La troisième femme

Beautiful and devastating. In terms of Shot selection this is incredible.

Again, this movie premiered in 2018 at TIFF but had its wider release in 2019. This movie is slow, but it's gorgeous and very well-acted. There are so many striking visuals and tons of symbolism. This movie is also very sad and very disturbing. It's about a young teenage girl in 1800s Vietnam becoming the third wife of an older man in hopes to give him a son, and it just gets worse from there. This movie deals with some very heavy subject matter and it certainly isn't for everyone, it can be pretty uncomfortable, but I thought it was great and think it's worth a watch. It's depressing, but very good.

Watch it with a remote in your hand, fast forward button ready to go. At 4x it is still slow, but acceptable. Did not buy the setting of 19th century. Costumes look like out of an H&M store.

In the opening scene of the movie, it is mentioned that the movie is based on true events, but it was not told on whom it is based. So, it is really hard to believe those claims. The cinematography is beautiful, but the story is so complicated that it is hard to believe that it could be based on true events. It feels as if all the known social taboos are depicted in one joint family. The movie comments on child marriage, multiple wives, teen pregnancy, lack of healthcare, pressure on wife for birthing male child, extra-marital affair, incest, social status, dowry, marriage consummation pressure, suicide, female infanticide, etc. Etc. There is no lack of content in the movie, yet the progression feels slow because of less dialogues and multiple scenes of inanimate objects. I liked it for this very reason.

The acting here is natural and powerful and the sets are so well constructed that you actually feel like you're in late 19th century Vietnam. But I really struggled to connect in a positive way with the culture of those times.

The film, written and directed by Ash Mayfair who is making her feature debut, contains extremely striking realism amidst very slow pacing. The thought of an innocent 14-year-old girl May (Nguyen Phuong Tra My) being subjugated into an arranged marriage with a wealthy landowner, and to fulfill his sexual desires (some quite kinky) along with two other wives was a turn-off for me.

May's main role will be to produce a male heir, as the other two wives have failed to do so thus far. She also will awaken to the fact that she is attracted to other women and try to figure out if her own desires can be fulfilled. Without writing any spoilers let's just say that the circumstances of her existence in that environment will lend itself to a possible tragic finale.

All in all, the beauty of the characters and the settings could not overcome for me the starkness and negativity of the themes here and it was just not an enjoyable watch.