Dan...
What happened to you? Who did this to you?
An wears that white silk dress as beautifully as you did.
Her eyes sparkling.
I know I didn't promise you anything good
when I took you to the South.
What I wanted was to escape the poverty we came from.
But I feel so ashamed.
My failure as a husband
makes me useless as a father.
Only a white dress for my daughters to go to school
and I couldn't even provide it.
So you sacrificed your wedding dress.
Instead of loving you more, I scolded you and beat you.
What a bastard I am!
I'm not angry with you.
If I were a man
whose wife has been breast-feeding an old man,
I would have slapped her, too.
The important thing is that you understand why I did what I did.
It was all for our children.
What I said and did to you makes me feel less than an animal.
How can you love such a man like me?
That day when you stole rice from Mr. Governor to help Mrs. Mui
and you were nearly beaten to death,
I swore I would live my whole life to serve you.
I love you because you don't live for yourself.
You have sacrificed your whole life for me and the children.
I am tired of being poor.
If you were rich,
I wouldn't have followed you here.
I wouldn't have been your wife.
We're poor, but we have happiness.
We have each other. We have our children.
And we have this betel tree as well.
Sometimes I feel so guilty for being poor.
Especially now,
when I've seen how you've suffered
trying your best to get the dress made for our daughters.
It makes me more miserable than hearing bombs explode overhead.
The Governor once told me
"If a husband can't share in his
wife's woes or help her,
then he is smaller than an ant."
In wartime, one might die several times
yet only live once.
We have lived a hard life,
but my heart goes out to our daughters.
That's why each day that I am still on this Earth
I will do everything that I can for them, darling.
Out there, the war rages on.
Who knows how many people will die tonight
and how many families torn apart?
But you and I and our daughters are still together.
Even if we have to eat porridge with tears, I will still be happy.
I hope this war will end soon
so our country can be at peace
and our children can finish their education.
So do I.
And when that happens
I'll make you another white silk dress
and we'll have a proper wedding like
the fortune teller foretold.
We must have a wedding.
When peace arrives and the hatred ends
I will bring you and our daughters back to Ha Dong village.
An.
There was one excellent essay which received the highest score.
I want the entire class to listen to it.
An... Come up here and read it out loud.
An... can you tell us
why you chose the white silk dress as your essay topic?
My family is very poor.
Other than my mom's white silk dress,
we have nothing of value.
I'm here today because of my parents' efforts,
especially that of my mom.
Go ahead. Read it.
The white silk dress which my sister and I take turns
wearing to school is my parents' keepsake.
My parents' hometown is in Ha Dong village.
They immigrated to Da Nang in 1954.
The only possession my mom had when they left
was this white silk dress.
However, it's no ordinary dress.
It's the wedding dress my dad offered
to my mom before they came South.
My mother told me that after moving from one village to another,
they finally settled in Hoi An
because my mom was pregnant with me.
Then, when I was born,
to commemorate their second hometown
my dad named me Hoi An.
One by one, my three younger sisters were born
by the Thu Bon river in Cam Nam village
where every year the tide rises to the roof of our house.
My family is very poor.
To raise four of us,
my parents have to work from early morning until late at night
raking mussels along the river to sell in the market.
During the flood season,
they are unable to rake mussels.
Then the whole family has to eat porridge or sweet potatoes.
Sometimes even corn.
Now and then my parents give up their own portions in order for us to feel full.
But as hard it is,
my mom refuses to let us quit school.
One ticket for me.
Why are you so late? I'm sorry.
I've been waiting for you.
I finished a song and you hadn't even come back yet.
It's because of Lan.
What happened?
She asked me to watch Charlie Chaplin.
That's why I'm late.
Eat, please.
If you won't eat,
I'll give your sweet potato to my pig.
Piggy, come and eat.
Hey, Rich.
My pig already ate your sweet potato.
Eat it. Mom will be back later to breast-feed you.
My mother often said that
girls should live a life of velvet and silk.
I don't know what that means,
but I think it must be very nice since she describes it that way.
I only know that my mom works very hard
so that when we grow up we won't have a hard life like she did.
Order. Everybody. Order!
Why did you let your cow eat my notebooks?
You left your notebooks on the ground.
My cow thought they were grass. Stupid girl!
If you're so smart, then why are you a cow herder?
Your mom didn't have anything to eat but corn
when she was pregnant with you.
Your father named you Corn.
That's why you're so stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
How dare you call me stupid!
How dare you!
You dare call me stupid!
What's the matter, Corn?
I... I spilled ink on our white silk dress.
Look, it's stained.
A helicopter suddenly flew overhead.
The noise startled me.
I accidentally knocked over the inkpot on our dress.
Mom told us that
a graceful girl should know how to keep her dress clean.
What will we do now?
If Mom finds out,
she will beat the both of us.
An, why is your baby sister crying?
Mom is calling.
An, what shall we do now?
An, why are you letting your baby sister cry?
Stop crying. Let's go out and have some fun.
One day, my sister
accidentally spilled ink on our dress.
She cried out of fear and that made me cry too.
We cried not because we were afraid that our mom would punish us,
but because we were afraid that she would be sad.
From then on,
we wouldn't be her graceful daughters anymore.
Come on, honey.
What are you three doing over there?
An is washing the dress for you, Mom.
Mom, I...
I spilled ink all over the dress.
Mom, I'm so sorry. Please don't be sad.
And then my mom spent that whole afternoon
washing our dress by the river.
It took her several scrubbings to wash out the
white jackfruit sap we had put on the ink stain.
It was only because we were afraid our mom would be sad
that we unintentionally made it worse.
I regret that I was not able to keep my mom's white silk dress clean
which she had brought from Ha Dong village.
It is far from being as beautiful as my classmates' dresses
simply because my mom is not a tailor.
But if any among you had seen my mom
keep herself awake all those nights
by the kerosene lamp
to sew pieces of cloth into this dress so we could continue to go to school,
you'd know how truly beautiful
this dress is to us.
The most beautiful dress of Cam Nam village.
And nothing could make us happier or prouder than to wear
our mom's wedding dress to school.
That afternoon,
we watched our mom sit by the river bank and wash our dress
without a word of complaint.
I love my mom very dearly.
Even though we live in poverty
we are proud to be our parents' children.
We will continue to study hard and do everything
we can to never disappoint them.
As for me,
to repay my mom for the sacrifices she's made,
I wish to become a good tailor when I grow up
so I can sew a beautiful wedding dress for her...
It's a replacement for the dress she sacrificed for us
so that we could remain in school.
I've never seen her wearing a silk dress,
but I know for sure
that she would look beautiful in one.
My father says so as well.
I'll try my best to make my mom proud of her graceful daughter.
Daddy!
Mommy, please tell Daddy not to bury An!
Mom!
Daddy, don't bury my sister!
Mommy, tell An to wake up!
Mom!
An, I miss you so much.
You are with our beloved Buddha, aren't you?
I offer you this book
so you can read stories to him, okay?
You don't have to worry,
I won't stain mom's white dress anymore.
I'll listen to you.
I'll be a decent young girl.
When you meet Buddha,
tell him to wait for me...
that someday I'll be with him.
Mom fixed your dress for me.
I don't have to use pins anymore.
Take a look.
Do you think it looks beautiful on me?
Honey, it's about to rain. Let's go home.
Darling, let's paddle over there to fetch some more wood.
The rain's heavy and the tides are going to be strong.
Let's go home.
Darling, if we fetch those pieces of wood and sell the baskets of mussels
we will have enough money to buy a new white dress for Corn to go to school.
Darling!
Dan!
Darling!
Dan!
Be nice. Stop crying.
I'll tell Corn to boil some corn for you, okay?
Corn, did you boil the corn?
Are they ready for Rich to eat?
Don't worry,
Mom will be back to breast-feed you soon.
Rich, come on, stop crying.
Daddy is here.
Oh, Daddy is home.
Where is Mommy?
Why didn't she come home with you? Rich wants to be breast-feed.
I've been trying to comfort her, but I can't get her to stop crying.
Corn, Daddy is home.
Ah, Daddy is home.
Daddy, look.
I boiled the pot of corn all by myself.
Where is Mommy, Daddy?
Why are you crying?
Because you are such a good girl.
That's why I'm crying.
Where is Mommy, Daddy?
Mom will be back soon.
Mussels.
Mussels, anyone...
Mussels.
Mussels, anyone...
All Buddhist monks and students must stop their
violent acts and anti-government meetings at once.
You must go back to your homes to avoid any bloodshed
when our nation is experiencing grave disorder.
We are on the verge of war.
The National Leading Committee Chairman has ordered
temporary closings of all schools in all grades
in every town and in every village, from all districts to the main city.
The first time you kissed me,
I was proud to be a man.
When you were alive,
I was proud to be a husband.
And now that you are gone
I'm proud to be a father.
If you were still alive,
I would make you a hundred white silk dresses for our wedding.
War and natural disasters have left behind many sad memories,
but your love has left me with many beautiful ones.
Daddy, what are you looking for?
He's looking for Mom.
Darling, where are you now?
Heaven or Hell?
I hope you rest in peace.
Corn, hurry up!
Corn, where are you? Hurry up!
Daddy! Daddy!
We forgot mom's white silk dress.
Corn! Corn! Stop!
Daddy...
Corn, you can't go inside. Stay here.
You stay here!
Daddy!
My mother said a white silk dress is the symbol
of a Vietnamese woman's immense suffering as well as her generosity.
Through traumatic hardship,
through horrific destruction caused by countless wars,
the Vietnamese white silk dress still maintains its beauty.
The beauty of a Vietnamese woman
cannot be characterized by white skin,
rosy cheeks, and red lips,
but by the elegant laps of the white silk dress
which represent honesty, purity, and grace...