movie a must-see or a must-avoid?

Mua Do is set in 1972 and has, as its foundation story, the 81-day battle of Quang Tri, also known as the second battle of Quang Tri. This sets the tone for a complex array of interwoven stories that are all artistic representations of what really happened at that time. 

This movie is not actually a true story, but it contains so many true stories within it that it becomes a wonder of storytelling that rolls through to the final credits. The movie comes from a novel of the same name which was written by Chu Lai, a war veteran and writer in Vietnam.

Media reports this week indicate that this movie has now become the highest box office grossing Vietnamese movie in history. Approximately US$21 million was earned in the first 17 days following its release.

After the movie, I sat quietly in a corner and wondered how I could describe it in a few words. All I can say is that it feels like 50 separate movies rolled into one. And which of the 50 different stories touches your heart—that’s your choice.

But when watching this movie, you need to remember that it is an artistic representation of what really happened.

As a Westerner, the first emotional reaction was not at the sight of the action, blood or the graphic effects of war, but I found myself watching the explosions and my mind turned to the source of the bombs. Halfway through the movie, I went a little cold and thought: “This is what happens to the enemy – as we were taught to call them – when we Westerners shoot guns and drop bombs in war. We hit real people. We kill real humans.”

The cinema went quiet and cold as I found that one moment in the movie where it became very real for me. It hit me that I was, in such a small way, part of this movie.

Then I looked over and saw my wife in tears as she too connected with another moment that transformed the artistic representation into a raw truth in her life. For her, it was the relationship of the main characters to her own hometown and seeing the loss of young lives, something experienced in her wider family.

And that is the amazing part of this movie. As a whole, the story is fictional. However, inside this made-up narrative are countless small pieces of fact—each one its own story, each one a moment of learning for everyone.

The conclusion, with a touch of dramatization, is unmissable. The death of one of the main characters cuts to your heart as you learn that the letter being held and read is actually a copy of a museum item on display at the Quang Tri Museum. This story is thrust upon the audience in the final seconds of the movie, shifting from fantasy to heartbreaking reality as the scene transitions from the fictional battlefield to the present-day museum where the actual letter is shown.

For a moment, the cinema stops in heart-wrenching shock. It is difficult to ignore and even, as the saying goes, you can’t unsee it. It is this memory that you take with you and think about for days after the movie.

Rolled into a simple love story are historical facts and a clear representation of how war really affects people that are forced to defend their homeland.

Like many other Westerners, I began watching the movie with a tirade of comments about how it wasn’t historically accurate. 

But when I left the cinema, I realized I had learned so much about history. I had learned about the human face of war. I had learned about the people we didn’t see on TV 50 years ago. We never saw the other side.

I learned that those who were called 'the enemy' were not monsters. They were brothers, fathers, friends, lovers—normal people just like you and me who didn’t want to be there. But they had a duty to protect and defend their homeland, and they did so with honor and bravery.

If you have the motivation to watch this movie, open your eyes and your heart. Don’t look at it as a whole—take each scene as it comes. There will be a moment that touches your heart in some way, and you will leave the theater with a totally different view of the world, oh, and there is much to learn about the history of Vietnam in 1972.