Dr. Haing S. Ngor Movies
A obstetrician and gynecologist in his native Cambodia, Dr. Haing S. Ngor was plunged into a five-year hell when his country was overwhelmed by the Khmer Rouge. Ngor spent four years as a slave laborer, subjected to endless persecution and torture. Things would have been even worse had his captors known of his medical and intellectual background. To avoid extermination, he went without his much-needed eyeglasses, and was forced to stand by helplessly when his pregnant wife died after going into premature labor. Finally escaping to the U.S. in 1980, he was unable to secure work in his chosen profession because his French medical qualifications weren't recognized. His fortunes took a dramatic swing upward when director Roland Joffe cast him as real-life Cambodian translator Dith Pran in The Killing Fields (1981). Having already literally "lived" his role, Ngor delivered a powerhouse performance, one which earned him an Academy Award. Careful to avoid exploiting or cheapening this triumph (at the Oscar ceremony, he dedicated his win to the memory of his murdered family), Ngor chose his subsequent films carefully. His best post-Killing Fields roles include the heroine's father in Oliver Stone's Heaven and Earth and The General in the syndicated TV series Vanishing Son (1994). For Ngor, acting was always secondary to tireless fund-raising efforts on behalf of his fellow Cambodians, and his dogged determination to bring his Khmer Rouge persecutors to justice. In 1988, he wrote his chillingly graphic autobiography, Haing Ngor: A Cambodian Odyssey. After enduring so much hardship and heartbreak, Ngor's death was particularly tragic: he was murdered while standing next to his car in the garage of his Los Angeles home. For a while, suspicion fell upon Khmer Rouge assassins; it turned out, however, that Haing Ngor's killers were nothing more than drug-dealing street gang members. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Hit Me is a film adaptation of Jim Thompson's crime novel, A Swell-Looking Babe. Sonny (Elias Koteas) lives with his retarded older brother, Leroy (Jay Leggett), and works very hard as a bellhop at a second-rate hotel. This changes when Monique (Laure Marsac) a beautiful, suicidal nut-case checks in. Sonny delivers her room service order and finds her bleeding from the wrists. She and Del (Bruce Ramsay), a male prostitute, draw Sonny into a robbery scheme which quickly begins to unravel. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Elias Koteas, Laure Marsac, (more)
- 1994
This made-for-television movie spawned several sequels and eventually an adventure TV-series of the same name. Russell Wong and Chi Moui Lo star as brothers Jian-Wa and Wago Chang, respectively, who escape from China's political unrest and take up in the United States. Both try and find new lives in the U.S., with Wago falling in with an organized crime gang and Jian-Wa pursuing a career in music. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi
- 1994
- NR
Kung-fu maven Ken ventures into a supernatural bizarro-land hoping to save his girlfriend in this two-fisted martial arts spectacular. Though the release date is 1998, this film must have been shot over a number of years -- co-star Dr. Haing S. Ngor of Killing Fields fame was killed in 1996. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
In My Life, Michael Keaton stars as Bob Jones, who has just been informed that his wife Gail (Nicole Kidman) is pregnant with their first child. However, he has also been told he has kidney cancer that has spread to his lungs; the longest Bob is expected to live is four months, which will deny him the joy of witnessing the birth of his child. Raging within, he visits a Chinese healer, Mr. Ho (Haing S. Ngor), who encourages him to let go of all the anger and fear he has kept trapped inside himself. Bob proceeds to videotape himself, on the advice of Mr. Ho, where Bob will talk to his unborn child and discuss what he has learned in life. In the process of the videotape sessions, Bob discovers that his anger resides in his past with his family, and Bob reveals secrets that he has kept hidden from himself and his wife through the years. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Keaton, Nicole Kidman, (more)
With Heaven and Earth -- cobbled together from two autobiographical reminiscences (When Heaven and Earth Changed Places and Child of War, Woman of Peace by Le Ly Hayslip -- Oliver Stone completes his self-declared "Vietnam Trilogy" (the other films being Platoon and Born On the Fourth of July) of films examining the Vietnam War from different perspectives. Heaven and Earth begins in the central Vietnamese village of Ky La during the 1950s. Phung Le Ly (Hiep Thi Le) is an innocent peasant girl, helping her mother (Joan Chen) to tend the rice paddies while being lectured in the ways of life by her father (Haing Ngor). The idyllic peace of the village is disrupted when a jet bomber crosses the skies. Soon the village is decimated as the American-backed South Vietnamese government troops and the Viet Cong engage in brutal warfare in which the victims are the innocent villagers. Le Ly is both tortured and raped. She leaves Ky La for Danang for a life as a prostitute. There she meets the tall and craggy American soldier Steve Butler (Tommy Lee Jones), a kind but lonely man who isn't looking for sex but for someone to settle down with -- as he says, "I want an Oriental wife." They marry, and Steve takes her back to the United States, where her in-laws look at her not as a wife but as a pet. In the harsh glare of 1970s U.S. culture, Le Ly has trouble adjusting to the American way of life. But not as hard a time as her husband, who, after twenty years in Vietnam, discovers he cannot adapt to civilian life. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tommy Lee Jones, Joan Chen, (more)
- 1993
Blood, sweat, and betrayal in the South East Asian jungles is what drives this action thriller about sleazy Canadian diplomat Carl Pimmler (Michael Ironside), who sends Peter Kernan (Matt Salinger) and his wife Johanna (Sam Jenkins) into deepest, darkest Cambodia to deliver "medicine." When the two realize the true nature of the items they are toting, they struggle to flee for their lives. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- 1991
Lou Diamond Phillips stars in this contrived but entertaining thriller (which he also wrote) as Mitchell Osgood, an aspiring writer who runs a Los Angeles bookstore. When a heartfelt book about his father Haing S. Ngor fails to win him a publishing deal, Osgood decides to write something more eye-catching -- a book about recently-released serial killer Albert Merrick Clancy Brown. The media beats him to it, so the ruthlessly ambitious Osgood decides to spur Merrick to commit more crimes, hiring him to work at the bookstore and playing cruel mind games in hopes of setting Merrick off. He does, but the results are quite different from what Osgood had anticipated. Phillips' performance is weak, and the screenplay is predictably bland, but the film remains worthwhile thanks to a terrific job by Brown as the killer. Brown has turned in a number of fine psycho performances, but he has rarely been better than he is here, building from understated diffidence to full-blown psychosis in expert fashion. Grace Zabriskie and Willard E. Pugh co-star with Cecilia Peck. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Clancy Brown, Cecilia Peck, (more)
- 1990
- R
From a script by Tom Badal and C. Courtney Joyner comes this film about a man whose wartime experiences continue to affect his life back in the U.S. Robert Ginty, a veteran low-budget actor who specializes in portraying drifters and loners, directs himself as Thomas McCain, an American GI who returns home and tries to wipe out the past by becoming a priest. McCain is haunted by his acts in Vietnam, where he had a baby with a Vietnamese lover but abandoned both of them. When he learns that his daughter has come to the U.S. with her mother, McCain goes to Houston to reconcile his newfound morality with his past and to try to get his daughter back from the notorious drug dealer whom the mother of his child has married. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Ginty, Dr. Haing S. Ngor, (more)
This tension-filled made-for-television drama is set a few hours before the Viet Cong took over Saigon in 1975 and chronicles the struggle of Americans and Vietnamese to be on board the last commercial flight out of the city. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1989
This "feature film" is comprised of scenes from the six-part sequel to the 1987 TV series Vietnam War Story. Each self-contained playlet involves one or more members of the American forces which occupied Southeast Asia in the 1960s. The first story involves a black GI (Tim Guinee) whose kindness to a Vietnamese girl has tragic consequences. Next, a soldier (Tate Donovan) on leave discovers that the war has taken a toll on his marriage. Then we watch as a group of grunts plan to "frag" their hateful captain. This is followed by the story of a careless soldier who is separated from his comrades in the middle of the jungle. The fifth tale involves a new recruit's last night of "freedom." The film concludes with the story of two nurses--one a vet, one a greenhorn--who are united in their struggle against horrific hospital conditions. Vietnam War Story: The Last Days was originally telecast on a sporadic basis between July 20 and December 7, 1988, over the HBO pay-cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1989
- R
To date, there have been few American cinematic attempts devoted completely to including the nationalist Vietnamese perspective during the American involvement in Vietnam. This film attempts to provide a more inclusive perspective. An American soldier, Captain Keene (Beau Bridges) is captured by Ho (Liem Whatley, an idealistic young Vietcong soldier. At first highly distrustful of the young man, a bond develops between them when it becomes clear that the young man is protecting the American from mistreatment by his superiors. A crucial moment comes when the boy chooses to flee with his American captive in order to protect the man's life. Haing S. Ngor, who won an Academy Award for his performance in Killing Fields, makes a brief appearance as a North Vietnamese military man. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Beau Bridges, Dr. Haing S. Ngor, (more)
- 1988
James Woods stars in this biographical portrait of war hero--and future Ross Perot running mate--James Stockdale, a naval pilot held as a POW by the Vietnamese for over eight years. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- 1987
This biopic chronicles the eight-years downed navy pilot Jim Stockdale spent in a North Vietnamese prison camp. Though he endured torture and sub-human living conditions, Stockdale remained loyal. Even when forced to betray his country on video-tape, Stockdale sent an encoded message by blinking his eyes to let the American authorities know that he had been tortured into a confession. Eventually Stockdale went on to become a US senator. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
The Killing Fields is a romanticized adaptation of an eyewitness magazine story by New York Times correspondent Sidney Schanberg. Covering the U.S. pullout from Vietnam in 1975, Schanberg (Sam Waterston) relies on his Cambodian friend and translator Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor) for inside information. Schanberg has an opportunity to rescue Dith Pran when the U.S. army evacuates all Cambodian citizens; instead, the reporter coerces his friend to remain behind to continue sending him news flashes. Although his family is helicoptered out of Saigon (a recreation of the famous TV news clip), Dith Pran stays with Schanberg on the ground. Racked with guilt, Schanberg does his best to arrange for Dith Pran's escape, but the Cambodian is captured by the dreaded Khmer Rouge. Accepting his Pulitzer Prize on behalf of Dith Pran, Schanberg vows to do right by his friend and extricate him from Cambodia. The rest of the film details Dith Pran's harrowing experiences at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, and his attempt to escape on his own. The Killing Fields won Academy Awards for Hang S. Ngor (a Cambodian doctor who lived through many of the horrific events depicted herein), cinematographer Chris Menges, and editor Jim Clark; an Oscar nomination went to Roland Joffe, who made his directorial debut with this film. Spalding Gray, who played a small role in the film, later elaborated on this experiences in his one-man stage presentation Swimming to Cambodia. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sam Waterston, Dr. Haing S. Ngor, (more)
