3 Leej Neeg 2 Txoj Kev Summary

3 Leej Neeg 2 Txoj Kev

According to the cover, this movie is based on a true story.  It takes place in Laos circa the Vietnam War era.  It starred Tshaus Hawj as Tshia Nag, Txam Thoj as Tshaj Meej, and Nuj Nraim Thoj as Chiv Feej.

Summary:

Tshaj Meej and Tshia Nag grew up together, and were very good friends.  They both harbored feelings for one another, but both couldn’t bring themselves to openly confess their love.  Since Tshaj Meej was an orphan, he felt that he was inferior and didn’t deserve a girl from a well-off family like Tshia Nag.  So after Tshia Nag’s father died from a stroke, she married the soldier—Chiv Feej instead.

 

Chiv Feej, like Tshaj Meej, equally loved Tshia Nag, but his mother loathes his wife.  When Chiv Feej left for military duties, his mother was set on chasing Tshia Nag out of  Chiv Feej’s life.  She forced Tshia Nag to perform all the house chores and left only food scraps for Tshia Nag to eat.  After Chiv Feej was reported as supposedly dead while in combat, Tshia Nag’s mother-in-law brainwashed her elder sister-in-law into hating Tshia Nag by alleging an affair between the widowed Tshia Nag and Chiv Feeb’s older brother.  With both mother-in-law and elder sister-in-law acting with one mind and heart, they made Tshia Nag’s life a living hell.

 

When her mother-in-law found out that Tshia Nag’s stomach had grown bigger, she became suspicious of an adulterous affair between her younger daughter-in-law and another man.  Tshia Nag informed her mother-in-law that the child she was bearing belonged to Chiv Feej, but her mother-in-law would not listen.  The woman said that it was impossible, as Chiv Feej had left shortly after their wedding.  As a result, Tshia Nag was forced to return to her biological mother.

 

Pitying Tshia Nag that if she was left unmarried she would have to give birth in a cornered shack, Tshaj Meej decided to marry her.  (In Hmong traditions, if a daughter has stepped out to marry another clan, she is forbidden to give birth in the home of her biological parents for her physical body and soul is now considered to belong to her husband’s family.  If she does give birth inside her biological parents’ home, she will infuriate the ancestors and misfortunes can engulf her biological family). 

 

Many years passed and an older Chiv Feej returned.  By this time, Tshia Nag and Tshaj Meej had already had a daughter of their own as well.  Chiv Feej first located his mother, who repented on her sins and told him that it was she who misunderstood his wife, and forced her to leave.  Tshia Nag had now remarried.  A heartbroken Chiv Feej revealed that he didn’t die in combat, but was captured and imprisoned all of this time.   

Chiv Feej decided to go find Tshia Nag and his son.  On his way to her home, he met his 8 year-old boy but both father and son didn’t recognize one another.  He then surprised Tshia Nag, who had grieved for her husband’s death for many years, with his sudden presence.  He told her that he was captured and suffered in a labor camp for many years, but it was the thought of reuniting with her and his child that gave him the courage to persevere through his imprisonment.  Now that he had returned, he wanted to take her and his child back. 

 

A woman of strong will and true love, Tshia Nag refused.  It was true that she and Chiv Feej once walked a path together, but the footprints of that path had long been covered with weeds and one could barely make out that it was once walked upon.  But Tshaj Meej and her road was still new, with visible footprints.  For the time being, she could no longer return to his arms.

 

Dejected, Chiv Feej revealed his admiration for Tshia Nag’s faithfulness.  But he must take his son back, for his blood ran in the veins of the boy.  Tshia Nag cried, objecting to the separation.  Tshaj Meej appeared and said that he was reluctant to let the boy go because he did raise him as his own, but the child’s real father was Chiv Feej after all so there was nothing else Tshaj Meej could say.  In the end, Tshaj Meej and Tshia Nag permitted Chiv Feej to take his son with him.