We Were the Scenery (2025) Movie Script
1
What does it mean to feel real?
Maybe those who werent in the film
could say that it felt real,
but because I was in the movie,
it didnt feel real.
I didnt like acting.
Because Im very shy,
and Im terrible at public speaking.
I never intended to be in a movie.
I went to the sixth grade in Vietnam.
After Dim died, Vit Cng rose up
and destroyed the schoolhouse.
Then, they captured the village officials.
So, I could no longer go to school.
South Vietnamese soldiers
from far away would come
because their mission
was to kill Vit Cng,
but they didnt know that they
were also killing everyday people.
Id be scared so
Id crawl into the basement.
But when American soldiers came in,
we were even more afraid.
They even razed my grandfathers home.
Of course, I was sad. But...
the times were like that,
so you just had to accept it.
I was in the military for eleven years.
There was a time when my friends died,
probably ten in all.
I saw two Vit Cng, out far,
jumping over some dirt.
They shot at me,
and a bullet hit me right in the head.
The bullet went through two layers
of helmet, metal and plastic.
I was injured. I was bleeding everywhere.
but I saw that I was fine.
We looked for places to leave,
many of them.
We tried many times.
Your father said he couldnt stand
to lose a single day of his freedom.
At all costs, hed need to leave.
I hated living under a dictatorship.
As soon as I left the shore,
Father: I felt free. Id found freedom.
Mother: He said that he felt free.
I was among the first to cross the ocean.
Our escape boat had eight people.
Everyone was going through the same thing.
I wasnt very afraid.
I was seasick. It was like I was dead.
I told your father, Can you find a place
where we can rest? Im exhausted.
Your father said, Were crossing the middle of the ocean,
and you want to stop over and rest somewhere?
I was able to figure out our coordinates,
wherever we were.
Also, I was able to calculate
the speed of the boat.
My method was to use the fishing line
that I left trailing to catch fish.
I would release around forty arm lengths.
One length was around 1.6 kilometers.
So, I calculated that from Vietnam
to the Philippines, it would take around
seven or eight days to get there
because we were traveling all day and all night.
I knew how to use my brain.
There were people who were in the navy
who couldnt figure it out!
We encountered a big boat
from the Philippines.
They were very kind.
They gave us food and let us board their ship.
The food was delicious.
They drove us down to Manila
to live for eleven months,
in the refugee camp in Mandaluyong.
We made many good memories there.
And within those eleven months,
we were able to play extras
in the film Apocalypse Now.
The movie company spoke with the people
who worked for the Red Cross.
One day, they told us, Pack your clothes,
board the bus, and lets go!
They didnt explain to us beforehand.
We didnt have a choice.
We couldnt choose.
But there wasnt anyone
who didnt want to go.
When we heard about it, we were so excited.
Who wouldnt be excited to go?
At the refugee camp, it was like being locked in prison.
They didnt allow us to go outside.
They scooped up everybody
from the camp, and we all went.
Even babies were paid
the same amount of money every day.
I think, eighty... eighty pesos.
Every day we filmed, we filmed probably...
Just a tiny bit...
around ten seconds. Not a lot.
We just rehearsed...
and shot again and again many times.
Only when they were satisfied
with the shot would they move on.
My friend C and I sat in those helicopters,
playing interpreters.
This helicopter is a UH-1.
The Army of the Republic of Vietnam
used the same ones for missions.
This teacher is bringing her students
outside so that they can hide.
Mother: To flee from the bullets.
Father: To flee from the bullets.
They are also all Vietnamese.
They are all refugees.
Mother: Thats Kim Anh!
Father: Yes, playing the teacher. Her name is Kim Anh?
Even while escaping, they still
have to line up before running away!
And that little one standing here,
he doesnt know anything.
I was playing a Vit Cng there.
Wearing a Vit Cng hat.
Mother: That might be me. That could actually be me.
Father: There are some wearing blue, some yellow.
She was hugging an AK-47,
shooting up at helicopters.
We were the scenery.
It wasnt as if we were doing it for real.
But, during that time,
your mom was definitely scared.
I was scared so thats why
I stuffed my ears with cotton.
Later, theres a sequence where
I drive a Deux Cheveux.
There, there!
I would drive to a place where
The car would fall off
The Vit Cng placed a mine
that would have exploded
Father: There!
Mother: There, there, there! Your father would drive like that.
But when he got to a place
where the car fell off,
Father: So, I stopped
Mother: then, its different person.
Father: There! That man who flew out is probably someone else.
Mother: There, flying off. I think its another man.
Father: Definitely another man.
Mother: Probably a stunt double. A professional.
When I got to that point, I had to stop.
And then someone else would come in and replace me.
They knew that I could
speak a little English,
and they cast me as a
government official.
Mother: You pretended?
Father: Someone praising the regime of the Vit Cng.
Oh, really?
But I was so bad at speaking,
that they cut that scene altogether.
Oh, really? Id never heard that before.
Father: This woman is B Tuyt.
Mother: Thats B Tuyt. B Tuyt lived in the refugee camp with us.
She also took a Filipino husband, right?
Yes, she took a Filipino husband.
She brought her whole family.
There is Vn! Vn is Tuyts daughter.
There! She is holding a hat.
Father: She is holding a hat and inside of it
Mother: Theres a grenade!
Theres a grenade.
Father: When she gets there, she tosses it in.
Mother: There!
Mother: There!
Father: Into the helicopter
Mother: There! There!
Father: There! She tosses it in and the helicopter explodes.
C m is running and you see her fall.
There, there, there! They are killing m.
Thats m.
She was pregnant,
but her belly was still small
She hadnt told anyone!
After filming we saw she had
a big pregnant belly and knew.
Mother: She ended up moving to Georgia.
Father: Georgia.
Mother: Georgia.
Father: Atlanta.
It seems kind of odd. During a war,
with guns and bullets
in the middle of a battle,
and someone is going to go surfing?
Father: It doesnt fit the circumstance.
Mother: It doesnt make sense.
Its weird.
There. These planes are
dropping napalm bombs.
But they didnt actually drop anything.
They used plastic tubing,
that they placed explosives into.
Then, when the planes flew overhead,
they had the tubes explode.
When we heard the film was released,
we went to the theater that one time only.
The theater had a round dome,
so when the bombs would explode,
they would go, Boom!
It felt like the real thing.
During our part of the film,
its really action-packed,
the rest of the movie is very average,
just a bunch of talking.
Theres not really much thats special there.
When I watched it, I thought,
theres not really anything good
about the film outside of this sequence.
That large group back there is like
they are playing prisoners of war.
See how they are walking all hunched over
with their hands over their heads?
Yeah, that group is all
Vietnamese people over there.
Prisoners of war, but of which side, I wonder?
The Vit Cng? No way.
Prisoners of the U.S. Army,
of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.
Not prisoners of war,
but they did capture them.
The Americans captured them?
Who else would have captured them?
Back in those days,
the South Vietnamese Army
wasn't all that nice either.
They captured all kinds of people!
If they suspected someone was a Vit Cng,
they would capture them.
The director of the film is
Father: That guy
Mother: Coppola.
Francis Coppola.
He had a beard.
He would hold some piece of fruit.
Sometimes hed carry an apple and eat it.
Father: A mango!
Mother: A mango!
Father: A mango. Hed bite into the skin, the way that youd eat an apple.
Mother: He would eat the mango, but wouldnt peel the skin.
When we eat a mango, we peel it first.
We peel it. Were civilized.
Vietnamese people would never...
Oh, my goodness, he would eat it
Mango skin is tough and dry!
Who would eat it that way?
Maybe he was used to apples, and he thought
he could eat a mango the same way.
Maybe he thought that, but if you eat something
and it doesnt taste good, you stop eating it.
They didnt really show the
Republic of South Vietnam, do they?
Yes, you dont really see
the South Vietnamese side.
Thats what is missing.
If you are making a Vietnam War movie,
I think that they just want to see
Vietnamese faces. Or, Asian faces.
Also, with real living Vietnamese people in it,
it gives it a feeling of being real.
Theres a sense that it feels authentic.
There were things that looked like the war,
and things that didnt.
We actually did see
airplanes dropping bombs.
To tell you the truth,
many of the people in my village died.
They hated that Americans
had arrived, dropping bombs.
They didnt have to wait for the
Vit Cng to come along to hate America.
Thats why I always say,
after playing an extra,
whenever I watch films,
I can see how fake they are.
They arent good anymore.
They told us that we could be in a movie
and make money and that it would be fun.
I thought it was fun.
After we made the movie,
we bought a tael of gold and a radio cassette player.
We were happy.
Coppola? I dont have any
special thoughts on him.
I knew that with an American film company,
you had to have a director.
But he was just some white American.
If I were to meet him,
Id tell him that I was in his film.
I dont think he'd recognize me.
But if I met him, Id say,
I know something special about you.
I remember that you eat
mangoes with the skin on!
I never wanted to be a filmmaker.
I just enjoyed recording you
when you were little.
Now we have films for you to watch.
So you can see what you were like back then.
I watch movies every night.
I like stories that are happy.
I dont like watching sad movies.
When I was young, I was more sentimental.
Now that Im old,
I only like watching things that are happy,
so that my head can feel light.
When I first came to the United States,
when I slept, Id often have nightmares
about the war. I was scared.
Now, not anymore.
I think because Im old, Ive forgotten those memories.
Theyre gone.
The head can only hold so much.
Maybe when new stuff enters, old stuff leaves.
I dont really understand it.
But, you slowly forget.
Now when I sleep,
I don't see it in my dreams anymore.
What does it mean to feel real?
Maybe those who werent in the film
could say that it felt real,
but because I was in the movie,
it didnt feel real.
I didnt like acting.
Because Im very shy,
and Im terrible at public speaking.
I never intended to be in a movie.
I went to the sixth grade in Vietnam.
After Dim died, Vit Cng rose up
and destroyed the schoolhouse.
Then, they captured the village officials.
So, I could no longer go to school.
South Vietnamese soldiers
from far away would come
because their mission
was to kill Vit Cng,
but they didnt know that they
were also killing everyday people.
Id be scared so
Id crawl into the basement.
But when American soldiers came in,
we were even more afraid.
They even razed my grandfathers home.
Of course, I was sad. But...
the times were like that,
so you just had to accept it.
I was in the military for eleven years.
There was a time when my friends died,
probably ten in all.
I saw two Vit Cng, out far,
jumping over some dirt.
They shot at me,
and a bullet hit me right in the head.
The bullet went through two layers
of helmet, metal and plastic.
I was injured. I was bleeding everywhere.
but I saw that I was fine.
We looked for places to leave,
many of them.
We tried many times.
Your father said he couldnt stand
to lose a single day of his freedom.
At all costs, hed need to leave.
I hated living under a dictatorship.
As soon as I left the shore,
Father: I felt free. Id found freedom.
Mother: He said that he felt free.
I was among the first to cross the ocean.
Our escape boat had eight people.
Everyone was going through the same thing.
I wasnt very afraid.
I was seasick. It was like I was dead.
I told your father, Can you find a place
where we can rest? Im exhausted.
Your father said, Were crossing the middle of the ocean,
and you want to stop over and rest somewhere?
I was able to figure out our coordinates,
wherever we were.
Also, I was able to calculate
the speed of the boat.
My method was to use the fishing line
that I left trailing to catch fish.
I would release around forty arm lengths.
One length was around 1.6 kilometers.
So, I calculated that from Vietnam
to the Philippines, it would take around
seven or eight days to get there
because we were traveling all day and all night.
I knew how to use my brain.
There were people who were in the navy
who couldnt figure it out!
We encountered a big boat
from the Philippines.
They were very kind.
They gave us food and let us board their ship.
The food was delicious.
They drove us down to Manila
to live for eleven months,
in the refugee camp in Mandaluyong.
We made many good memories there.
And within those eleven months,
we were able to play extras
in the film Apocalypse Now.
The movie company spoke with the people
who worked for the Red Cross.
One day, they told us, Pack your clothes,
board the bus, and lets go!
They didnt explain to us beforehand.
We didnt have a choice.
We couldnt choose.
But there wasnt anyone
who didnt want to go.
When we heard about it, we were so excited.
Who wouldnt be excited to go?
At the refugee camp, it was like being locked in prison.
They didnt allow us to go outside.
They scooped up everybody
from the camp, and we all went.
Even babies were paid
the same amount of money every day.
I think, eighty... eighty pesos.
Every day we filmed, we filmed probably...
Just a tiny bit...
around ten seconds. Not a lot.
We just rehearsed...
and shot again and again many times.
Only when they were satisfied
with the shot would they move on.
My friend C and I sat in those helicopters,
playing interpreters.
This helicopter is a UH-1.
The Army of the Republic of Vietnam
used the same ones for missions.
This teacher is bringing her students
outside so that they can hide.
Mother: To flee from the bullets.
Father: To flee from the bullets.
They are also all Vietnamese.
They are all refugees.
Mother: Thats Kim Anh!
Father: Yes, playing the teacher. Her name is Kim Anh?
Even while escaping, they still
have to line up before running away!
And that little one standing here,
he doesnt know anything.
I was playing a Vit Cng there.
Wearing a Vit Cng hat.
Mother: That might be me. That could actually be me.
Father: There are some wearing blue, some yellow.
She was hugging an AK-47,
shooting up at helicopters.
We were the scenery.
It wasnt as if we were doing it for real.
But, during that time,
your mom was definitely scared.
I was scared so thats why
I stuffed my ears with cotton.
Later, theres a sequence where
I drive a Deux Cheveux.
There, there!
I would drive to a place where
The car would fall off
The Vit Cng placed a mine
that would have exploded
Father: There!
Mother: There, there, there! Your father would drive like that.
But when he got to a place
where the car fell off,
Father: So, I stopped
Mother: then, its different person.
Father: There! That man who flew out is probably someone else.
Mother: There, flying off. I think its another man.
Father: Definitely another man.
Mother: Probably a stunt double. A professional.
When I got to that point, I had to stop.
And then someone else would come in and replace me.
They knew that I could
speak a little English,
and they cast me as a
government official.
Mother: You pretended?
Father: Someone praising the regime of the Vit Cng.
Oh, really?
But I was so bad at speaking,
that they cut that scene altogether.
Oh, really? Id never heard that before.
Father: This woman is B Tuyt.
Mother: Thats B Tuyt. B Tuyt lived in the refugee camp with us.
She also took a Filipino husband, right?
Yes, she took a Filipino husband.
She brought her whole family.
There is Vn! Vn is Tuyts daughter.
There! She is holding a hat.
Father: She is holding a hat and inside of it
Mother: Theres a grenade!
Theres a grenade.
Father: When she gets there, she tosses it in.
Mother: There!
Mother: There!
Father: Into the helicopter
Mother: There! There!
Father: There! She tosses it in and the helicopter explodes.
C m is running and you see her fall.
There, there, there! They are killing m.
Thats m.
She was pregnant,
but her belly was still small
She hadnt told anyone!
After filming we saw she had
a big pregnant belly and knew.
Mother: She ended up moving to Georgia.
Father: Georgia.
Mother: Georgia.
Father: Atlanta.
It seems kind of odd. During a war,
with guns and bullets
in the middle of a battle,
and someone is going to go surfing?
Father: It doesnt fit the circumstance.
Mother: It doesnt make sense.
Its weird.
There. These planes are
dropping napalm bombs.
But they didnt actually drop anything.
They used plastic tubing,
that they placed explosives into.
Then, when the planes flew overhead,
they had the tubes explode.
When we heard the film was released,
we went to the theater that one time only.
The theater had a round dome,
so when the bombs would explode,
they would go, Boom!
It felt like the real thing.
During our part of the film,
its really action-packed,
the rest of the movie is very average,
just a bunch of talking.
Theres not really much thats special there.
When I watched it, I thought,
theres not really anything good
about the film outside of this sequence.
That large group back there is like
they are playing prisoners of war.
See how they are walking all hunched over
with their hands over their heads?
Yeah, that group is all
Vietnamese people over there.
Prisoners of war, but of which side, I wonder?
The Vit Cng? No way.
Prisoners of the U.S. Army,
of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.
Not prisoners of war,
but they did capture them.
The Americans captured them?
Who else would have captured them?
Back in those days,
the South Vietnamese Army
wasn't all that nice either.
They captured all kinds of people!
If they suspected someone was a Vit Cng,
they would capture them.
The director of the film is
Father: That guy
Mother: Coppola.
Francis Coppola.
He had a beard.
He would hold some piece of fruit.
Sometimes hed carry an apple and eat it.
Father: A mango!
Mother: A mango!
Father: A mango. Hed bite into the skin, the way that youd eat an apple.
Mother: He would eat the mango, but wouldnt peel the skin.
When we eat a mango, we peel it first.
We peel it. Were civilized.
Vietnamese people would never...
Oh, my goodness, he would eat it
Mango skin is tough and dry!
Who would eat it that way?
Maybe he was used to apples, and he thought
he could eat a mango the same way.
Maybe he thought that, but if you eat something
and it doesnt taste good, you stop eating it.
They didnt really show the
Republic of South Vietnam, do they?
Yes, you dont really see
the South Vietnamese side.
Thats what is missing.
If you are making a Vietnam War movie,
I think that they just want to see
Vietnamese faces. Or, Asian faces.
Also, with real living Vietnamese people in it,
it gives it a feeling of being real.
Theres a sense that it feels authentic.
There were things that looked like the war,
and things that didnt.
We actually did see
airplanes dropping bombs.
To tell you the truth,
many of the people in my village died.
They hated that Americans
had arrived, dropping bombs.
They didnt have to wait for the
Vit Cng to come along to hate America.
Thats why I always say,
after playing an extra,
whenever I watch films,
I can see how fake they are.
They arent good anymore.
They told us that we could be in a movie
and make money and that it would be fun.
I thought it was fun.
After we made the movie,
we bought a tael of gold and a radio cassette player.
We were happy.
Coppola? I dont have any
special thoughts on him.
I knew that with an American film company,
you had to have a director.
But he was just some white American.
If I were to meet him,
Id tell him that I was in his film.
I dont think he'd recognize me.
But if I met him, Id say,
I know something special about you.
I remember that you eat
mangoes with the skin on!
I never wanted to be a filmmaker.
I just enjoyed recording you
when you were little.
Now we have films for you to watch.
So you can see what you were like back then.
I watch movies every night.
I like stories that are happy.
I dont like watching sad movies.
When I was young, I was more sentimental.
Now that Im old,
I only like watching things that are happy,
so that my head can feel light.
When I first came to the United States,
when I slept, Id often have nightmares
about the war. I was scared.
Now, not anymore.
I think because Im old, Ive forgotten those memories.
Theyre gone.
The head can only hold so much.
Maybe when new stuff enters, old stuff leaves.
I dont really understand it.
But, you slowly forget.
Now when I sleep,
I don't see it in my dreams anymore.