Blog Archives

Vertical Ray of the Sun is indeed like its namesake, akin to a shaft of the morning sun [for me anyway], delicate, fresh and inspiring.

Many such allegories can be made about the characters and feel of Tran Anh Hung’s films [Scent of a Green Papaya, Cyclo]. One tends to use these superlatives to describe all his films because it’s the strongest element in all his films and the one that leaves the deepest impression.

The lush … (read more)

Sandy Lives is this year’s Vietnamese entry into the festival but also similar in feeling to Land of Wandering Souls, the Cambodian doco from last year. If you’ve seen either, you will know what I mean.

Sparse, tragic and poetic — both detail the struggles of everyday people under adverse circumstances, although Sandy Lives concerns more of the aftermath where a struggle of a different kind continues for Canh, a communist cadre. He is returning to his village after … (read more)