Three Seasons (1999)

Director:

Tony Bui

Writers:

Timothy Linh Bui (story)
Tony Bui (story)

Release Date:

30 abril 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

An American in Ho Chi Minh City looks for a daughter he fathered during the war. He meets Woody, a child who's a street vendor...

Plot Keywords:

Long Lost Daughter | Dying Man | Song | Leprosy | Saigon Vietnam

Awards:

7 wins & 4 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

The Unobtrusive Tony Bui

Cast

Ngoc Hiep Nguyen	...	Kien An
Ngoc Minh	...	Truck Driver
Phat Trieu Hoang	...	Huy, Dao's Headman
Diem Kieu	...	Singing Lotus Woman
Hanh Kieu	...	Giang
Duong Don	...	Hai, Cyclo Driver
Huu Duoc Nguyen	...	Woody, Child Street Peddler
Hong Son Le	...	Binh, Cyclo Driver
Ba Quang Nguyen	...	Don, Cyclo Driver
Huu Su Tran	...	Ngon, Cyclo Driver
Duc Hung Luong	...	Minh, Cyclo Driver
Harvey Keitel	...	James Hager
Diep Bui	...	Lan the Hooker (as Zoe Bui)
Hoang Trieu	...	Man Who Chases Lan #1
Tran Long	...	Man Who Chases Lan #2

También conocida como:

Ba mua (Vietnam)
Tres estaciones (Spain) (Venezuela) [es]
Tres estaciones, Las (Argentina) [es]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements.

Duración:

113 min | Germany:105 min (German version) | USA:104 min

País:

Vietnam | USA

Idioma:

English | Vietnamese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sonido:

Dolby

Clasificación:

South Korea:12 | Iceland:L | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Czech Republic:12 | Finland:K-7 | France:U | Netherlands:AL | New Zealand:PG | Norway:7 | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Vietnam

Company:

Giai Phong Film Studio

Trivialidades:

The first American film to be made in Vietnam after Bill Clinton lifted the embargo. The filmmakers were followed by Vietnamese inspectors throughout filming.

Soundtrack:

Woody's Blues

The Unobtrusive Tony Bui

Tony Bui's "Three Seasons" takes place in the teeming nightlife and the majestic hotels and the open marketplace and squalor of modern day Saigon. It is symbolically a film about traveling the historical past and present, put together in four uneven vignettes and how the lives of five people crisscross each other. Bui is not obtrusive and so his film is gentle and sweet and he lets his actors play out their roles with naturalness and grace. The gentleness of this film can be both its strength and weakness, because you leave thinking about discrete images beautifully photographed but you don't really have a sense of what Bui was trying to say. The image of sweat running down the face of cyclo drivers and the red abrasions on naked skin across the woman's back caused by a spoon are just two examples. Also, unlike Western soap opera, he isn't here to manipulate. Take the old man, Master Dao and his terribly scarred up face and amputations. Dao could have been afflicted by the after effects of napalm or a land mine explosion but, no, he has an old-fashioned affliction, leprosy. There is no post-Vietnam hate in Bui. The spirited cycle race through the streets of Saigon descends upon us without much buildup nor dramatics. We don't realize the significance of Hai winning this race till we see what he does with his winnings. Perhaps the few times Bui decides he needs to make an explicit statement, he does so with subtlety: the plastic lotus flowers which outsell the naturally grown ones, the opulent, newer hotels rising in Saigon turning the society into truly haves and have nots (what Bui calls the people of shadows), and the hardworking cyclo driver straining to move his vehicle as his Western couple occupants chatter oblivious to his struggles. The other weakness of "Three Seasons" is that the four vignettes are so interesting that each could have occupied the entire film. Instead we get incomplete servings from all four and a hunger to know more. Bui spends more time with the cyclo drive and the prostitute and the water lily girl and her poetic master. The story about the street smart little boy, who is forever in the rainy streets looking for his missing case of trinkets to sell and finding both the case and a tender companion in the end, could have stood by itself. Similarly, the Vietnam vet who comes back to find his lost daughter because he has to 'right a wrong' is a beautiful piece that needed more detail than what the film provided. The final scene of "Three Seasons" summarizes this film neatly - the falling crimson pedals from trees lining a boulevard. It is picturesque in its beauty but the meaning of it is more effervescent than lasting.