O Cheiro do Papaia Verde

In Tran Anh Hung's debut film The Scent of Green Papaya, Mui (Lu Man San) is a ten-year old girl who comes from a small village to the home of a wealthy Saigon merchant to work as a servant in 1951. The first Vietnamese film ever nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film, Scent of Green Papaya captures the natural beauty of pre-war Vietnam, even though it was filmed on a set constructed in a Paris studio. Mui personifies the innocence of a Vietnamese society where grace and harmony has not yet given way to bombs and destruction. Mui accepts her place with patience, serving the meals, preparing the vegetables, scrubbing the floors, and polishing the shoes.

True to the Buddhist ideal of being in the present moment, Mui studiously carries out her tasks, refusing to be affected by the torments of the younger son Tin (Gerard Neth), upset over his father's desertion of the family. She observes her natural surroundings in great detail: ants carrying a small piece of bread, a frog sitting on a leaf, a cricket jumping at night, and the seeds of a green papaya. The mother (Thi Loc Truong) is distraught over the recent death of her young daughter To and looks upon Mui as her replacement, perhaps even her reincarnation. In one scene, the mother stands over Mui while she sleeps and weeps silently for the loss of her daughter and perhaps for a Vietnam that she knows will soon disappear.

Her husband (Ngoc Trun Tran) is a drinker and womanizer who has run off with the family's money. The mother is stoic and we only hear about her problems through the elderly grandmother (Thi Hai Vo) who mourns her dead husband alone in her upstairs room. The second part of the film shifts ten years into the future. Mui (Tran Nu Yen-Khe) has become a young woman. Because of the family's financial condition she has moved to the house of Khuyen, a professional musician and composer (Vuong Hoa Hoi). Her leaving triggers in the mother a profound sense of loss for her "daughter" and a sense that the old way of life in her country is coming to a permanent end.

In her new house, Mui must contend with the musician's Westernized fiancé who personifies the artificiality of modern society. Annoyed with the insensitivity of his fiancé, Khuyen sees Mui with fresh eyes and begins to realize how much she embodies the traditional values he has left behind. Though the film may try the patience of Western audiences, The Scent of Green Papaya, in its simplicity and awareness of the natural world, reminds us of the power of cinema to reach artistic heights.

As far away from Terminator as you can get. This gentle-paced story has followed me for years. Long after I forgot most of the story-line, the mood has lingered on in my heart and my mind. This is film as Art and not mere entertainment in the same was as Tolstoy or Tjechov is Art as opposed to the dime-a-dozen love-novels found in cheep kiosks. The acting is excellent and convincing, the spars dialog is natural, the photo is almost breathtaking and the original score by modernist contemporary vietnamese composer is superb. This is cinematic contemplation.

The tip of film who seduced without a sure cause.

A sweet powerful flavor of memories, time's ash, images of other secret age, spell of a subtle shadow.

Poem of silence, slice of amazing dream, form of cult for ambiguous god.

Wall of a delicate world of small gesture and impressive light.

Signs like stairs, warm remember and love like reality's skin.

Trip of soul on personal space before the Fall.

Is it a masterpiece? No! Is it a beautiful movie? No! It is only prefiguration of self desire, escape in Golden Age.

It's not easy to make movies that represent part of the past in your area. the scent of green papaya movie mention of about fifty years ago in the Taiwan region of the film's history. The movie shows the life style and middle and lower class behaviors in the midst of a relatively quite reach family that is struggling with its own problems. Paying to the subject of the story takes time well, so time spend less during watching the movie. Seeing this movie, you're in the midst of movie, and as a member of this family, you're having troubles. The key point is the communication gap, and even gender, is respect for Taiwanese lifestyle in the past. The form and shape and even the look from top to bottom, in the order of the family, indicate the distance between its members. We are faced with a situation in which the husband of the family goes away and noone not aware of him, and The The grandmother define the bride mistakes, and the contemplative consideration is to accept the responsibilities of the bride of the family. The key points during this sequence are the inner roar of the second son of the family against this attitude that leads to abnormal behaviors. All of this is seen as a rural girl looking at a house as a maid. He is a very disciplined and loving one, he takes the steps of progress in his growth and becomes a successful woman even more than his own limit. It can also be viewed from the perspective of luck, but what matters is the success of Mui to the achievement of its wishes that are contemplative and loving and in keeping with the audience's desire. Ultimately, the overall outline of the movie is a good start, an interesting continuation, but lastly, an unconventional one, it can be imagined that a good score could ultimately be made for this film.

Beautiful cinematography and great story line. Mui is the servant girl of a prominent family, but when times get tough she is sent to work elsewhere. Now that she is working for a handsome new master she has to deal with her emotions toward him. It is an enthralling story and even though it is subtitled in English you will not spend all your time reading since most of the story is visual. The pace moves along nicely.

This is the 1st Vietnamese film ever released in the USA.