Reception
Hui considers Boat People one of her favorite movies and many critics consider it her masterpiece. The film brought Hui to international attention and cemented her reputation as a Hong Kong New Wave director. The film was very successful during its run in theaters, grossing HK$15,475,087, breaking records and playing to packed theaters for months. Many viewers see the film as an analogy for Hong Kong after being returned to China (which was being negotiated at the time), with the communist Vietnamese government standing in for the communist Chinese government and warning that life in Hong Kong after the handover will be similar to life in Vietnam after the communist takeover. In Hong Kong, the film was nominated for 12 categories at the Hong Kong Film Award in 1983 and won 5, including Best Film.
The film was also shown in many international film festivals, including the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. Many international critics found the film powerful, including Serge Daney in Libération, Lawrence O'Toole in Motion Picture Review, and David Denby in New York Magazine. At the New York Film Festival, it elicited unusual attention because of its perceived political content (unlike the usual kung-fu Hong Kong films that Western audiences were accustomed to) and high production value. Richard Corliss of Time Magazine wrote "ike any movie...with a strong point of view, Boat People is propaganda", and that "he passions Boat People elicits testify...to Hui's skills as a popular film maker." Janet Maslin in The New York Times observed that Hui "manipulates her material astutely, and rarely lets it become heavy-handed" and that scenes in the film "feel like shrewdly calculating fiction rather than reportage."
However, many critics at the New York Film Festival criticized the film's political content, such as J. Hoberman, Renee Shafransky, and Andrew Sarris, all writing in The Village Voice. They objected to what they saw as the one-sided portrayal of the Vietnamese government and the lack of historical perspective. Some others found it politically simplistic and sentimental.
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