Tuag Hlub Summary

Tuag Hlub Summary

**Spoiler Alert**

Yis Hawj (Leem Lis) was betrothed to her sickly maternal cousin, Kim Lis (Xeeb Lis), at age three. Since then, she has lived with her fiancé’s family and visits her biological mother occasionally. Yis, however, does not love her fiancé and is annoyed by Kim’s pestering elder brother, Teem Lis (Vej Lis).

One day on her way to visit her mother, Yis trips and falls near a bamboo-pipe water system. A young man, Kuab Yaj (Ceeb Hawj), happens to be nearby and rushes over to help Yis. Afraid that Yis’ twisted ankle might swell up, Kuab quickly finds an herb. He chews it up in his mouth and wraps it around her ankle with a piece of cloth torn from the sleeve of his hemp shirt. Before he leaves, she asks him to give her drinking water and they both seem to be fond of each other’s presence.

The two eventually falls in love, only to have Kuab discover that Yis is already engaged. What is worst is that Yis will be getting married soon. Kuab and Yis are both devastated, but Yis decides to follow through with the wedding arrangement in order to respect the wishes of her parents and parents-in-law. Teem is suspicious of a courtship between Yis and Kuab. Although he would prefer to be the one marrying Yis, he detests Kuab and having his younger brother wed Yis was more tolerable to him.

After the marriage, Yis secretly meets up with Kuab and the two share a drink of each other’s blood—vowing to love one another only.

Teem is unsatisfied at the sight of Kuab, and hires two Chinese men to murder the young man. After Kuab’s death, Yis becomes depressed and very sick. Yis’ mother-in-law finds different healers to come treat Yis’ symptoms, but no can heal Yis.

While she lies sick in bed, Kuab’s spirit returns to visit and invite Yis for an outing every day. And every day, someone would see Yis playing and flirting with no one. These individuals are terrified by the sight.

One day, Teem decides to follow Yis and by the time he finds her, she has already fainted. Teem carries her home, and a shaman is summoned. An egg is tied with a string to the ceiling and the shaman chants in his trance. Soon, the egg spins speedily, a gun trigger is pulled, and blood splatters onto the wall. The spirit of Kuab is killed.

That afternoon, Kim and a friend pass out from drinking rice wine. Drunk himself, Teem sneaks into Yis’ room and rapes her. When Yis finds out that she is pregnant, her husband coughs up blood and faints. Before his last breath, he apologizes to Yis by telling her that he was alert the night his brother sneaked into Yis’ room. However, for the sake of having a descendant in the family, he purposely did not stop Teem. He then dies in her arms.

According to Hmong customs, if the elder brother dies first, his wife would marry the younger brother. If the younger brother dies first, then his wife would marry the elder brother. This is a means to keep the children in the family. After the death of Kim, the elders in the family agree for Yis to become Teem’s wife. A smiling Teem seems very satisfied. Yis has no choice but to comply.

Many months later, Yis brings a child to Kuab’s sister, Maim, and asks the girl to take the child to Teem. Yis also gives Maim her red paper umbrella, telling Maim that Teem will understand when he sees the umbrella. Maim asks Yis where she is heading to, but Yis replies that she does not know.

Maim finds Teem, who appears surprised and glad to see the child. He takes the red paper umbrella, and falls into a state of reminisces about Yis. The story ends on a happy Yis and Kuab, being playful with one another. 

My Thoughts

I've not seen Leem's previous movie, Nkauj Nyaab Pob Txhaa, so I can't make a comparison as to whether this one has improved in quality or not. 

Overall, I think this Hmong Chinese movie has room for improvements, both in the quality of the acting, cinematography, and editing. I could tolerate many things, but it gets irritating at times when the actors/actresses are stiff, and the film rolls in a very choppy fashion. There were a couple of scenes that felt like the editor just pieced a bunch of takes together. Furthermore, there were bamboo grove scenes where the director did not pay attention to ensure that a bamboo tree not block the face of one of the leads. 

In terms of the story line, I understand that it is based on a true story. However, I felt that the director kept too close to reality and there was no excitement in the plot. I felt an injustice to the character of Kuab Yaj, the main lead. Although this may have been true in reality, a film has the potential to change, and the director could have twisted the story a bit so that justice is served. In the movie, the human Kuab dies at the hands of the supporting character, Teem. Then, the ghost Kuab dies once more when he is shot during the shaman ceremony. Afterwards, Teem ends up impregnating Yis. In this manner, this story seems to show that evil has won over goodness.

It would have also been nice for this movie to have either Hmong or English subtitles. I find it hard to understand the dialect spoken (I have to re-watch it a second time to know what's going on), especially scenes where characters are sick or they're mumbling due to pain.

Despite these flaws, I hope the Hmong Chinese continue to make movies. Since many of us in America are unfamiliar with tales in the Hmong Chinese community, it would be interesting to see how much they can reveal to us of the many stories we have lost.