"The Smell of Green Papaya" is my favorite type of movie: the picture is pure, the dialogue is small, and the plot is pure but not deep. This can be considered a movie of natural scenery. I also like urban movies, but only Woody Allen is the best, and can best express the essence of the city. They are almost the opposite of these films: the hustle and bustle of the city, the dialogue, the nonsense, the bizarre but superficial plot.
In fact, this is also the difference between the city and the nature. Human beings are paradoxically trying to break away from the various restrictions of nature and enjoy the convenience of the city, but they turn to the cobwebs and are bound by this convenience.
After reminiscing about "The Taste of Green Papaya", I always feel that something is missing. After thinking about it, it may be that it is too perfect, so it is a bit unearthly and does not eat human fireworks. Although director Chen Yingxiong is Vietnamese, he immigrated to France at an early age and was educated in France. Therefore, this film obviously has the self-disregarding style of French films. French movies always like to focus on their own feelings, completely disregarding what the real world looks like.
The director said that the film came from a story he heard in his childhood. The entire film was shot in France, so when you look at it, you can see that it is not grounded because it is not there at all. Then I saw that the director was a half-way student from the Philosophy Department to learn cinematography (he thinks that the director has no technical content, and the film mainly relies on photography), no wonder that almost every frame is so beautifully shot. When the green papaya is cut off from the tree, the milky white juice slowly drops, and then the green papaya is cut open. In the verdant green and cicadas, you can smell the fragrance as if through the screen.
I think this movie is difficult because of the casting of the heroine Ah Mei. From a child star to an adult Ah Mei, she has always been innocent in her eyes. When this character is chosen, half of the film is completed, and the other half is the mansion in Saigon. The director's camera did not leave the house, and every frame looked up and down from the eyes of the little girl.
She didn't say a word about her love. She liked that man. She liked it when she first saw it at the host's house when she was a teenager. Shy smile. Satisfied as a young girl's dream of cherishing spring, she didn't say a word when she went to the man's house later. He lowered his head and smiled lightly, stealing the lipstick of the male protagonist's fiancee. He didn't speak to her either. They didn't even make eye contact. But in a side-by-side attack, she smashed the vase given by her fiancée and the male protagonist did not blame her for a single sentence. In the surging piano sound of the male protagonist, he broke up with his fiancee. From beginning to end, she never said I love you, and neither did he. But they were together and soon had a child. The male bishop could read and write. She was smart and learned quickly.
The movie is over. Reminds me of Wang Zengqi's "The Precept", this movie is the Vietnamese version of "The Precept". It is very beautiful and simple.
But the life of the Vietnamese people was not like that, especially in 1951. Chen Yingxiong told the good side of this story and ignored the other parts. The daily nighttime curfew siren was the only dissonance, but it was also toned down by him. There is even an infatuated old man in the film to express the people's dedication to love at that time. Movies are the art of dream-making, so there is nothing wrong with simply creating a beautiful dream. After reading it, my heart is full of yearning for the pastoral and envy of love.
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