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DVD Description
In modern day Vietnam, the lives of four people intersect as they pursue their ambitions and dreams. Young Kien An (Nguyen Ngoc Hiep) begins her new job, working for spiritual master Teacher Dao, who is suffering from leprosy. Hustler Woody (Nguyen Huu Duoc) becomes involved with former GI James Hager (Harvey Keitel), who is searching for his long-lost daughter, while cyclo driver Hai (Don Duong) becomes determined to raise enough money to spend the night with prostitute Lan (Zoë Bui) after falling in love with her from afar.
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital Stereo ), Vietnamese ( Dolby Digital Stereo ), WIDESCREEN (1.66:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Winner of an unprecedented three major awards at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival (including the Grand Jury, Audience and Cinematography awards), this first feature by 26-year-old Tony Bui is a poetic narrative about the "new" Vietnam, and is the first American independent film to be shot on location in that country. The film weaves three separate stories about four characters in Saigon and how their paths cross. In the first, a young Vietnamese woman is working for a reclusive writer who has lost his fingers to leprosy. As she sings, her master becomes infatuated with her and finds inspiration in her music, just as she finds inspiration in his words. Their union in one of song, love, friendship and aid. Second is Hai, a cyclo driver who falls for a young prostitute with high ambitions. After saving her from a few hostile clients, she lets him drive her around. Eventually Hai enters a cyclo race in hopes of winning enough money to spend one night with his beloved. Finally, a young boy named Woody sells gum, watches and lighters to passers-by in the streets. In a bar he meets an American soldier (played by Harvey Keitel) who is searching for his missing daughter. When Woody suspects the G.I. of stealing his suitcase, he goes looking. What he finds is best left unanswered.
SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Berlin International Film Festival, Stockholm Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, ...Three Seasons (UK) ( 3 Seasons )
SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Berlin International Film Festival, Stockholm Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, ...Three Seasons (UK) ( 3 Seasons )
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
Three Seasons - directed by Toni Bui with Harvey Keitel - is an extremely subtle, touching, and quite peaceful movie. It takes a while to get into the very slow vietnamese atmosphere and a lot remains unsaid in the movie. Nevertheless, the emotions, beautifully enacted by natural actors, are very strong. Some scenes really stay with the viewer. All five senses are mobilized. I was especially enthused by the colourful setting. Some shots are just as powerful as some masterpieces amongst the 17th or 18th century paintings: They evoked in me the beauty of nature,man and god.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
Three Seasons is a delight to watch, with a relaxed introspective pace, the atmosphere and settings are almost a character in their own right, there is some truly excellent camera work through-out.
Switching between idyllic rural settings and urban street-life, the story slowly evolves switching from one character too another as their story lines occasionally intersect, the acting is superb on all counts, Almost entirely in vietnamese, apart from Harvey Keitels english, the story has such a visual appeal its easy forget the effort of reading subtitles completely, in fact its easy to lose yourself in the pace and subtlety of this film altogether.
Switching between idyllic rural settings and urban street-life, the story slowly evolves switching from one character too another as their story lines occasionally intersect, the acting is superb on all counts, Almost entirely in vietnamese, apart from Harvey Keitels english, the story has such a visual appeal its easy forget the effort of reading subtitles completely, in fact its easy to lose yourself in the pace and subtlety of this film altogether.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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57 reviews
78 of 80 people found the following review helpful
Beautiful, stirring movie
21 Nov 1999
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.
52 of 52 people found the following review helpful
Breathtaking!
19 Dec 1999
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.
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful
What an elegant piece of work!
19 Aug 2000
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.
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