About the Film Red River
A haunting, tragic, and beautiful love story about the aftermath of the American War in Vietnam, RED RIVER marks another cinematic tour-de-force for acclaimed Chinese director Jiarui Zhang (THE ROAD) and stars popular actors NICK CHEUNG, DANNY LEE and LOLETTA LEE.
Beginning in a tiny border town on the Red River between China and Vietnam in 1977 - TAO, a carefree four year-old Vietnamese girl - has her innocence suddenly shattered when her father is killed by an American land-mine.
Twenty three years later, TAO is now beautiful young woman with a childlike innocence that masks a simmering inner turmoil. Faced with economic uncertainty, she joins a tide of Vietnamese immigrant workers who cross the picturesque border into China in hopes of a better life.
Fate leads her to her domineering aunt SHUI, who hires TAO as a servant in her small frontier massage parlor – famous for its colorful clientele. There, TAO meets two men: XIA, a poor bachelor who runs a karaoke stand in the local street market, and BOSS SHA BA, a 55 year old gangster who lost his leg fighting the Americans, and now earns a living smuggling American cigarettes out of Vietnam into China.
Both men instantly fall in love with her, for dramatically different reasons - and not all of them as pure as TAO would like to believe. Forced to choose between two admirers from two radically different walks of life, TAO sets herself on a collision course towards love and self-discovery. It’s a journey which may cost one – or both – of the men their lives.