Search - The Scent of Green Papaya on DVD

A hauntingly beautiful love story

JLind555 | 03/26/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is hard to imagine a more beautiful movie than Tran Anh Hung's "The Scent of Green Papaya". With a bare minimum of dialogue, Tran brings to the screen the story of Mui, a 10 year old Vietnamese girl who comes from the country to Saigon in the early 1950's as a live-in servant to an upper-class family whose wealth is being squandered by the dissolute and womanizing head of the house. Mui is a simple soul who finds delight in things most of us take for granted; the exquisite cinematography in this film brings out the beauty in the most ordinary objects and lets us share in Mui's sense of wonder and discovery. Ten years later, when the family's wealth has been dissipated to the point where they can no longer afford a live-in servant, Mui is sent to work for a wealthy young pianist, Khuyen, the friend of the eldest son of her former employers. Khuyen is engaged to be married but in Mui he finds the peace and serenity that is lacking in his shallow and materialistic fiancee. In very basic terms, "The Scent of Green Papaya" could be called a Vietnamese Cinderella story, except for the lack of a wicked stepmother. Despite the almost total lack of dialogue in the second half of the film, the movie is so beautifully crafted, and techically and emotionally so satisfying, that you come away awed with how Tran was able to do so much with so little. This film is living testimony to the fact that sometimes less is more. It's a beautiful, unforgettable story of a young woman's coming of age."

Exquisite visual movie with poor DVD transfer

Island Reviewer | Alameda, CA United States | 12/08/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I agree with all the positive things said about this movie. This is one of the most beautifully photographed movies you will ever see. Each shot is beautifully framed, an absolute poem for the eyes. The beauty of the film is almost beyond description and the poignant story, told almost without dialogue, is beautiful as well. Why then, why, oh why, was this movie put out with such a poor DVD transfer? The screen size is described as "FULL" but it is a compromise where if your TV is set to a 16 x 9 ratio you get a widened image with fat heads and elongated horizontal limbs; if your TV is set on regular 4 x 3 ratio you get a scrunched up image. The quality of the image is grainy and poor as well. This is such a disappointment because, almost more than any movie I can imagine, Scent of Green Papaya deserves a top quality DVD. Get this movie, but see it in your local art house theater if you ever get the chance. And we can only hope that this film will eventually be released in a new and improved DVD edition."

Smells delicious.

JLind555 | 05/01/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Expatriate Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung, who was 29 years old in 1993 when he made *The Scent of Green Papaya*, joined a select pantheon that includes the likes of Orson Welles and Jean-Luc Godard (just to name a couple off the top of my head). Meaning, he was a "wunderkind" who changed cinema. ("Was"? He's still doing it.) Even though comparing *Green Papaya* to *Citizen Kane* is like comparing papayas to oranges, the fact remains that Hung's debut had a similarly galvanizing effect on cinema that *Kane* did. This movie, quite simply, put Vietnam on the cinematic map. Set during the pre-war 1950's, it chronicles the experiences of a young servant-girl named Mui who works and lives in a well-to-do, somewhat Westernized household. Halfway through, it jumps forward 10 years: having been forced out of her job by financial constraints, Mui is sent by her employers to a wealthy pianist who's a friend of the family. Naturally, she falls in love with the handsome pianist. And there's your story. Sorry for the spoilers, but the simplicity of the virtually nonexistent "plot" is the least thing you should concern yourself with. A review below mine groused about wanting a "story in the mix", and complained that the movie's nothing more than a series of beautiful pictures. . . . First of all, in today's all-too-ugly cinema, I think it's wrongheaded to dismiss a movie that's beautifully made -- as if beautifully-made movies are an everyday occurence. Secondly, there's story enough in this mix, although those viewers too unimaginative to see beyond the prison-walls of standard, formulaic, stupid "Hollywood" narrative conventions will doubtless not even find it, let alone appreciate it. The director's basic theme is the interconnectedness of things: with superb discrimination, Hung demonstrates how the infintesimal illuminates the infinite. His audacious ambition seems to be to tell a story of Life Itself. The interplay between the drama of the characters' lives and the drama of Nature which surrounds them enriches both stories. Most striking is the almost elliptical manner in which Hung focuses so intently on something like a drop of milk-sap falling on a leaf, while putting no more weight -- in fact, probably less -- on the major incidents of the characters lives. It's the appeal of a more quietist philosophy than ours to put things in their proper perspective. Doubtless this appeal will on deaf ears here in the West; the movie won't find many champions in a distracted USA, for instance. But that doesn't make it any less of a masterpiece. -- A quick rejoinder to the several reviewers who griped that this wasn't the "real" Vietnam. Well, that's correct in one sense: the movie was shot in France on sound-stages. Instead of marveling at the director's brilliance in evoking a deeply involving, realistic world from scratch, they choose to take issue with his "imagination", essentially saying that his cinematic vision is nothing more than wishful thinking. The obvious answer to this is to say that Donald Trump's America isn't my America, a homeless man's America isn't my America, etc. And Tran Anh Hung's impressionistic Vietnam isn't your Vietnam, and a cyclo-driver's Vietnam isn't yours, either. The movie is a work of imagination. It is not a documentary about the country. Does that clear things up for you? (Sheesh!)"

A Gentle Rain

Bobby Underwood | Manly NSW, Australia | 07/10/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This lovely and subtle film washes over you like a gentle tropical rain. The dialog is sparse and the beauty dense in director Anh Hung Tran's portrait of a young servant girl in 1951 Saigon and those she serves. There is an intimacy to this film seldom if ever seen on screen. The simple beauty of nature and its effect on living can actually be felt by the viewer. We can hear the birds chirping and the sound of crickets all through this film just as though we are there.

Man San Lu portrays young Mui as she first comes to serve this family. She learns to cook and do her other tasks from an older servant who has been with this family for many years. You can almost smell the dishes as Mui learns the craft, the film itself a delicious study in our senses.

Young and pretty Mui finds beauty in the world around her and Tran's camera captures both her delight and the joy of nature itself. Mui watches milky nectar drip onto leaves of small trees and we see through her eyes what we sometimes take for granted.

This beautiful photography is used to capture more than just nature though. Mui's Mistress (Thi Loc Troung) has lost a daughter in the past who would now be Mui's age. When her husband runs away from his family and takes the money she has saved from her small business in Saigon selling fabric, more of the past is revealed. This is not the first time he has run off with the money and a woman. It is heartbreaking when we overhear her mother blaming her for what he has done.

Mui has come to care for the Mistress and she in turn has begun to look upon Mui as the daughter she lost, hoping her oldest son will grow up and take her for his wife. But it is not to be as times become even harder and the Mistress has to release Mui in a scene filled with kindness and sadness. The film has affected us in such a way that this moment takes on a true intimacy because we know the sweetness of Mui and the dignity of her Mistress who can no longer hide her heart.

Tran moves forward in time 10 years and beautiful Tran Nu Yen-Khe is Mui, now serving a young and upper class French conservatory student. He is more modern and successful and contrasts the old and new of a changing Saigon. His rich girlfriend is perfect for his life but as we have watched the joy and sweetness of Mui we understand completely why he drops her and breaks tradition by taking Mui instead. It will lead to happiness and one more thought about nature, both floral and human.

This gentle film has a beauty you can almost touch and you will find yourself thinking about it for some time afterward. This truly great director has taken a simple story with little dialog and created an emotionally rich film like no other. It is not your typical linear story, but film as art, and one that anyone who loves the cinematic aspects of film will relish in. A true masterpiece."