Cast: Don Duong, Ngoc Hiep Nguyen, Manh Cuong Tran, Harvey Keitel, Zoe Bui, Huu Duoc Nguyen
Director: Tony Bui
Producers: Jason Kliot, Joana Vicente, Tony Bui
Screenplay: Tony Bui, Timothy Linh Bui
Cinematography: Lisa Rinzler
Music: Richard Horowitz
U.S. Distributor: October Films
In Vietnamese with subtitles
The accolades heaped upon Three Seasons, the debut feature of Vietnamese American film maker Tony Bui, at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival are a publicist's dream. Not only did director of photography Lisa Rinzler win the cinematography award, but Bui took home both the Best Dramatic Picture trophy and the Audience Award. During the course of the 11 day festival, few tickets were hotter than Three Seasons, which generated a positive buzz after the first public screening received a standing ovation. It's always difficult to assess whether a film deserves to triumph at Sundance (controversial movies don't stand a chance), but, while Three Seasons is a solid and effective motion picture, it lacks the depth and breadth one typically associates with an award winning effort.
Three Seasons is the first American-funded production to lens in Vietnam after the war. As such, it was subject to careful scrutiny by the Vietnamese government (which begs the question of how radically Bui's vision had to change to accommodate the constraints of the setting). Visually, it's a lyrical and rich motion picture, with images that linger in the mind's eye: a glorious portrait of a majestic old house on the shore of a lotus pond, a lane flanked by red-flowered trees whose petals flutter groundward, and shots of a central square in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), where tradition wars with modernization. That, in fact, is one of the central themes expressed throughout Three Seasons - how the Vietnam of today is still defined by the constant battle between the past and the present, and how the American influence has never been completely eradicated.
The narrative is comprised of four different stories. One tells of the relationship between Kien An (Ngoc Hiep Nguyen), a young girl who harvests lotus flowers, and her employer, Teacher Dao (Manh Cuong Tran). He's a poet who has lost the ability to write due to the progressive degeneration of his body caused by leprosy. He lives in the past because he cannot bear the present and sees no future. Kien An, feeling pity for him (and perhaps an odd, creative kinship), agrees to function as his fingers if he will return to writing poetry. Meanwhile, in the city, a cyclo driver, Hai (Don Duong), has become infatuated with a prostitute, Lan (Zoe Bui). From the moment he first helps her out of a tight spot, he is smitten with her, but she regards his attentions as annoyances. Hai, however, is a patient man, and he saves up his money so he can afford to buy a night with her. His intention is to give her something that none of her other customers would think of offering. Elsewhere in the city, an American GI, James Hager (Harvey Keitel), has returned to Vietnam after a 30 year absence to find the daughter he fathered during the war. In his words, "It's time to find her and maybe make some kind of peace with this place." But, as he quickly discovers, tracking down one individual can be a daunting task. Finally, there's the boy Woody (Huu Duoc Nguyen), a street peddler who makes his living selling cheap watches, flashlights, chewing gum, and cigarettes to passersby in the street. When the case containing his wares is stolen, he must face the wrath of his father and seek to find a new way to earn money.
Three Seasons is much concerned with redemption, and many of the characters can be seen as personifications of the country as a whole. In fact, the film is saturated with symbolism, much of which isn't particularly subtle. You would have to be naïve not to realize that Lan represents the country and her salvation by Hai sounds an optimistic note for the future. Actually, many of the stories work better when viewed on a purely symbolic level. Since that's rarely the most satisfying way to regard any film, it's possible to watch Three Seasons on a more literal plane. That's when the flaws become apparent. None of the stories are especially strong, and the one with the most compelling characters is based on a painfully familiar cinematic cliché: the hooker with the heart of gold. There's also a little manipulation that goes on at the end, although, thankfully, it's not overt.
For the most part, the performances are solid. Don Duong and Ngoc Hiep Nguyen, two of Vietnam's leading actors, give strong portrayals of relatively ordinary characters. Zoe Bui, a Vietnamese American actress brought over for the film, is luminous, and manages to capture the complex mix of raw sexuality and wounded spirit necessary for us to accept Lan as more than a writer's construct. Many of the other participants were chosen as a result of open casting calls that Bui held in Vietnam. The biggest name in the cast, Harvey Keitel, is also Three Seasons' weakest link. As Hager, Keitel is forced to underplay the role - a kind of acting he is unfamiliar with. As a result, his performances comes across as flat and uninteresting (two words rarely associated with any part essayed by the actor).
In many ways, Three Seasons recalls The Scent of Green Papaya, another movie set in Vietnam. Although that picture was filmed entirely in France, its poetic visual style is similar to the one adopted here. Another quality that the two movies share is a scarcity of dialogue. The Scent of Green Papaya featured long stretches where no one spoke. While things aren't taken to those extremes in Three Seasons, this is a production where the need to read subtitles doesn't feel at all cumbersome.
One criticism that will undoubtedly be leveled against Three Seasons is that its vision of Vietnam is too sunny (not literally - it's almost always raining). Indeed, with the exception of a few rare moments, we fail to glimpse anything dark or depressing. Prostitution and street solicitation are sanitized so they appear almost appealing. The country itself looks like the ideal place for a vacation. Vietnam is presented favorably in Three Seasons, and the cynic in me has little difficulty understanding why the government would approve Bui's request to film on location. You can't buy this kind of positive publicity. Nevertheless, it is unfair to charge the movie with being a slice of pro-Vietnamese propaganda, because it's much more than that. It's an accomplished and effective piece of film making that works on many levels. Based on his work here, 26-year old Tony Bui is a figure to watch in the future.
© 1999 James Berardinelli