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The Scent of Green Papaya
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I really think Anh Hung Tran is one of the most underrated directors of our time, because when people talk about films in which every frame of a film is beautiful, I never hear his name mentioned - and it should be. His directorial debut set in pre-war Vietnam, "The Scent of Green Papaya" is one of the most visually stimulating movies I have ever seen, the way he incorporates light and water into his movies is nothing less than stunning, each scene is a celebration of life. I recently heard a Zen Master say that he sees miracles daily; saying when he's hungry, he eats, when he's tired, he sleeps. And it's this type of philosophy that embodies the film, it teaches us through the main character, Mui (played by Man San Lu at ten and Tran Nu Yên-Khê at twenty), to appreciate everyday minutae in nature and to excel at everything we do.
At the very beginning we see the girl walking to her new home, a home that she was given as a servant to a family at the age of ten, and rather than pity her life of servitude, she takes pleasure in everything she does well, and ritually takes moments from her routine to observe an ant struggling in a drop of wax that has fallen from a candle or absorb the scent of a papaya. Mui takes pleasure from these sorts of simplicities while growing up in servitude in a family that's not so pleasant; the father leaves with the family's money; the mother, who lost her own daughter (and finds solice in little Mui who is the same age her own daughter would have been), is degraded by her husband's mother; not to mention the little boy who serves as a constant nuisance to little Mui. Meanwhile, she remains happy and over the years falls in love with a pianist who is a friend of the family's, until one day she is sent to him as a servant.
I'll leave the rest of the plot for you, but will tell you along with Hung's amazing use of light and water, there are many other amazing aspects of the film, including the fitting music ranging from strange Vietnamese sounds to plinking piano notes to Chopin and Debussy, and the piano and water drops blend into each other seamlessly. Aside from his impeccable sense of blending, another notable aspect of Hung's work on this is that he created this movie using minimal dialogue, he effectively tells a story using mainly facial expressions and in one scene, we know what a character is thinking just by how he changes his piano-playing. Although it contains some somewhat dark subplots, it's truly an invigorating and life-affirming film, and one of those few movies I have enjoyed many times.
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