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

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👏 🎉

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.

This was an amazing series and allowed so many to tell their story of that event and how it affected their families. I think we need to hear more of these stories to learn how hard people struggled to make it in this country. I have always been amazed by the Vietnamese people I've met and how hard they work. I know they have had to overcome a lot of adversity, but they are proof that this is still a land of opportunity. God bless you all.

Huge level of bravery and transparency demonstrated. Thank you HBO for the share of their challenges for an opportunity for a better life.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

@simonriley4131

Ай бұрын

Congratulations, you watched the show wrong

this is making me so sad that so many people had these experiences. im so glad to hear all your stories of strength and survival. ❤

@TS-JungleMonkey

Ай бұрын

In real life, I and others have actually undergone worse than those accounts. :(

wow i didn’t expect to cry while watching this but here i am

@PassiveAgressive319

2 ай бұрын

Me too🥹

I love this series. I'm glad I came by this video of their real stories.

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.

@PassiveAgressive319

2 ай бұрын

She was 9😡

@EPluribusUnumSemper

2 ай бұрын

⁠​⁠@@PassiveAgressive319 And? 😁

@PassiveAgressive319

2 ай бұрын

@@EPluribusUnumSemper and?

@EPluribusUnumSemper

2 ай бұрын

@@PassiveAgressive319 you replied to my comment with “She was 9 😡.” What’s your point? Are you angry that she was 9? 😊

Thank you for another masterpiece cinema story telling and also sharing this side of the story as well

Yeah I might have to check this out 🔥

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.

@gametri-eq6lj

2 ай бұрын

exactly saigon was a commercial district before the war

@hybui123

2 ай бұрын

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.

@anhkhoido1258

2 ай бұрын

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.

@AveryBui1402

2 ай бұрын

She still had to lose her motherland. It wasn't her fault to be born into a political family. She never once showed entitlement her whole life. It's just because her life was better than most back when she was in Vietnam, does mean she didn't suffer when she was leaving for the States. Remember it wasn't just her and her family on that plane. It's just luck to be notified early and get there on time

@JLuew

Ай бұрын

South Vietnamese politicians like Nguyen Cao Ky was part of the problem that lead to the fall of South Vietnam. The corrupt South, fighting a war for America; victory was never on the table from day one.

I am Hmong American. My parents went through the same thing in Vietnam. They crossed the Mekong River. So much similar stories. I finished watching The Sympathizer and boy let me tell you... I cried episode 1, it was so powerful when he was in the middle distance of his bro Bon and the airplane taking off. I imagined that's what it was like with my parents. RIP to my dad.

Thanks, love you 😘

Love these testimonies! Boat people, refugees, immigrants proud!

I love those people

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.

@NateGH36O

2 ай бұрын

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.

@hunterbach

2 ай бұрын

It’s not a documentary that based on real story.

@peterle7308

2 ай бұрын

It’s not a documentary, you could say it is historical fiction.

@SG.N0taill

2 ай бұрын

This movie based on the book, and the book is fiction.. do you know that???

@JLuew

Ай бұрын

@@SG.N0taillthe book is fiction but the war wasn’t. Did you know that? If you write a fictional story using world events as a backdrop you better gets some facts right, no?

Is this out yet? Ive been wanting to watch it forever now

i'm cutting onions

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.

@slamdunk118

2 ай бұрын

There are lots of documentary on KZread about vietnam war, go watch them.

@TheGazer000

Ай бұрын

That's like fantasizing if he was not a coward. But if what you're hypothesizing is only if he was who he was and he didn't flee, I would say that he would just be the one broadcasting the surrender statement on the radio instead of Duong Van Minh. When he left, he knew Saigon would be liberated without Americans' help.

@that1guysittingthere

Ай бұрын

A miniseries of an ensemble cast that covers numerous perspectives would be cool. Or maybe a Vietnam anthology that jumps across different events.

Incredible story..

very powerful story

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.

@taimai4164

2 ай бұрын

❤

@MD72538

2 ай бұрын

😂😂

@MD72538

2 ай бұрын

VC are just normal people like all others.

@MD72538

2 ай бұрын

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! 🤮

@quyngo102

2 ай бұрын

​@@MD72538 😂😂

My father was meant to be drafted into the South Vietnamese army however he was able to avoid it by saying he had a stuttering problem which he did but I think he exaggerated it to trick them. After that my father almost went into a re-education camp or prison however one of the guards was nice enough to let my father go, my father owed him his life, they would keep in touch for years afterwards. My father then was a refugee and was sent to a camp and he a had choice between: America, Canada or Australia. He was considering Canada but ultimately picked Australia because it seemed like the safest option, which it is. But it is crazy to think how different everything would had been had he chosen America.

I lost a cousin who I never met when he was trying to flee in a boat. He was trampled and died.

Anh yêu Viet Nam. Cant wait to watch this.

I recently read the book with no idea there was a show being made. Haven't seen the show yet, I'm hesitant because I enjoyed the book so much and don't want to ruin it....

@dobridjordje

20 күн бұрын

The book was way more brutal though in how it described the war and generally a lot more rougher than the lemonaded experience we get in the series.

All of you some were from in high rank family and some were from mid or low rank family but you all were lucky to have your voice. Strati h life all over again having been a rough thoughts for some people who don’t have opportunity to have their own voice. There are still some missing here.

❤❤❤

A Trauma period of Vietnamese history has not been admitted in.....

These are the stories that need to be taught in high schools.

❤

Hbo, now make one on Kabul Airlift

The memories after the war, they had to leave their country to find freedom

I have the honor of being married to a Vietnamese man who fled as a 5 year old. Their boat began to sink, no ship would stop to rescue them. They were starving and without water. Finally they were rescued by another ship and made it to Guam. They were there for quite some time, praying and waiting for sponsorship by someone in the US. They are an amazing family, incredible US citizens. Let us not forget the traumatic journey immigrants make to become US Citizens. May we never forget the miracle they represent for surviving all they did. We can only imagine in our worst nightmares what they endured. Every day he blesses my life. He is my miracle. 1 in 4 perished. Think on that.

Heartbreaking scenes... Same happened in Afghanistan. Thank you United States for giving people second chance. I am a first generation immigrant. And no where in the world people get opportunities like here. We love USA.

Wow

Why Rambo is exits? Because the Việt cộng has no. Sympathize!

@thereddeviltony2171

2 ай бұрын

Yes sir, be mindful there are a lot of VC on youtube now, trying to oppress people dissent and opinions.

The Republic of Vietnam will forever be honored

@TS-JungleMonkey

Ай бұрын

Now they are so scared of a small flag in someone's bed room in the USA. Quite funny.

@SG.notail

Ай бұрын

🤡🤡🤡

Vietnam muon nam !

I don't think that you are the victims. The US is the one who should be blamed instead of VC.

Pls chernobly 2 Sezon...:(

1

@Jettytheplane-cu8us

2 ай бұрын

2

🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲

All this traumas and they couldn't produce a script without sounding like google translation lol...in the series, the main character mocked RDJ movie for not "Viet" enough, yet the series itself translated English puns into Vietnamese hoping to make any meaning Viet dialogue. Oh the irony

@hongphucnguyen2139

Ай бұрын

Have you watched it till ep.7 ? Google translated Vietnamese of the main character was intentional.

Cheap gov.

cali con cay lắm vì còn nước đâu mà mất :)))))))))

@clara9350

2 ай бұрын

3 củ ko viết được tiếng anh hả 😂😂

@TS-JungleMonkey

Ай бұрын

Have you finished eating the "wooden fish" yet?

@SG.N0taill

Ай бұрын

Đang lập quốc ở cali sắp li khai khỏi mỹ đế rồi kìa :))))

@rosenguyen8462

Ай бұрын

@@TS-JungleMonkey do u have "water" to drink ?

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

@pkn920

2 ай бұрын

And Vietnam will always be indebted to Russia.

@egg15946

2 ай бұрын

womp womp,bro thinks he knew the truth

@jiujitsustl

Ай бұрын

The war is long over. Everyone was traumatized. No need to come in here and start trying to diminish survivor stories. And yes we all realize there is only one country called Vietnam, thanks for that Captain Obvious

@TS-JungleMonkey

Ай бұрын

You should say thanks the VC for giving you "Bao Cap" meals. poverty, starvation, millions deaths in 1953-54, miseries. Before that, you would have been eating "fish sauce" with "wooden fish" if you were luck to have fish sauce in the first place let alone white rice. Ask your parents about your famous "wooden fish" my BoDoBungBo

@hongphucnguyen2139

Ай бұрын

There is no need to speak anything. People who fled the country in 75 have their own story to tell. Respect what actually happened man.

Bad casting, weak story! As a native Vietnamese whose family experienced the fall of Saigon, I expected further than what was shown. Disappointed.

@benmorax

2 ай бұрын

That's quite odd. Do you mind sharing some parts of your background ? Some of my relatives understood every dialogues of it.

@doyouwanttogivemelekiss3097

2 ай бұрын

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...

@EPluribusUnumSemper

2 ай бұрын

@@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.

@Justanotherdude0

2 ай бұрын

​@@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.

@EPluribusUnumSemper

2 ай бұрын

@@Justanotherdude0 No, the general is the best. I’ve seen Kieu Chinh done better and Ky Duyen isn’t too bad. But the general is great. I tune in just to watch him. 😁 P.S. yeah the major “bánh bao” is good too.

Sao diễn gì như cha nội Ả Rập vậy ông chú. Coi lại tài liệu cho đến hình trước giải phóng chả thấy tên nào giống. Việt ko ra Việt, Thái meo ra Thái, Ấn Độ meo ra Ấn Độ. Như qq

Traitors

@TS-JungleMonkey

Ай бұрын

Who? CSVN phản quốc. Mất đất, mất biển nhưng Nguyen Phu Trong di quỳ lạy phục vụ TCB/ĐCSTQ

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.

@jane-huongvo

2 ай бұрын

Agree, bad scenery settings. Also bad casting, horribly bad acting and impossible to understand their Vietnamese. Unfit for the story, should be better chosen.

@slamdunk118

2 ай бұрын

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.

@kensredemption

2 ай бұрын

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.

@EPluribusUnumSemper

2 ай бұрын

@@slamdunk118 10 year old kids in Vietnam speak way way way better than that.

@EPluribusUnumSemper

2 ай бұрын

@@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.

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

@kayla-kt1cj

2 ай бұрын

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 .

@dath.8932

2 ай бұрын

​@@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.

@minh-vupham9434

2 ай бұрын

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

Long live Vietnam 🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳 and the Vietnamese Communist Party!

@nhatnguyenhoang4272

2 ай бұрын

🤡🤡

Hey HBO !!..Tired of Sympathizer talks .

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.

@pkn920

2 ай бұрын

Thanks to President Clinton lifting the embargo. otherwise Vietnam would look like North Korea. Don't glorify life in Vietnam in the 1980s.

@dangminh5330

Ай бұрын

@@pkn920 Lose the war --> embrago them --> call them poor country nice

ARVN forever ❤

@SG.N0taill

Ай бұрын

🤡🤡🤡