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For a city the size of Ho Chi Minh City, there are surprisingly few major outlets for cultural performances. There are a number of small theaters where smaller companies or groups visiting from the provinces perform. The Opera House, Lam Son Square (tel: (08) 825 1563), has regular performances and occasional shows by international classical artists. The large Hoa Binh Theater, next to the Quoc Tu Pagoda in District 10 (tel: (08) 865 3353 or 5199), has a few small theaters in the complex and may have a number of different shows in one night. The Gia Dinh Theater, 475 Bach Dang, Binh Thanh District (tel: (08) 841 2045), puts on minority music or dance shows and the Ben Thanh Theater, 6 Mac Dinh Chi, District 1 (tel: (08) 823 1652), hosts drama from visiting groups. There is no central ticket agency so you’ll need to buy tickets in person at the relevant venue. You can find details of some shows in The Guide, published monthly by the Vietnam Economic Times (website: www.vneconomy.com.vn).

Music: Vietnamese music is somewhat discordant to the Western ear but excellent performances are held nightly in some of the restaurants. Vietnam House, 93/95 Dong Khoi (tel: (08) 829 1623), and Blue Ginger, 37 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia (tel: (08) 829 8676), are good examples. Occasional performances are held at the Conservatory of Music, 112 Nguyen Du in District 3 (tel: (08) 822 5841).

Theater: Vietnam is famous for its water puppets and the Thang Long Water Puppet Theater in Hanoi regularly tours worldwide. Ho Chi Minh City also has its own water puppet theater, the Golden Dragon Water Puppetry Theater, 55B Nguyen Thi Minh Khai (tel: (08) 827 2653; website: www.waterpuppetsaigon.com), with daily performances at 1830 and 2000. The Opera House (tel: (08) 825 1563), on Lam Son Square, District 1, has regular dance, music and acrobatic performances.

Dance: Dance shows are less popular in Vietnam than in Thailand or Cambodia but performances can be seen at some of the restaurants throughout the city as well as at some of the theaters mentioned above. There is a particularly good show during dinner at the Cung Dinh Restaurant in the Rex Hotel, 141 Nguyen Hue (tel: (08) 829 2185). Binh Quoi Tourist Village (tel: (08) 556 6020; website: www.binhquoiresort.com.vn), just outside the city on the Saigon River, has dance shows on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the highlight of which is a re-enactment of a minority wedding.

Film: The situation for cinema-goers trying to find a cinema showing English-language films is improving steadily. The established Diamond Cinema, 13th Floor, Diamond Plaza, 34 Le Duan (tel: (08) 825 7750; website: www.diamondplaza.com.vn), has been joined by Megastar Cineplex, level 7, Hung Vuong Plaza, 126 Hung Vuong in District 5 (tel: (08) 222 0388; website: www.megastarmedia.net). Two more are due to open in the Saigon Paragon Center and in Tan Binh District.

Only a handful of films for the international market have been filmed in Vietnam and one of these was the acclaimed film Cyclo (1995). Directed by the French-educated Tran Anh Hung, it is a brutal portrayal of Ho Chi Minh City’s streets in the early 1980s. By the same director is the well-received film Scent of the Green Papaya (1994), which was filmed in France but is about a pre-war Vietnamese/Chinese family’s decadent lifestyle in Saigon. The first American film to be made in Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City since the war was Three Seasons (1999), directed by Vietnamese-American Tony Bui. The film describes the emergence of Ho Chi Minh City and its people from the post-Vietnam war period and won awards all over the world. Filmed in Ho Chi Minh City in 2001 and released in 2002 is Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, directed by Phillip Noyce and the first Hollywood film to be made in the country. The Beautiful Country (2005), directed by Hans Petter Moland, tells the story of Binh, the son of an American GI and his journey from Ho Chi Minh City to America.

Literary Notes: Ho Chi Minh City has appeared as the backdrop for a number of books because of its rich French colonial and wartime history. Perhaps the most famous is The Quiet American (1955) by Graham Greene - the story of an American helping to establish a Third Force, while the French fight against the Vietminh. Greene’s novel was written as a result of his years spent in Saigon. Anthony Grey’s 1982 novel, Saigon, relates the story of Joseph Sherman who arrived in the city as a teenager in 1925 and, drawn back again and again, finally leaves on the last helicopter out in 1975. A moving, epic story by Duong Van Mai Elliott is The Sacred Willow (1999), which covers four generations of a Vietnamese family from French colonialism through WWII to the American War.

The British Labor MP Chris Mullin, a long-time friend of Vietnam and once a war correspondent there, covers post-liberation Saigon in his 1986 novel The Last Man out of Saigon. It tells of a CIA man, masquerading as a journalist who stays on after the fall of the city to destabilize the new regime. His cover is blown and he spends time being re-educated and working as a rice-farmer. Here he learns that there are two sides to any story and to any war. The last months of US involvement in Saigon are depicted in Thomas H Lee’s book, Final Curtain: Saigon (2005). Of the large number of books focusing on the American War, Michael Herr’s Dispatches (1978), an LSD-soaked exploration of the madness of conflict and Bao Ninh’s Sorrow of War (1991), a poetic meditation from the Vietnamese perspective, are two of the best.

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