the trailer had me worried about the type of film this was going to be, with its uninspired cinematography, bad line delivery (a stable of viet cinema) and melodrama. the actual film wasnt actually all that bad; a touching drama that pays considerable homage to vietnamese culture and a well developed family dynamic.
the introduction of grandma puts the film at a bad start, as ive grown wary of good vietnamese dramas being annihilated by unnecessary comedic inserts and terrible comedic performances (cô ba sài gòn suffered heavily from this when it couldve been an adequate drama). but the grandma's character wasn’t reduced to just a comedic sidepiece, and her character had enough seriousness and emotions to be taken seriously. the rest of the performances are mediocre, riddled with bad deliveries, but substantial, with the exception of hồng đào, who absolutely killed her role with enough subtlety and strength in a character who is reserved but is full of empathy. i hope she got critical recognitions for it.
one of the things i noticed about song lang was its overt homage to wong kar wai's cinematography (especially in its use of colors), namely from happy together. in thưa mẹ con đi i wish it wouldve taken a little bit of that from song lang. it is not without some interesting shot compositions and framing, but for the love of god, give me some colors! there are several exterior shots where i stopped to admire its composition, but ended up unable to love them because of how deride of an interesting color pallete they were.
so yeah anyways i liked this and i recommend it
the trailer had me worried about the type of film this was going to be, with its uninspired cinematography, bad line delivery (a stable of viet cinema) and melodrama. the actual film wasnt actually all that bad; a touching drama that pays considerable homage to vietnamese culture and a well developed family dynamic.
the introduction of grandma puts the film at a bad start, as ive grown wary of good vietnamese dramas being annihilated by unnecessary comedic inserts and terrible comedic performances (cô ba sài gòn suffered heavily from this when it couldve been an adequate drama). but the grandma's character wasn’t reduced to just a comedic sidepiece, and her character had enough seriousness and emotions to be taken seriously. the rest of the performances are mediocre, riddled with bad deliveries, but substantial, with the exception of hồng đào, who absolutely killed her role with enough subtlety and strength in a character who is reserved but is full of empathy. i hope she got critical recognitions for it.
one of the things i noticed about song lang was its overt homage to wong kar wai's cinematography (especially in its use of colors), namely from happy together. in thưa mẹ con đi i wish it wouldve taken a little bit of that from song lang. it is not without some interesting shot compositions and framing, but for the love of god, give me some colors! there are several exterior shots where i stopped to admire its composition, but ended up unable to love them because of how deride of an interesting color pallete they were.
so yeah anyways i liked this and i recommend it