At the beginning of "Three Seasons of Love", with the sight of the lotus-picker girl Xin, she entered the Tiantian lotus pond in Mr. Du's house. Red-clothed women wearing pointed hats and rowing canoes shuttled between green lotus leaves and tingling flower branches, their slender hands intertwined among white petals and yellow stamens, softly whispering and singing, they sang. The lotus-picking girl, who is as pure and beautiful as a lotus flower, also sings about the fate of women who are arranged like raindrops. Tranquil lotus ponds, fragrant lotus flowers, lotus-pickers and secluded poets sing traditional poems, symbolizing a Vietnam free from Western culture and material civilization.
The scorching sun of the dry season and the dust of construction projects fill Saigon, as pervasive as the influence of the West. Yet the modern economic boom has not benefited everyone in this transitioning country, and many are struggling to make ends meet every day. The foot-pulling worker "Hai" pedaled the car with great effort. The foreign couple sitting on top of each other in the car, even the woman was fatter than Hai. Hai poured the rest of the cold water from the bottle on his head to resist the scorching heat. The poor live by strength. The co-workers took turns rubbing the pain-relieving ointment and teasing the other world in which the wealthy guests lived. There was only curiosity, but there was no envy at all. This is the habit of being poor. Hai turned over a book of poetry while waiting for the guests.
The rainy season is coming, the rain is splashing, people are hiding at home, whether they are happy, or fighting and arguing, no matter what, it is a home to settle down, and for the homeless in the city, earning a living means selling on the streets day after day. Begging, not even in the rainy season. The hawker "Woody" put on a raincoat and hung all the goods around his neck. He reluctantly chased the guests at the door of the hotel to sell, and when he was impatient, he would give him a little change. When a guest slipped out of his hand, he found himself standing in the hotel's splendid lobby, the chandeliers glistening overhead, making him ashamed to look down at the goods in the wooden box, as out of place as himself.
These are the perspectives of the three protagonists in the three season stories of the Vietnamese film "Three Seasons of Love": the flowering season - the lotus-picking girl "Xin", the dry season - the footworker "Sea", and the rainy season - the small trader "Woody".
Many people know that Vietnam only has dry and rainy seasons. The sea who earns his life in the sun and Woody who sells in the rain are the most typical representatives of the Vietnamese proletarian toiling masses who are still impoverished under the penetration of the Western economy. The representative figure of "Flower Season", which belongs to the conceptual category, "Xin", differs from the former two in that it is not contaminated by the atmosphere of the market, and is a beautiful existence in the traditional Vietnamese tradition that conforms to nature and lives on Tianze.
With the development of the plot, the three stories about the search that happened to the three protagonists slowly unfolded...
Foot puller "Sea" VS prostitute "Lian"
The foot-puller "Hai" met a beautiful short-haired prostitute "Lian" by chance, and his inexplicable affection and distress made him pick her up at the door of the hotel. Along the way, the woman kept describing how the rich people in the hotel enjoyed it, as if that had become her life. "Hai" listened silently, allowing her to satisfy her sense of superiority. The end of the foot pull has arrived, a slum, where "Lian" lives. "Hai" just took the money and watched the woman enter the house safely.
As the "sea" and "lotus" became familiar with each other, they began to chat, from the hot weather, the phoenix flowers in the summer days of school, the greenness of boys and children, to the life of the rich in the hotel, becoming one of the member's life goals. She also had yearning for love, but she saw the distance between dream and reality in the life of her mother's broken waist. She is willing to sell her soul and body to find a way to be happy, and at this moment in her heart may be an opportunity to stay in that rich man's world.
The lotus picker "Xin" VS the owner of the lotus pond "Mr. Du"
"Xin" sang a new song when picking lotus flowers, which attracted the offended glances of the other lotus-picking girls, but also attracted the attention of "Mr. Du" who never showed up. She was invited to the "Mr. Du" living room to sing those songs again. She had previously learned from poetry that Mr. Du suffered from leprosy, and that Mr. Du, who lost his fingers, could no longer create poetry. "Xin" expressed to "Mr. Du" that he was willing to write for him and continue his poems.
Small trader "Woody" VS American "James"
In the rainy night, the hawker "Woody" still sells groceries in the wooden box hanging around the neck of the hawker. An American man was interested in an old lighter in his box. He entered the military club with the American man "James" to make a bid, and drank "James" wine while listening to "James" telling the story of looking for his daughter here. After sobering up, Woody finds that "James" and the wooden grocery box are missing. He had to find the wooden box.
Woody finally found the "James", but he said he didn't take Woody's grocery box. Woody had to watch "James" go away. With nowhere to go, Woody sat in the rain watching Disney cartoons on the TV in the window. In the bar, prostitutes served the men to eat and drink, and "James" actually saw the daughter he was looking for.
The above three seemingly independent stories tell about the transformation of people's world outlook and value orientation in Vietnam's emerging society, when the wave of foreign material collided with traditional civilization, and the loss and search of beliefs when the gap between the rich and the poor became prominent. And the last three stories are intertwined on the "white lotus", which symbolizes beauty and purity.
"Ocean"
The girl "Xin" sells white lotus flowers on the street, and the business is not good. And those who sell plastic lotus flowers are doing well. "Now people are looking for convenience. Those fake flowers are as white and full as flowers, and they won't wilt. They are even sprayed with essences that are as fragrant as flowers. Now everything is developing in this direction," "Hai" picked up " Happy," said the white lotus in the basket. I have to say that there is a white lotus in the heart of "sea" that can see the true meaning of life through appearance.
"lotus"
In the tricycle competition, the foot-pullers competed with each other, and the audience shouted and cheered, but it didn't make people feel warm, but it was a sadness. Think of the words of the prostitute Lian, "The sun rises for the rich, and we live in their shadows. The more hotels they build, the bigger the shadows." These people who earn their lives under the sun Why can't I get the blessing of the rising sun? The prize money from the marine competition took Lian to her dream hotel and silently guarded her for one night. "Lian" finally realized that "the sea" is the one who can give her a lifetime of phoenix flowers and solid happiness.
"Woody"
Woody, who sleeps rough in the heavy rain, shares a loaf of bread with fellow homeless Little Straw Hat, plays football together, and stumbles upon a grocery box in the hands of a drunk. When he took the hand of the little straw hat and went home, what he found was not only the box, but also the trust in "James", and the friendship with the "little straw hat" who shared weal and woe in the torrential rain. It is a spiritual white lotus that has not been strangled by cruel life.
"James"
"James" bought a bunch of "Xin" white lotus flowers on the way to meet his daughter. He told his daughter the story of him and her mother, confided a long apology to her, and gave her a white lotus flower full of blessings and expectations.
"Mr. Du"
In the singing of "Xin", "Mr. Du" is looking for the self who was listening to the lotus girl singing in the floating market many years ago, the self who is not destroyed by illness and alternative eyes, the complete and pure self; also in the singing of "Xin" He is looking for inspiration for creation and completing his final poems, and his beautiful poems will eventually become the white lotus of readers, just like the one given by the sea to the lotus, blooming in the dry season, rainy season and flower season. ...
The director used many clever metaphors when expressing the conflict between Vietnam’s emerging society and the impact of foreign material civilization. For example, under the huge red Coca-Cola billboard, Hai He workers were drinking sugarcane juice in plastic bags; flowers in the lotus-picking woman’s basket Plastic fake flowers shipped in bulk with trucks; drunken foreigners in bars and waitresses in Vietnamese costumes; a mess of slums and high-rise buildings under construction...
At the end of the film, according to Mr. Du's wish, the lotus-picking girl "Xin" scatters the freshly blooming white lotus flowers on the ancient and long Mekong River, so that the holy white lotuses can flow through the flowing water to nourish people's hearts and grow naturally. The continuous vitality evokes the tenacious vitality in people's blood, the adherence to traditional beliefs and the expectation for a better life.
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