The White Silk Dress 2006

In Ha Dong, Northern Vietnam in 1954, during the waning days of French colonial rule, Dan and Gu live as servants in separate households, enduring harsh mistreatment from their masters. They are also lovers, bound together by shared hardship and quiet hope. After Gu’s master is assassinated, the two flee southward, driven by a longing for safety and a future they can call their own. Their journey leads them to the central seaside town of Hoi An, where they begin building a life together as a family.

Despite poverty and ongoing danger, the couple creates a home filled with love and mutual support. Dan gives birth to four daughters, and though life is hard, their bond remains strong. A central thread of the story is the white silk áo dài Gu gave Dan as a wedding gift before they fled—an heirloom of promise and identity that becomes a touchstone for the family’s hopes for a proper wedding and a sense of belonging.

In Hoi An, the family’s fortunes are tested by the elements and by scarcity. When Dan gives birth to their first daughter, Hoi An, the rainy season arrives, and the house is repeatedly flooded. Gu searches for the precious áo dài, only to uncover, wrapped inside the garment, a sprouted areca nut—an emblem of marriage from their hometown. The nut must be planted and nurtured; once it grows, Dan will officially become Gu’s wife. After the flood recedes, Dan plants the nut in front of their house, anchoring their future in the land they now call home.

The rains return, and three more daughters are born, but the house remains flooded and the family’s modest possessions—most notably their small fishing boat—are all they have. Gu earns a living gathering shellfish, while Dan brings the haul to market. With the áo dài in scarce supply, Dan’s older daughters worry about being allowed to attend school, a privilege that requires the garment. To keep them in school and supported, Dan takes on work as a nhũ mẫu (wet nurse). She endures a humiliating arrangement with an older Chinese man who expects her to nurse him each morning. Although this work fills Dan with discomfort, she persists for the sake of her family’s education and future. Gu discovers what Dan is doing and reprimands her, yet the couple remains determined. In a defiant act of resilience, Dan ultimately modifies her own precious áo dài so that all of their daughters can share in its symbolism and dignity.

The story is punctuated by the character of Hoi An, who embodies the family’s fragile hope for peace. Hoi An asks her father, “Is peace beautiful, daddy?” She grows up with the conviction that peace is possible, even as the world around her teems with conflict. Tragically, she does not live to see a true peace. During a moment when Dan rushes to the school to find her daughter and her classmates, a bombing devastates the building, tearing away one more generation of the family’s future.

The heartbreak continues as Dan dies while gathering wood to earn extra money for her daughters’ education; she is swept away by a ferocious rainstorm. Gu dies soon after, trying to rescue Dan’s beloved áo dài from the rubble of a bombed home. The film closes with a somber note about reunification in 1975, but it remains a tribute to the strength, courage, and enduring spirit of Vietnamese women, embodied in the enduring symbol of the áo dài.

Is peace beautiful, daddy?

This is a story of sacrifice, endurance, and love that binds a family across generations and through the upheavals of war, always returning to the quiet dignity of a woman’s strength and a garment that carries memory, identity, and hope.