Reviews: Ru

Final Rating: 4/5

Happy Asian Heritage Month (both in Canada and in the United States)! As should surprise no one who’s listened to my episodes appearing with Dakota on the podcast (254: Celebrating Filipino Cinema), or any of my other reviews (Reviews: Dìdi from Sundance 2024), one of my “beats” when it comes to reviewing films are films that tackle the Asian diaspora experience.

After all, as a proud Filipino-American, it’s part of who I am and it’s always nice seeing some form of representation in the media of my own story. So, when Dakota asked if there were any Canadian Screen Award nominated films I wanted to review, naturally I chose the one about the family of Vietnamese refugees who emigrate to Quebec.

Premiering at TIFF, Ru is based on the 2009 semi-autobiographical work of the same name by Canadian novelist Kim Thuy. Directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud, the film follows the tale of Tinh (Chloé Djandji), who with her family is one of many “boat people” from Southern Vietnam that after the Tet Offensive are sent to Malaysian refugee camps, before being chosen to relocate to Quebec (due to her parent’s fluency in French). 

We mostly follow Tinh’s point of view as she observes her surroundings as she and her family are welcomed into the community by well meaning neighbors. Peppered throughout her slice- of-life observations are flashbacks to her time in Vietnam as the soldiers raided her family’s home, sneaking across the border and boarding a boat. She doesn’t really speak much if at all, so we as the audience are trying to learn about this new foreign world as much as she is. 

One thing that perhaps stands out above all else is Ru is this almost documentary style cinematography. Shot by Jean-François Lord (who has won the Quebecois specific Prix Iris as well as the CSA’s precursor Genie award), the film feels very much in the camp of Lukas Zal’s work on Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest. A lot of slow panning shots following subjects walking down a sidewalk from the other side of the street. Not a lot of handheld camera movement, instead letting scenes play out composed a certain way, emblematic of how these are memories captured in Tinh’s memory. 

In one particularly memorable sequence, as the family moves into their more permanent lodging you get a 360 degree shot of each room in the house, showing how her family is adjusting to their new life. In another, a flashback of a fruit seller in Vietnam mixes with the freshly fallen snow of her new school. 

While perhaps not meant to be used as Glazer did in The Zone of Interest to demarcate a film you saw and a film you heard, Ru’s cinematography accomplishes the same effect of portraying the mundanity of Tinh’s new life not as something epic, but as something to be observed and lived in. 

Other technical awards Ru is up for at the CSA’s include both Sound Mixing and Editing, Production Design, Costume, Makeup, and Hair – I presume mostly to recreate the look of late 1970’s Canada, as well as the various scenes of refugees in the boat and camps, which were effective.

While Tinh herself is not the most talkative character in the film (again probably as a way for the audience to see things through her eyes), the cast around her does a remarkable job. In particular, CSA nominated Chantal Thuy who plays Tinh’s mom really draws out the immigrant mother experience. The urgent need to set her children up for success in their new land, the yearning and homesickness for their country of origin, the strength to do what is necessary in a crisis and the fear and insecurity that she might not be doing enough to protect and take care of her family. It truly is a year for Asian immigrant mothers, between her and Joan Chen in Dìdi. Likewise, Jean Bui who plays Tinh’s father Minh, a former government official turned Asian restaurant delivery driver does a standout job as well.

Being an American, it’s also interesting to view this film to understand the differences in how American and Canadians approach race. Personally I was waiting for the shoe to drop about how the family would have trouble integrating into society in the form of microaggressions and discrimination, or being subject to the perpetual foreigner stereotype. And while there is certainly some relative ignorance on the part of the family’s white well-meaning hosts, that drop never came. 

Talking to my Asian-Canadian friend from college who grew up in Toronto, he told me that the US tends to be a bit more obsessed with race, and while it’s not like he didn’t face any form of othering growing up, overall he found there to be less overt racism in Canada than here in the States (though not to downplay past discrimination against Asians such as Japanese internment, Chinese railroad workers, and the Komagata Maru incident). 

As such, I can’t really fault the film for being too idealistic about the melting pot story of accepting and integrating immigrants into society that a similar film based here in the States would be found lacking for not acknowledging. So good job Canada, it really is just a film celebrating the willingness of your citizens to extend a helping hand to families in need. 

If there was an actual critique I had of this film, I think personally I would have liked to see a bit more about Tinh’s life in Vietnam prior to the Tet Offensive – we only really get a few short sequences of her playing with her cousin, and her family lining up for a picture as the news of nearby combat breaks. But since a lot of Tinh’s story early on is her yearning to return to Vietnam, it would help the audience I think understand her desire to return if we saw more of that idyllic life. 

Overall Ru is a worthy addition to the canon of Asian diaspora films, specifically about the Vietnamese boat people experience. Avoiding the trope of mythologizing the refugee experience while also not ignoring the trauma and difficulties therein, Ru deftly balances celebrating the addition of diverse cultures to the Canadian social landscape and the people who make it possible, while also acknowledging that it’s by no means perfect for everyone involved. At the end of the day, this is but one chapter of one immigrant family’s story over many generations, and while it may not have the high drama of other stories, it is still an important story worth telling and remembering. 

Thank you to Immina Films for the screener.