Mamiko Kikuchi

Movies set in Vietnam


I like Vietnam the number one in Southeast Asia.
I’m not very familiar with Vietnam, but the beauty mixed with European culture, which has remnants of when it was a French territory, is a unique attraction not found in other Southeast Asian countries.
Of course, we must also recognize the sadness and pain that Vietnam has carried in the past. However, Vietnamese people keep such a past in the back of their hearts and live energetically and vividly.
Vietnam is irresistibly attractive for both the country and the people.
This time, I would like to introduce three movies filled with the climate, culture, and history of Vietnam that I like.
Each movie has nothing in common, but the heroines are all very attractive.
I want you to enjoy the charming heroine’s performance along with the beautiful Vietnamese scenery.

Mamiko Kikuchi

The Scent of Green Papaya

France/Vietnam(1993)
Directed by Tran Anh Hung

This is probably the first Vietnamese movie I met in my life.
I still remember being excited with the fresh and vivid footages that is not found in Japanese movies, European movies, and of course Hollywood movies.
The heroine girl Mui was always sweating in front of the camera that seemed to touch the heroine’s skin right away.
The mansion is surrounded by the stuffy Vietnamese heat and lush papaya trees.
In such a mansion, Mui goes from a girl to an woman.
This movie stare carefully and carefully how the love affair that sprouted in gradually changes to real love.
It’s not like a big incident is going to happen. However, I’m sure it’s thanks to the fresh footage created by the director that you can feel happy just watching it.

Mamiko Kikuchi

The Lover

France/England(1992)
Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud

I’m surprised that there are many people who recognize this movie as a sensual movie.
Since there are erotic scenes, it is unavoidable to think so, but since I think this movie is a superb love story, It’s a bit sad there are times when this movie is not evaluated as a pure love story.
Even though heroine girl looks down on the Chinese man who is her mistress in a discriminatory manner, she loves each other physically. And she realized that she truly loved him after she broke up with him.
The emotion is vivid only because it was the actual experience of the original author, Marguerite Duras, and it is sad because we can see that she is still trapped by herself when she was 15 years old, with regret in her heart.
I still can’t forget the chaotic and beautiful cityscape of French Indochina in 1920, which is the setting of this story, and the bustle of the streets of Saigon where the two have a secret meeting.

Mamiko Kikuchi

The third wife

Vietnam(2018)
Directed by Ash Mayfair

The pure flow of water in the river, the singing of birds echoing in the valley, the smelling incense, and the beautiful and vivid silk Ao Dai.
The footages of their calm days surrounded by them are like a hidden paradise , and they are fascinated, but this is a dark story of Vietnamese society hidden in such beauty of Vietnam.
If it’s a bird in a cage, is it a woman’s happiness if it’s trapped in a cage that’s as luxurious as possible?
Even though everything is full of contradictions, women adapt to life in this bird cage as if they were satisfied.
What kind of future do you see in a world where you can’t live your own way?
This movie that strongly appeals to the difficulty of living in Vietnamese male society while quietly depicting the awakening of a girl’s ego in a world where everything is closed while contradictions are left unattended.