Punishment

A government minister from Hanoi has a car accident on the way to a wedding in a remote village. The county hospital does not have the authority to operate on a minister. The county commissioner would like the operation done in the county for the prestige it would bring, but will not authorize it without the approval of the whole county committee. The hospital director has filled his quota, so does not want to take the risk of an operation. Since a telephone call to Hanoi has to be booked two days in advance, the minister's wife cannot be contacted, nor can a helicopter be arranged to move the minister to Hanoi.

Vietnam, 1954. An American reporter finds himself in the middle of the battle of Điện Biên Phủ, between the French army and the Vietminh.

The young & poor struggle to get by in the big city.

At a maternity ward in South Vietnam, a midwife adopts three orphaned children after their mothers, undercover Communist spies, go missing or die in action.

Discharged from the Army after losing an arm in the battlefield, Lê Vân returns home. He seeks to help rebuild it, but realises that a life spent fighting has made him disconnected from the villagers and their ideas.

A story about a Catholic Village by the sea in Northern Vietnam in the early 60's, where people lacked faith in the new Communist regime.

The director of a steel refinery comes into conflict with his wife over plans that might affect her father's reputation.

When Kublai Khan threatens to invade Vietnam, the young prince Trần Quốc Toản pleads to fight but is dismissed by the generals due to his age. Undeterred, he decides to gather his own army. A theatre production of the famous chèo play to be filmed for screenings in 1970s Vietnam.

The dynamics between two long-time best friends change when one starts working as the other's subordinate and becomes inflicted in his workplace power battles.