Off Limits (1988)

Handling

Off Limits presents an analysis of representations of the Vietnam War, the 1960s, and the Vietnamese characters that have been portrayed in the recent series of films about this subject. I juxtapose a fragment from the film of the same title, made in 1987 about Vietnam in 1968, with a fragment from Easy Rider, a film made in 1968 about America in 1968. A scene is retold from the point of view of a Vietnamese character who in the film had no dialogue, no voice. His story is recounted through visual rolling text, written by myself, and it describes his own death as formulated by the narrative. This text is layered visually over a blue field, which in turn becomes a 'curtain' behind which the images and soundtrack from Easy Rider unfold and play simultaneously in real time underneath. -- Rea Tajiri