Gái Nhảy (Bar Girls) doesn’t tiptoe around its subject matter, it kicks the door down. Directed by Lê Hoàng, this film thrusts us into a world rarely explored in Vietnamese cinema: the lives of young sex workers navigating the chaos of urban Vietnam. And before you roll your eyes at yet another film about sex work, let me stop you, this one matters. Not only did it break away from the war-centric narratives that had dominated Vietnamese screens for decades, but it also set the stage for a new wave of Vietnamese cinema that dared to tackle contemporary social issues head-on.