Song lang

This is the Vietnamese excellent movie, mentioned about the traditional performance (cai luong) and the moment of boys love

I give a lot of harsh critism toward Vietnamese movies since the day I decided to watch more movie produce from my country in order to find the same on the edge of the seat feeling that I got from other film industry in the West and the East until Furie ( 2019) and just now Song Lang (2018) make my heart burst into tears for how much well shot, well directed, well acting and most importanly how much emotionally invested I am with the characters. I don't normally seek out movies that touch on the LGBT subject because it's not my cup of tea when I'm more of a a action, horror person myself but in the case with Song Lang it not only a beautifully make movie with great cinematography and nailed the retro scenery of Vietnam down to a T but it also a heartfell drama story about two guy each from opposite site settle down their differences and learn how to love themselves more. It such a damn shame that right now only Vietnamese people can see this movie because there no overseas release for Song Lang at all and I would love to see it got the attention it deserves in the future

The heart of this story is the cai-luong theatrical style which is a Vietnamese style of folk opera very similar to Chinese opera in the 12 tone scale. The singer/actors have gone to great lengths to provide a perfect as possible recreation of the sound and story of the opera. The surrounding story is also operatic in nature, with two young men who have similar backgrounds but have taken different paths meeting and getting to know each other through coincidental meetings with each helping the other in some fashion. Linh, the singer, believes in time travel which is the core of the surrounding story as each character revisits particular moments in the path that shaped their future direction.

The film is permeated by the vibes of cai-luong (reformed theater), a kind of traditional Southern Vietnamese folk opera. Here features a young guy who appears quite violent in action, quite muscular and rugged in build, and quite terse and monotonous in words. There features another young guy who appears meek and slim and naive and nice. They have the same childhood studded with memories of cai-luong troupes and activities. Yet as courses of their lives roll on, one strolls toward his fulfillment, and one along his perilous path and keeps that until the very end. Of course, on their ways, they have a brief pause to have a chance encounter followed by another chance one, extended by some spell of a prolonged conversation around art, life and even time travel. That's where the promising opening of the film is faded into hackneyed verbal patterns typical of ordinary situations in Vietnam. It's quite clichéd yet real.

Above all, I find the film most charming in its decent presentation of Southern Vietnamese ambience, mostly vividly expressed via minor characters, which feels so dear to me, who is also a native Southern. And it's the only big plus in my view of this film. Perhaps some people would mention its shots of beauty or exquisiteness or splendor, you name it, as an unignorable outstanding aspect, for good reason of their own. That is so exaggerated and not the case in my mind, as they are nothing more than some kind of mimicked and framed creation rather than revealing or creative one. I do find them beautiful, and only deem them as the spice of the film just as a variety of people portrayed here of life. After all, setting aside some over-romantic or over-hinted scenes and some faux coincidences, I'm left with a film of moderate caliber with few nonsensical happenings and verbalization which are usually a trademark for Vietnamese films.

Good plot, dramatic, moving, great threater music, subtle to display LGBT love, cinographic.