Passport to Love (2009)
"Chuyen tinh xa xu" (original title)

A romantic comedy set in modern day Saigon, Vietnam and Orange Country, USA. Khang is a charming and handsome playboy; Hieu is his earnest and hardworking "Bill Gates" wannabe sidekick. "... See full summary »

Director:

Victor Vu

Writers:

Binh Le (story), Victor Vu (screenplay),

Stars:

Binh Minh, Huy Khanh, Kathy Uyen

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Binh Minh	...	Khang (as Bình Minh)
Huy Khanh	...	Hiéu (as Huy Khánh)
Kathy Uyen	...	Tiffany (as Kathy Uyén)
Ngoc Diep	...	Jennifer (as Ngoc Diép)
Bao Quyen Tang	...	Thao (as Tang Bao Quyen)
Kim Xuan	...	Mrs. Kim
Phuc Van Nguyen	...	Mr. Hoang (as Nguyen Van Phuc)
Phuong Anh	...	Katie
Thanh Van	...	Tiffany's Mom
Julie Phung Tran	...	Mrs. Mai
Quoc Hung	...	Mr. Tam
Quoc Huy	...	Mr. Dao
Huynh Van Dua	...	Uncle Six
Vo Van Thiem	...	Uncle Seven
Phan Tan Thi	...	Doctor

Storyline

A romantic comedy set in modern day Saigon, Vietnam and Orange Country, USA. Khang is a charming and handsome playboy; Hieu is his earnest and hardworking "Bill Gates" wannabe sidekick. "The Boys" are sent to study abroad in the US and to bring home a coveted American University Degree. Once in America, Khang's life spirals into chaos; he falls for a young, single mother who happens to be the police officer who books him. While Hieu finds himself trapped between the tempting, Viet Kieu pageant girl Jennifer and his almost too perfect fiancé, Thao, back home. When Hieu's mother falls ill, he must return to Vietnam. A distraught Jennifer follows in secrecy. While Khang stays back in America, but is confronted by his father who is utterly disappointed with his son, just when Khang and Tiffany's world is turning over a new leaf. Having grown some, Khang seeks permission from his father to marry his betrothed while Hieu's indecision may just leave him abandoned by loves both former and ...

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Plot Keywords:

love | vietnamese

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Genres:

Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some sex-related content

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA Vietnam

Language:

English Vietnamese

Release Date:

9 October 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Passport to Love

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$46,012 (USA) (9 October 2009)

Gross:

$172,453 (USA) (20 November 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

InFocus Media Group, Media 7 Productions, Wonderboy Entertainment

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

(at around 1 min) The main character Hieu is using a Sony Vaio notebook, which always runs on Windows. But in the following shots of the notebook screen, Hieu is clearly using a version of Mac OS, which only runs on Apple computers, but not on a Sony Vaio. This is obvious by the brand names like "iSight" or the OS design.

User Reviews

Asian-American Film Seeks Audience

As the first person to actually review this movie, I am surprised that there are no others before me. This is a pretty good, commercial, movie, with universal appeal and sensibility. Although, it's nothing ground- breaking, it's pretty entertaining and worth watching. To think that IMDb actually links a "free" viewing of the movie via HULU is amazing.

The Story is good, Characters are likable, but I am surprised that the two, main lead, male, actors, Huy Khanh (Hieu), and Binh Minh (Khang) seem a bit old for college students, but they did a solid job acting. However, I was totally, surprised with Ngoc Diep's performance as Jennifer. I usually see the Ditzy-Asian-American Girl performance, and think they give the worst job acting because they all do the same forgettable act - the, "I don't know anything about my language/ culture, and you should really get a laugh". Either Diep is a really good actor, or she really is that helplessly, ignorant about her culture. Fortunately, she really does seem to show vulnerability and get sympathy for her character, and is funny, too, so she must be a good actor.

I guess the Director, Victor Vu did a pretty good job getting the comedy performances out of the cast without them over-acting. The performances were also good because they were able to get sympathy without looking unnatural. A movie like this seems like so many things could go wrong, but over-all was done well.

What is a real shame is that even commercial movies like these are not finding a market audience here in the US, and the fact that it was made at all is pretty amazing. Even worse is all the good performances from the actors are not being seen by enough people.