This documentary is the story of Phong a 20-something-year-old Vietnamese transwoman as she goes about realigning her body to finally becoming the woman she has always rightly felt she was. The youngest of six siblings, Phong could never identify the source of her deep childhood depression until she left her small village home to go to Hanoi to study in the University. Once there she realized that ‘she was not alone’ and there were other people dealing with similar identity crisis.
Phong’s tale is told in a mixture of her own video diaries and footage shot by the two cameraman/c0-directors Tran Phuong Thao and Swann Dubus and is refreshingly frank. She is positively naive about some of the aspects of the whole transitioning process and doesn’t hide that from us at all. When she makes an initial trip to Thailand to discuss the possibility of surgery, she actually seems somewhat startled about some of the aspects that she learns about for the first time. However whilst this comes across as a little confusing, what is perfectly clear is Phong’s commitment to the whole process as she knows once her body is that of a female, she will finally be happy.
The learning curve is even tougher for her elderly parents who are opposed to Phong taking this step, and the mother in particular does not hold back from venting her opinions. Phong however is gently adamant and tells her that she has had almost 30 years of sadness ‘you should be happy that my dreams are finally about to come true.’ Phong’s siblings are supportive to the point of actually accompanying Phong back to Thailand to actually undergo the surgery, but even so the elder brother confesses that he is having a real problem getting to grips with what is happening. Despite their uncertainty in how they felt about Phong transitioning, it was refreshing to see that at the end of the day this very simple country family would support and love her regardless.
What makes this documentary so immensely watchable is the real transformation that happens in front of our very eyes of this sad, lonely person into a confident and immensely happy young woman who found a real sense of purpose and hope for the very first time in her life. She gives you this very distinct feeing that she will be capable, and willing, to overcome any obstacles that may appear in her life from now on.
Labels: 2016, documentary, trans, Vietnamese
