The Cast Of The Sympathizer Share Their Personal Stories Of Leaving Vietnam | The Sympathizer | HBO
“Even working on The Sympathizer, it tears me up, because I have a real life parallel to the script.” - Ky Duyen
Watch the HBO Original Limited Series #TheSympathizer streaming Sundays at 9pm ET, exclusively on @StreamOnMax
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Ky Duyen family didn't have any hard life when they moved to the US compared to other Vietnamese people at that time. Her father was the Vice President of South Vietnam government. They are rich and when SaiGon falls, they just left by the airplane of the US air force.
exactly saigon was a commercial district before the war
I wouldn't discount them eitherway. Yes, in Vietnam, they were essentially royalty. Toan Le's character 'The General' is based loosely off of Nguyen Cao Ky, as he also ran a liquor store and was a leader in the refugee community in Southern Calfornia. Bombastic in nature and arrogant.
I would not write Ky Duyen and her family off. She has repeated countless times that, as an adult, she understands the privileged life her family had back in Saigon before 1975. Moreover, her perspective is important, because South Vietnam had an intellectual, political and financial elite. Members of that elite lost their status when they came to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Western Europe.
Brought back many memories of my teenage years having escaped from VN as a boat refugee at 14 and placed in the foster care system when I arrived to America. It is a full circle having served in the Navy for 30 years with three military deployments to the Middle East. We do need to let our next generation know that freedom isn't free. Thanks for the heartfelt stories.
My father served for South Vietnam and after the fall of Saigon, he was sent to prison for 6 years in the mountainside. My mother had to make multiple trips in a month to bring him food and other goods. Similar to the boat people, they had their share of sacrifice because of the belief in democracy. It's been almost 50 years so these stories are long overdue. And, I am happy that we are telling these stories now so the young Vietnamese Americans overseas know where and how they came from. Thank you👏 🎉
It's difficult to keep my emotions in check watching the film, particularly during the final scene of the first episode. As a child living in Saigon at the time, I only experienced brief trauma from the war. But growing up listening to so many horror stories of lost lives, the haunting memories resurface once again. Yes, the tears are real.
I feel incredibly lucky to be the first generation born here in the United States. My parents fled Vietnam by boat and risked their lives to escape as teenagers. They left with nothing, and had a few close calls with death. They lived in Hong Kong for a year, moved to a refugee camp in the PI, and got sponsored by generous Americans in California. My dad went to college and studied tech, became a software engineer and is the true definition of the American Dream. He is now retired and has never returned to VN due to the painful memories. He eventually sponsored his parents, brothers and sister to come to America. That's how beautiful America is, you can come from nothing, not even knowing the language and still prosper by making good decisions, one step at a time.
In fact, when watching the movie, i felt myself as a sympathizer, but a sympathizer with The General . Especially after hearing the song "Khoẻ Vì Nước", a wonderful patriotic song.
Huge level of bravery and transparency demonstrated. Thank you HBO for the share of their challenges for an opportunity for a better life.
My grandpa who worked along side the US, stayed with his family of 8 kids, he was sentenced to work in "re-education" camp for 10 years. He had never told us how hard it was and what they did to him during that time but we could always feel his emotions when recalling such memories. RIP grandpa
I knew I’d start crying watching this. I feel blessed to be a First Gen American born Vietnamese but to think of the pain my parents has to go through to get here is hard
Thank you for sharing our stories. I was 2 y/o, and my brother was 6 months old in the summer of 1989, we were among the last waves of boat people before the collapse of the Soviet Union. We spent 5 years in a refugee camp in Phanat Nikhom, Thailand.
Thank you for sharing this side of the story. My buddy’s mom is a boat person and they got stuck at sea for a month. A Thai pirate boat came and took her little brother who was 2 years at the time. They have been going back to Thailand to look for her brother every other year.
I love this series. I'm glad I came by this video of their real stories.
wow i didn’t expect to cry while watching this but here i am
Me too🥹
Yeah I might have to check this out 🔥
can HBO produce more films or movies about the Republic of VietNam? I would show my respect and a huge thank you for depicting what happened in the past. As a young Vietnamese from the South of Vietnam. I deserve to know what happened in the past. like What if President Thieu did not escape the country and remained staying the country, what would be happening.
There are lots of documentary on KZhead about vietnam war, go watch them.
Thanks, love you 😘
I don't agree with many aspects of the book regarding the war, but I'm glad that it, and the HBO series that followed, placed a spotlight and sparked conversations on the war.
I think that's what makes the book so brilliant. It's filled with truths, but also contradictions. Just like the Captain is caught between two worlds, two ideologies, two identities that are all very real, but grey in morality.
It’s not a documentary that based on real story.
It’s not a documentary, you could say it is historical fiction.
This movie based on the book, and the book is fiction.. do you know that???
Love these testimonies! Boat people, refugees, immigrants proud!
Ky Duyen playing the wife of the narcissistic general, in real life her father was Nguyen Cao Ky, a narcissistic general and politician. He was about as ridiculous as Toan Le’s character.
She was 9😡
@@PassiveAgressive319 And? 😁
@@EPluribusUnumSemper and?
@@PassiveAgressive319 you replied to my comment with “She was 9 😡.” What’s your point? Are you angry that she was 9? 😊
I love those people
i'm cutting onions
Is this out yet? Ive been wanting to watch it forever now
In 1978, my Mom put two of us 8 and 9 year-old on the fishing boat and told us "You two can die in the ocean, but not in the hands of Viet Cong(VC)." That was how the southern Vietnamese people scornful , but not scare, of the VC.
❤
😂😂
VC are just normal people like all others.
so your mom didn’t know that the us just make up the case in the tonking gulf to have an excuse to interfere in Vietnam. Who is the biggest wae criminal here? You live in the US so you won’t dare to talk bad about them! Disgusting! 🤮
@@MD72538 😂😂
The memories after the war, they had to leave their country to find freedom
Anh yêu Viet Nam. Cant wait to watch this.
A Trauma period of Vietnamese history has not been admitted in.....
The Republic of Vietnam will forever be honored
Why Rambo is exits? Because the Việt cộng has no. Sympathize!
Yes sir, be mindful there are a lot of VC on youtube now, trying to oppress people dissent and opinions.
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There is one and only one Vietnam in this world "Socialist Republic of Vietnam". The stories from this video are nothing compared to what the people in Vietnam had sacrificed to achieve freedom and independence. I am not here to start an argument, I am here to speak up the truth... no matter who you are, American, Vietnamese-American, or even Vietnamese... There is always one Vietnam in this world today
❤
Wow
🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲
Pls chernobly 2 Sezon...:(
1
This film director knew how precious freedom was when he moved from North Korea to South Korea. It was the same in Vietnam in the past, but unfortunately now there is only the Viet Cong left
Park Chan Wook was born in Seoul , South Korea , he didn't move from North korea lol. I'm a vietnamese and thank to "VC" we even have our own independent .
@@kayla-kt1cj Maybe except you and kind of you, all good people in vietnam hate VC, oke! u love VC because of your family was got benefit and power those are your ancestor rob from people.
Blud still stuck in 1975 and called everyone living in Vietnam nowadays, 50 years after Saigon, Vietcong, really shows how these people betrayed their own country in the first place
Cheap gov.
cali con cay lắm vì còn nước đâu mà mất :)))))))))
3 củ ko viết được tiếng anh hả 😂😂
Bad casting, weak story! As a native Vietnamese whose family experienced the fall of Saigon, I expected further than what was shown. Disappointed.
That's quite odd. Do you mind sharing some parts of your background ? Some of my relatives understood every dialogues of it.
You don't have to watch it.
As a western european, I'm happy that this tv show exists at all. 99% of the vietnam war stories in tv/cinema are from the perspective of american conscripts. And i suspect that present day vietnam has its own war films - but i am sure that it won't be from a southern vietnamese perspective. As flawed as the sympathizer may be - he's the only game in town...
@@benmorax Do you understand the Vietnamese dialogues? The overall show is good, the Vietnamese dialogues are cringey at best. I’m a native Vietnamese speaker and although I understand the dialogues but it reminded of the Vietnamese dialogues from those Vietnam War movies from the 80s. Real Vietnamese don’t talk like that. Well, the general is probably the best. He’s really good in both English and Vietnamese.
@@EPluribusUnumSemperuh the general is definitely not the best. How about Kieu Chinh, Ky Duyen, Phanxine (The Major). Yes the dialogues can be better but considering this is the first time vietnamese is portrayed on such scale, I hope the show will succeed so they can improve it next time.
Neh, too many scenes are out of touch if not far from the truth. Over melodramatic if not fake ! The last day of the fall of Saigon, with deserted streets and abandon military uniforms all over the streets looks too much to be real. The scenes from the refugee camp in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas is all made up and far from the real thing. I was one among of the refugees in the Fort Chaffee on May 06 1975 and we stayed not in the tents but in the nice, clean military barracks with new painting on the sheet rocks, bathroom facility is clean and those military bunk beds with new mattresses unlike the BS scenes in the movie. There are 2 mess halls on either sides of the military compound with 3 meals were served daily. The writer lies so much that I stop to watch the series . Not too mention the dialogue are too fake and not natural.
Agree, bad scenery settings. Also bad casting, horribly bad acting and impossible to understand their Vietnamese. Unfit for the story, should be better chosen.
This series based on a historical fiction, so lots of the history facts are fake. Those actors came to the US when they were like 1-2 years old. They had no idea about Vietnam, about what was going on in the past lol You can hear their Vietnamese dialogue in this series are so awkward like 10 years old kids in Vietnam talk to each other because they grew up in the US.
This is still a Western production in the end. What else did you expect? Also, can you expect this kind of perspective being portrayed in an actual Vietnamese production? I have my doubts. Just be glad this story could be told even in this capacity. Hollywood is theatrical by nature. In fact, the show makes a number of allusions to that fact.
@@slamdunk118 10 year old kids in Vietnam speak way way way better than that.
@@kensredemption I grew up in Vietnam during the 80s, thời bao cấp, and I can assure you the perspective of how terrible the South Vietnamese government and personnel were was on display in Vietnamese TV dramas and movies. I’m still waiting to see the part of the Sympathizer that show how terrible the communists are.
Long live Vietnam 🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳 and the Vietnamese Communist Party!
🤡🤡
ARVN forever ❤
The irony of this tragedy is that decades later the communist government of Vietnam has normalized diplomatic and trade relations with the US, US firms and products are commonplace in any major Vietnamese City, most of the young Vietnamese now are likely as any American or Vietnamese-American to consume Avengers movies, eat Ben and Jerry's icecream, and watch this HBO series on their IPad. Yes. The Vietnam War was pointless.