This film really works because the beauty of its characters, their faces, their rituals, the water they bathe in, the food they eat, the pacing, the framing and the use of sound and silence is woven so masterfully and with such purpose that you are really drawn in on all levels.
One IMDB commenter mentioned the film's cliched moments as if they are a flaw of the film; cliches are everywhere and completely unavoidable. The story itself has many cliches in it (the wife finding evidence of her husband's infidelity by rummaging through his jacket, for example) but the portrayal of the character's lives in this film rings so true that cliche is excusable: after all, look at your own life and you'll spot hundreds of cliches every day.
Admittedly, the cliche in question (a pan to a statue of a family ancestor after a tense moment between the characters) was more a cinematographic aspect than a plot aspect, but nevertheless merely being a cliche is not reason enough to avoid using it in a film and I can't see what the point is in pointing out one solitary cliche! I did not find a problem at all with the moment in question because it served the mood of the piece.
Nor is their a lack of character development. To know a character in a film, you must observe everything: the way they talk, how they move, what they say, what they do, how they interact with other characters, not JUST listen to (or read in subtitles) their dialogue. A lack of dialogue is not the same as a lack of character development. Many of the long, largely-dialogue-free sequences were the most memorable of the film (the morning exchanges between Lien and Hai (if I have his name right) and the scene dealing Quoc's confession of infidelity to Suong) and contain some of the most extensive character development of the whole film.
In response to another commenter, I also don't understand the notion that a lack of extreme conflict results in an uninteresting story, and again the statement that there IS no conflict in the film's early stages is simply a falsity.
No matter how much discussion one engages in though, the only real judge of wether a movie is good to you is wether or not you enjoyed it, and that is why I can say The Vertical Ray of the Sun is such a great movie: I enjoyed it immensely, and walked out of the cinema in a beautiful, happy mood. The film revitalised my psyche and had a profound affect on my outlook on films in general. I highly recommend you watch it to make up your own mind and ignore all these niggling comments.
One IMDB commenter mentioned the film's cliched moments as if they are a flaw of the film; cliches are everywhere and completely unavoidable. The story itself has many cliches in it (the wife finding evidence of her husband's infidelity by rummaging through his jacket, for example) but the portrayal of the character's lives in this film rings so true that cliche is excusable: after all, look at your own life and you'll spot hundreds of cliches every day.
Admittedly, the cliche in question (a pan to a statue of a family ancestor after a tense moment between the characters) was more a cinematographic aspect than a plot aspect, but nevertheless merely being a cliche is not reason enough to avoid using it in a film and I can't see what the point is in pointing out one solitary cliche! I did not find a problem at all with the moment in question because it served the mood of the piece.
Nor is their a lack of character development. To know a character in a film, you must observe everything: the way they talk, how they move, what they say, what they do, how they interact with other characters, not JUST listen to (or read in subtitles) their dialogue. A lack of dialogue is not the same as a lack of character development. Many of the long, largely-dialogue-free sequences were the most memorable of the film (the morning exchanges between Lien and Hai (if I have his name right) and the scene dealing Quoc's confession of infidelity to Suong) and contain some of the most extensive character development of the whole film.
In response to another commenter, I also don't understand the notion that a lack of extreme conflict results in an uninteresting story, and again the statement that there IS no conflict in the film's early stages is simply a falsity.
No matter how much discussion one engages in though, the only real judge of wether a movie is good to you is wether or not you enjoyed it, and that is why I can say The Vertical Ray of the Sun is such a great movie: I enjoyed it immensely, and walked out of the cinema in a beautiful, happy mood. The film revitalised my psyche and had a profound affect on my outlook on films in general. I highly recommend you watch it to make up your own mind and ignore all these niggling comments.