Product Details

• Actors: Ngoc Hiep Nguyen, Ngoc Minh, Phat Trieu Hoang, Diem Kieu, Hanh Kieu
• Directors: Tony Bui
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English, Vietnamese
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Polygram USA Video
• VHS Release Date: July 18, 2000
• Run Time: 113 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00000JSJU
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #13,884 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  #4 in	Video > Art House & International > Asian Cinema > Vietnam
  #47 in	Video > Drama > Family Life > Fathers & Daughters
  #47 in	Video > Drama > Love & Romance > Unrequited Love

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Although its publicity touts Three Seasons, a triple winner at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, as "the only American film made entirely in Vietnam,, there is little that is American about this movie. Its sensibility seems far more Vietnamese than American, from its lyrical Oriental imagery and its concern with the plight of Vietnamese citizens since the war to its reverence for the country's ancient culture. Similarly, Harvey Keitel is listed as the star, but his is really the most minor of the film's major roles.

Three Seasons tells three tangentially linked stories. First is the tale of Kien An (Ngoc Hiep Nguyen), a lovely young woman who works picking lotus blossoms at a sanitarium. She becomes a scribe for its mysterious proprietor, Teacher Dao (Manh Cuong Tran), a leper who hides himself away in shame but whose soul is full of beautiful poetry. Then there is Hai (Don Duong), a gentle "cyclo" (bicycle ricksha) driver who falls in love with Lan (Zoe Bui), an alluring, feisty prostitute he sees coming and going from the big tourist hotels. Last, there is James Hager (Keitel), an ex-Marine who fought in the war and has returned to find the daughter he fathered many years before. There is also a charming plot about Woody (Huu Duoc Nguyen), a little street urchin who sells contraband out of a suitcase. The narrative involving Keitel's character is the least developed in the film, and seems to be almost an afterthought, but in any event, truly magnificent visuals and a delicate lyricism make Three Seasons a haunting, bittersweet film portrait of life in contemporary Vietnam. --Laura Mirsky

From The New Yorker
The début film of the Vietnamese-American director Tony Bui, in which the lives of several people in Ho Chi Minh City-a cyclo driver and the prostitute he's obsessed with, a middle-aged G.I. looking for his Vietnamese daughter, a young woman who writes down the verse of a leprous poet, and a little street kid who has lost his merchandise-are woven into a composite picture of life after the war. The movie substitutes sensitivity for drama; it's a little too high-minded. But the cinematography (by Lisa Rinzler) is lustrously beautiful, and the editing is very fine. Bui, only twenty-six, is a superb craftsman, and the movie's lulling tone and tempo are easy to take. With Harvey Keitel as the American; the accomplished Vietnamese actors include Don Duong, Zoë Bui, and Nguyen Ngoc Hiep. In Vietnamese. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, stirring movie, November 20, 1999

By A Customer

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.

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking!, December 18, 1999

By A Customer

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.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and understated, March 2, 2003

By	Christopher Bonds - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.