This post is a part of an ongoing project in which I watch one movie from a different country every other week.
PLOT: A shy Vietnamese serving girl, Mui, observes the lives of two different Saigon families: the first, a woman textile seller with three boys and an absent husband; the second, a handsome young pianist with his fiancée.
MEMORABLE MOMENT: When Mui joins the first household as a servant, she is instructed to take special care with the vases. One morning she is hard at work cleaning them out when the youngest of the three sons, a little boy who has been lashing out ever since his father left, enters the room. Mui turns and sees him pull down his pants and pee into one of the vases. He then exits the room, leaving her to clean his mess.
The Scent of Green Papaya is a ponderous, dream-like film, overflowing with natural beauty. This scene plays counterpoint to the rest of the movie. It is a moment of pointless, foul hatred.
THE IDEAL AUDIENCE: This is a movie for people entranced by the beauty of nature. It isn’t an accident that the word “green” is in the title. The color is everywhere. Not only in objects of importance (vases, emerald rings) but also in the natural settings surrounding the characters. Much of the movie is set in houses but the viewers are constantly peering through leaves, as if the environment is consuming the structures. Often it is hard to tell where the homes end and the surrounding plants begin. This may simply be how wealthy homes in Vietnam are set up (it probably is). However, the filmmakers establish their shots to constantly remind us that even in our own homes, we are emursed in nature. Fans of Terrence Malick should undoubtedly check this movie out. While it is not as surreal as his (later) films, it possesses a similar hypnotizing natural quality.
Like Yi Yi, The Scent of Green Papaya, is a very slow-paced movie that surrounds families, but that is where almost all similarity ends. Yi Yi is very grounded, full the bustle of modern-day life. The characters have long, emotional conversations, with words flying back and forth like a
a game of tennis. The Scent of Green Papaya does have a couple scenes set in a busy town but for the most part it is as silent as it is ethereal.
The movie’s tone matches the main character’s personality. She is a quiet, gentle girl (who in the second half is a quiet, gentle woman) and has a loving interest in nature. She takes her time to observe the pods of a Papaya plant and to watch after crickets and frogs. The film’s cinematography itself follows her lead, having a great deal of interest in nature, almost dismissing the world beyond the trees and gardens. There is very little dialogue in the movie, instead filling the soundtrack with dripping water and chirping crickets. I didn’t even realize how little the characters spoke until my cat crawled onto my chest and I realized I could go several minutes without raising my head to read the subtitles.
I don’t want to give the impression that there is zero conflict. There is conflict (just look at my “Memorable Moment.”) However there are also long stretches of peace where things just go at their own pace. The story itself contains conflict but the images possess a gentle, natural peace. While Yi Yi is a movie to watch when you want to celebrate the epic struggles of everyday life, The Scent of Green Papaya is a movie to watch when you want to watch similar struggles but need the deep breaths between the conflict and bustle, allowing us to take in the natural beauty that exists just outside our homes.
DIRECTED BY Anh Hung Tran
WRITTEN BY Anh Hung Tran
STARING Nu Yên-Khê Tran & Man San Lu
