Version : French
Duration : 11'
Format : 35 mm. - 16 mm. - Béta Digit. - Mpeg4
Black & white
Producer : ARMOR Films - Fred ORAIN
Country
France
Music
Georges DELERUE
Picture
Lucien MILLET
Stage set
Cuolon, down the Mekong River
Archive footage
- City of Cholon: street scenes with French cars (15 CV Citroën, 203 Peugeot, Parisian-type bus),
- Markets, various shops, decorated carts,
- Pagodas: pediments, interiors, altars,
- Children making incense sticks,
- Coolies loading bags of rice onto a boat,
- Mekong River with different types of junks,
- Women carrying a loom with a pendulum,
- Woodcutters felling a tree, Pitsawyers,
- Herd of tethered elephants rolling logs,
- Family wedding scenes and ritual dances.
Cholon, “Le Grand Marché”, a city built by the Chinese, is the most important of the six provinces of Lower Cochinchina. The shops with their ornate fronts are run by Chinese, men for the big businesses and women for the smaller ones. A district of Cholon works at making incense sticks.
The Mekong criss-crosses Indochina, crosses Laos and runs alongside Burma. There is a lot of traffic on the river. It is bordered by abundant jungle, from which hardwoods such as teak are harvested. Tethered elephants carry the logs to the river.
Some Laotian customs, such as marriage ceremonies and ancestor worship, have their roots in the distant past.
