In Indochina Chaplin was known as Charlot (Sác‑lô), the Vietnamese version of his famous Tramp character. That same year he released Modern Times, a film that satirised industrialisation, factory labour and the misery it caused workers.

Modern Times, released in 1936, mocked the new industrial age and the hardship it brought to labourers during the Great Depression. Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, scored and starred in the movie, using comedy to critique the system.

Hanoi in 1936 was still largely pre‑industrial; the city had no factories or machinery like those shown in Modern Times. Cinema had first been shown at the Metropole Hotel in June 1916, but only silent films were screened there until the mid‑1930s.

The visit highlighted a sharp cultural contrast: a Hollywood star famous for mocking factories toured a colonial city that had not yet felt those industrial pressures. The encounter underscored early exchanges between Western cinema and Vietnamese society.