Tiger's Apprentice

57 minutes, video
English & Vietnamese (w/ subtitles)
© 1998/1999

For years filmmaker M. Trinh Nguyen vacillated between intrigue and dismissal of her  grandmother's stories about her great-uncle's ability to treat certain tumors in Vietnam.  Some of Nguyen's relatives in the United States dismissed the treatment outright as "voodoo."  Unwilling to accept either side without question, Nguyen embarked on a journey to her great-uncle's Mekong Delta village to judge his practice for herself.

                   In Vietnam an astounding but hidden world is rendered visible to Nguyen. She is surprised to see her great-uncle treating many people, some of whom have traveled great distances to get there.  While some patients turn to him only when they have exhausted their options within western medicine, many believe strongly in folk medicine.  Nguyen discovers that her great-uncle also practices other equally powerful medicines, two of which cure gangrene and leprosy.

     Villagers of Vietnam's Mekong Delta refer to the tigers who used to inhabit the region in great number as "masters."  And just as tigers are on the verge of extinction, medicine masters also find themselves to be an endangered species. Medicinal folk knowledge, traditionally passed down through the family, is now dying with the masters.  Few young people are interested in learning the  ancient practices that require long periods of study and promise little monetary compensation.

          As Nguyen's inquiry progresses, she learns the history as well as the noble traditions of the practice, and realizes that she is unwittingly beginning to apprentice with the master.  With few willing students available, her great-uncle hopes that part of his knowledge might live on through her.

        Vietnamese officials initially refused to let Nguyen take her footage back to the United States because they did not want foreigners to see that many Vietnamese still rely on non-western medicine, which they worried might be considered "backward."  After a week of careful reviewing, however, an official changed his mind and released most of the footage.  Using this experience as a frame, Nguyen invites the audience to sit in the censor's chair.

 

 

Funded in part by:
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Rose Marshall
The Pacific Pioneer Fund
Bay Area Video Coalition
Catherine & Don Kaiser
Association for Viet Arts

 

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