Customer Reviews

Three Seasons [VHS]

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

How fortunate I was tonight. The video clerk accidentally put Three Seasons in my bag instead of Blair Witch Project. I had never heard of Three Seasons & was surprised when I saw that it was about Vietnam. Cannot believe how beautiful the scenery and how authentic the depiction of Vietnamese life. I've written several books about Vietnam & believe it or not one of them includes the poem/song about the Lotus flower that the old woman was singing. Having visited South Vietnam this past March, I was especially touched by the scenes involving the cyclo drivers, children merchandise hawkers, and the American GI. The scenes are realistic and not overly romanticized like some of the other Vietnamese movies I've seen. I cried my eyes out in the final scenes, even though I knew what was going to happen. If you've ever wondered what became of Vietnam after the Americans left, this film will give you a good idea of the poverty, hardships, and eternal determination and spirit of the Vietnamese people. Highly recommend.

I've seen plenty of films about Vietnam before, including the Oscar nominated film, "Scent of Green Papaya," and this one surpasses them all. The beautiful cinematography, heart-wrenching harshness of life in modern Vietnam, and the poetic style of story telling left me overwhelmed with emotions. "Three Seasons" made me realize how much I really miss my homeland. The director did a great job in capturing the reality of life in Vietnam apart from the war. All of its predecessors have always shown Vietnam in reference to its famous war, but this movie captures the life and culture of the Vietnamese people. I highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to know about the Vietnamese culture apart from the depravity of war so often portrayed in other Vietnam War movies. I guarantee you will be enraptured by the lives of all of its characters.

This movie is extremily well made. It is so great at so many levels. First, it's an incredibly beautiful movie. From the lotus lake to the rainy, foggy, dark neighborhood, everything is so beautiful and colorful. The sceneries are as beautiful as previous movies about Vietnam; Indochine is another that comes to mind. This film is quite different from the others, as pointed out by many others, in that it's directed by a Vietnamese made intirely in Vietnam, spoken in Vietnamese. For the record, i'm constantly amused by movies that mysteriously assume Vietnamese or foreigners speak English in their free time.

What is startling to me is that none of the reviews I've read seems to ponder about the film's title: Three Seasons. The purpose of the film is to expose the culture, the country, the people, and the soul of Vietnam. With this in mind, I feel the film is very carefully and meaningfully titled. The personality of a place is not in its name; the personality is defined by the experience that you have. Spring, summer, fall, winter all become meaningless. Every place has them. They don't mean anything. Names do not evoke emotions; only experiences do.

Three Seasons depicts Vietnam in three different scenarios: the moderate and beautiful scene of the lotus lake, the scrotching hot summer that the cyclo driver has to endure, and the rainy, foggy, chilly evening that the young boy is familiar with. And it's not just what they are, but also what happen, what people do. These are the personality of the place. Personality defines what something is, not names. How many seasons are they in your hometown?

The beauty of the film is the ability to blend all these seasonally contradicting scenarios into one natural interaction. Never did I feel that it was improbable for the beautiful morning, followed by a burning afternoon, then a devastatingly rainy evening. Somehow, everything flows naturally. It hightlights so convincingly the diversity in personality of the country, and the graceful interaction among them.

Harvey Keitel, who sponsors the film, plays an American who tries to find peace and closure at a place with many old memories. Interestingly, his presense is awkwardly intrusive, as though it wasn't a place for him to be. Dejavu all over again!

There are so many great things about this film -- some explicit, others quite subtle, but all artistically and beautifully portrayed. Beside all that, you are in for a cultural treat. But don't just be amazed by the picture. Think about what they mean.

This film is really four stories in one. Two of them seem to carry greater weight: Kien An, a young woman with a beautiful voice, catches the ear of her employer, Teacher Dao, a poet afflicted with leprosy living in a home or sanatorium in the middle of a lake full of lotus blossoms, which his employees pick and sell in the public market. In a series of moving exchanges, she learns that he no longer writes because the disease has taken away his fingers. She offers to become his scribe; he accepts. Only later, as he nears death, do we learn the significance of the song she sang, which so captivated him.

Hai, a cyclo driver with a heart and mind, falls in love with Lan, a beautiful prostitute who fears emotional involvement. As their relationship progresses we come to know them as complex human beings. Their final scene together is beautifully filmed in an unforgettable setting of falling red leaves.

Woody, a street urchin, touches the heart as he moves through the rainy streets looking like a small ghost in his plastic rain poncho. Someone has stolen his case of contraband goods (US Marine lighters, watches, etc) and he has been told not to return until he gets it back. In the process he finds a new friend.

Keitel plays an ex-marine who is looking for the daughter he fathered during the war. Although his role is much smaller than the advertising would lead you to believe, he turns in a fine, ultimately moving performance in which facial expressions tell the story far better than words. (This is true of the whole film, in fact.)

In a larger sense, one might say that this film is about the search for meaning in an increasingly plastic and temporal society--represented by plastic, scented lotuses, Lan's heavy call-girl makeup, the bar scenes. I trust the authority of the Vietnamese reviewer who said it accurately portrays postwar Vietnamese society as well.

The things I like about this film are: Cinematography, acting, understatement, humanity, and (ultimately) optimism for the future. I felt good when it was over.

Wow! Amazing! The reason I purchased this video (I only own 2-3 movies)and continue to rewatch it is because it captured my heart. Vietnam is a beautiful country, but that beauty is punctuated with its share of pain. Sometimes a movie, when not properly done, can overload a person with despair and tragedy. But Three Seasons does not, it reveals something that the American physche tries to avoid, that pain can be transformed into beauty. The music, the language and the true to life portrayal of the culture combine to form a wonderful story. There are few words spoken between characters, but there isn't a need for much dialogue, the characters communicate so much more through their silence. Their eyes speak what their mouths do not. And that gives the viewer time to connect with the characters, to feel what they are feeling. Then the words that are spoken are much more poignant.
In some parts, you almost feel that you are in Vietnam...with each character on their journey. This movie has a passionate heartbeat, not so noticeable on the surface, it takes placing an ear right on the pulse. To connect with another culture, to forget that there is not so much that seperates us as unites us, I would definitely recommend this movie. It doesn't lie about the conditions in Vietnam, but it also reminded me that another culture, though in desperate need, can still teach us so much! That there is a Power that can transform pain into beauty!

The stories of an old teacher afflicted by an infirmity, an American and a Vietnamese urchin involved in their own and unique searches and the romance between a call girl and a driver are interwoven in Vietnamese-American Tony Bui's film.

Those three stories represent through careful and masterful imagery, prose and poetry the traditional and ancient Vietnam, the Vietnam that was torn apart by war in recent times and the challenges and hopes of that nation in our days. Harvey Keitel appears in the film and is also its executive producer.

Highly recommended for this movie reminds us of the reason why cinematography is considered an art and not just mere entertainment.

I saw this movie shortly after having returned from South Vietnam six months earlier. The subject material was similar as I had retunred to Vietnam after 28 years to bring some closure in my life. Even as a young man I had been aware of the beauty of the country. This last trip showed me the beauty of the people as well.This was very well depicted in the video. The heartfelt stories, the beautiful scenery and finally the incredible soundtrack have made this one of my top 10 movies I have seen.

I've never been to Vietnam. I'm not Vietnamese. Thus this movie didn't have such a "sentimental" effect on me. I also approach films from a fairly critical point of view, and usually come out of the theatre thinking about the flaws and how it could have been executed better.

HOWEVER, even with this perspective, I left the screening of Three Seasons on a sort of high. I was so truly contented by the fact that I had just experienced (yes, experienced) a film that left me very satisfied.

The film was emersive both visually and emotionally. Sure, there were little "flaws" here and there (my critical eye always picks them out by habit), but over all the slow and even pacing, together with the breath taking scenes swept me away. I felt as if I was a passive observer of the scenes that were unravelled before me. Nothing seemed forced or very unnatural.

Described on paper, the slow-paced sequences might seem as if they'd put most people to sleep. But, in fact they lulled me into a very comfortable "zone" that, by the end of the film, had developed into a calm sense of euphoria.

One other note is the fact that is was a relief to see a film about Vietnam that didn't involve in the traditional Hollywood ways. The ways that Hollywood had conditioned my thoughts about Vietnam became apparent while I watched the film. For the first half, I was contantly half-expecting some violence to erupt. This really sickened me. I believe that part of the film's goal was to allow audiences to see a different part of the beautiful country and culture -- one that didn't in anyway involve violence. It was truly refreshing.

Much like "Amelie", this movie is a reflection of the beauty of everyday reality. The film is a blend of stories about a ricksaw driver, a prostitute, a lotus sales-girl, a leprosy-stricken poet, and an American veteran trying to find his Vietnamese daughter. The characters are all trapped in socially limiting roles, and the story revolves around their quest for happiness.

Combined with a look at the lives of these characters is silent commentary on today's Vietnam, whose rapid transition to quasi-capitalism is leaving many Vietnamese bewildered and alienated. To top things up, the film is shot with excellent camera work, on par with that of "Before the Rain".

Despite the particularity of place, the characters are so universal that audiences anywhere can feel a bond with them, rejoicing and suffering with them over the course of a movie that many would want to watch over and over again.

I watched this movie twice with my adopted Vietnamese daughter. She was entranced with it, watching the scenes to see what she could recognize; and she did recognize much from her childhood. All of the stories portrayed in this movie are very accurate. The only weak part of the movie was the character that Harvey Keitel played. Something wasn't developed enough there...too many blanks and spaces. I think the movie demonstrated that we, as human beings, do what we have to do and not always whether we want to or not. Vietnam has suffered for many years with wars and poverty, families being destroyed, and sadness beyond comprehension by most of us. This movie shows all of that and more....but also gives us, the viewers, hope that life really can go on, and flowers do bloom again.