North Vietnam Is Cruel, or The Ballad of the Singing Noodle

North Vietnam Is Cruel, or The Ballad of the Singing Noodle is a documentary travelogue that turns into a portrait of a man in a borderline situation. Its hero is Vietnamese cook Le Quang Dao, nicknamed “the Singing Noodle”, who lives in the Czech Republic, cooks from a mobile caravan at festivals and sings Czech folk and country songs — some of which he translates into Vietnamese. He made it onto the stage thanks to festival organiser Viktor Souček, who became his manager; since then Dao has played with leading Czech musicians and now and then appears on television shows.

When the film crew follows him to Vietnam, instead of a quirky celebrity they find a man in the middle of a personal drama: both of his parents are dying. What was meant to be an entertaining multicultural travelogue becomes a topography of the soul of a man in crisis, torn between two worlds. Dao tries to commit to the film while trying to save his parents, caring for his Vietnamese family and missing his children back in Bohemia. He faces the dead ends of the local healthcare system and turns to traditional medicine and even supernatural powers.

The film shows Vietnam through Vietnamese eyes — life in Hanoi and in the countryside, a farm of white horses with “healing” bones, prayers for his parents’ health at the Hung Temple, the border town of Sapa with its handmade clothing, and the climb to the country’s highest mountain. This mosaic of everyday life also touches on politics: Vietnam is portrayed as a relatively free country with echoes of its communist past and the influence of both uniformed and secret police. Set to Dao’s versions of Czech evergreens, the documentary explores the mentality of ordinary Vietnamese people, their exotic dishes and unusual ways of preparing them.

The film ends with the death of Dao’s father, the funeral ritual, the lingering fight for his mother’s life, and his return from Vietnam to Bohemia — where he began as a curiosity on stage.