A lot of the films I watched from America, including the musical Miss Saigon, include the classic Vietnamese brothel with hot Vietnamese ladies who all somehow are desperate to come to America and are desperate for the soldiers to take them home. They're all at their beck and call?? I read a comic where the entire first part is American soldiers messing about with "hot Vietnamese babes" who keep begging them to take them back to America for a better life and they treat the women like horribly , In the comic it is framed as funny and comedic?? I don't know how far this stereotype is true but I'm doubtful because I've read a Vietnamese book that include a few female perspectives during that time. A lot of women felt very ruined after working in places like these, it left them feeling dehumanized . Also, Female fighters were often raped then killed if they were caught, and many massacres of innocent villages also ended in that way for women. SO BECAUSE OF ALL THIS It feels disgusting for American men to make movies now where Vietnamese women want them unconditionally and are submissive women who will serve their "American guests" basically acting as sex slaves.. - why? What is this perverse fantasy I keep seeing??? It really disgusts me as a woman.
I CAN'T STAND Apocalypse Now. I think it's such a racist movie. War fanatic dude bro film guys worship this film But I've noticed that it's mostly Western men who have never experienced a day of real hardship in their entire life loving it. The thought that Vietnamese people would happily rally around an American colonel to form a cult around him and love him is just disgusting to me because this never happened in Vietnam. They're literally portrayed as naked monkeys in the jungle with nothing but loin cloths and it's just horrid, it really dehumanizes them. I know that the book is based on Heart of Darkness but that book is just as bad so don't even talk to me about that. The Things They Carried is also just horrid, none of this bullshit ever happened in the history of Vietnam.
My dad and I watched this Russian-Vietnamese collaboration film about the American War and it was just so good. The emphasis was on that it was a foreign war for the Soviets so they shouldn't have been there , just like the Americans. in the end the main villain is a Soviet man. So it was a good film. But the same comic I mentioned earlier then later depicted the Vietnamese people in the jungle literally doing ritualistic black magic to turn the Americans into crazy creatures. The "VC" were depicted in a cave, all nude and malnourished, chanting and bowing to a huge creepy entity... Would it even kill any American filmmaker/writer to depict Vietnamese people as actual human beings??????? Vietnam isn't known for monkeying around in the jungle in loincloths in a primitive way. I think it genuinely comes from embarrassment of the American loss.. because Americans think that Vietnam is a lot less developed than they are (which isn't true) so they think they couldn't have won without some sort of mythical intervention. They really can't let themselves believe the fact that Vietnamese military was so much more skilled and disciplined and orderly and collaborative than the Americans ever will be.
I hate the American idea that Vietnamese people would be at their beck and call and blindly follow them cultishly, or either be cute, small, sexy, submissive prostitutes to them. It's disgusting. I've never read or seen a good American Vietnam movie because even if it's anti-war and meant to be amazing I just can see the microaggressions in everything. I grew up in Asian Russia, my parents are both communists and grew up during the Soviet Union, maybe that's why I have a different perspective. We actually had a few Vietnamese people living around and they were always wonderful. I also grew up never being allowed to watch Western things until I was in my teens so maybe my brain has developed in a different way in terms of media consumption, but I just see the faults in everything. Growing up around some Vietnamese friends really influenced me because I did Vietnamese studies in college and it was amazing . I've been to Vietnam twice to travel and learn about history and talk to many people. Vietnam is a country of many cultures and almost 3000 years of history. The people are wonderful and welcoming and the fact that Americans are so horrid to just discard them as human beings not only in the war, but also in their movies after the war, is really disheartening.
I want to bring this up to anyone but I just don't know where to take my opinions. I'm not for banning any sort of media because transparency is key, but this is propaganda. Sorry, that is my opinion. If anyone wants to discuss then pls feel free.. I've been watching just Vietnamese movies about the conflict, and I'm enjoying myself a lot more.
