'Three Seasons' a patronizing view of 'exotic' Vietnam

By Joko E.H. Anwar

Three Seasons (** 1/2 out of four stars); Drama, 113 minutes; Starring: Don Duong, Nguyen Ngoc Hiep, Tran Manh Cuong, Zoe Bui, Nguyen Huu Duoc and Harvey Keitel; Director: Tony Bui; An October Films Presentation

JAKARTA (JP): There are some filmmakers who tend to exploit third-world countries for their movies by pretentiously turning them into ironically exotic locations.

Sadly, many of these films earn high acclaim from critics at the expense of the people who actually live there simply because of the "pretty" background scenery.

A perfect example of this kind of film is Garin Nugroho's Daun di Atas Bantal (Leaf on a Pillow) which got rave reviews abroad but never actually won over local audiences.

Foreigners are no doubt awestruck by the different world shown in such films. However, those who are actually familiar with the life depicted in the films will have many questions because, while it may seem very lyrical, it usually makes no sense.

Foreign audiences may also not notice the weakness in the acting department, thinking that it is just how the people where the film takes place are supposed to behave.

Three Seasons almost fits the criteria of the type of films described above.

Directed by 26-year-old Californian director Tony Bui, who left Vietnam at the age of 2, the film is set in his modern-day birthplace.

While it is beautifully shot and offers great locations, the story is a major disappointment.

All right, the film deserved to win the cinematography award at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999, but it is quite puzzling that it also won both the grand jury prize and the audience award.

Moreover, it is strange that Tanimbar Pictures, a new film- distribution company here, chose the film to be shown among many other better alternatives.

For a company which was established by film buffs and scholars to present the public with alternative and quality films, surely it should have made a better choice.

Three Seasons is the local company's second presentation after last year's The Cup; the latter is much more inspiring and its story stands above its great location.

However, if the spirit of independent filmmaking is the reason why Tanimbar Pictures picked Three Seasons, then it must be acknowledged the film is exceptional.

Shot on a limited budget of US$2 million in a little over four months, production was strictly overseen by Vietnamese officials shot per shot.

Three Seasons opens with women slowly paddling about in a pond. As they carefully pick white lotuses, they sing Women are like raindrops. Some fall in the gutter. Some fall on the lotus leaf.

In the background, a seemingly abandoned temple stands like a silent guardian of the pond.

It is a magnificent opening which promises a lot more than it delivers.

The lotus pickers tell a new girl named Kien An (Nguyen Ngoc Hiep) that a teacher lives in the temple and has not left in years. None of the women have ever seen him.

When Kien An sells the flowers in the city, more characters are introduced.

Hai (Don Duong) is a pedicab driver who is chatting with his buddies about how wonderful it is to be able to stay in a nearby expensive hotel while waiting for passengers.

"They must put perfume on the towels because everyone who comes out of the hotel smells very good," says one of Hai's pedicab driver friends.

In front of a nearby sidewalk, an American named James Hager (Keitel) spends his time smoking and sitting in a chair while staring at a restaurant across the street.

Keitel, who also coproduced the movie, is, as usual, something to watch, even though all he does in the entire film is sit down!

Another character is a prostitute named Lan (Zoe Bui), who serves guests at the luxury hotel. After being chased by two men, she leaps into Hai's pedicab and asks him to help her escape. He promptly falls in love with her.

One last major character in the movie is a small boy named Woody (Nguyen Huu Duoc) who sells many things, from gum to cheap watches, from a box that hangs from a strap around his neck.

The stories of these characters are then interlocked, sometimes barely. Most of them, unfortunately, go nowhere.

We get the feeling that director Bui was sincere in his intention to give an insightful story about war and its aftermath -- and also about people trapped in an unfortunate situation.

Unfortunately, he never quite succeeds. What we get from most of the film's running time is melodrama, which bogs down its several good scenes. And the characters simply lack depth. (remember what Keitel's character says in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction? "Just because you are a character, it doesn't mean that you have character.")

But it's not all bad, and there are actually several touching moments in the film, including when the pedicab driver tries to win a pedicab race.

With the cash prize, he wants to make the prostitute's dream comes true -- she wants to actually sleep in one of the hotel's room with the air-conditioner on, not just service a client and then leave.

In the final scene, the pedicab driver takes the prostitute to a road where she is showered in red flowers.

The scene may best describe the film -- it is indeed visually poetic, but you will find it hard to get a subtext.