Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2024)

Direction: Thien An Pham
Country: Vietnam

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, the debut feature film by Vietnamese writer-director Thien An Pham, is a lethargically narrated drama with an abstruse title and extended duration. It takes some time to adjust to the director’s contemplative gaze, framed with a static camera and faintly stirred by spiritual consciousness and casual dialogue.

This journey of self-discovery follows Thien (Le Phong Vu), a Saigon-based man who returns to his rural Vietnamese village following the tragic death of his sister-in-law in a motorcycle accident. Assuming temporary guardianship of his 5-year-old nephew, Dao (Nguyen Thinh), Thien embarks on a solitary road trip in search of his estranged older brother, a former seminarian who abruptly abandoned his marriage. During this time, he also reconnects with Thao (Nguyen Thi Truc Quynh), a former flame who has since become a nun and teacher. 

While some viewers may desire a quicker pace and more dynamism in the process, the film's simplicity proves hypnotic, drawing parallels to the works of directors like Tsai Ming Liang, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Jia Zhang Ke. Pham skillfully navigates between dreamlike sequences and grounded realism, exploring the complexities of the human soul in all its conflicted feelings and persistent memories.

Ultimately exhausting, this pale tale releases tension with a conclusion that leaves us suspended in reflection. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell is a genre unto itself, demanding patience and introspection without veering into complete abstraction. Although strangely immersing, not everyone will be invested in the questions it poses.

The Third Wife (2019)

Direction: Ash Mayfield
Country: Vietnam

The Third Wife is meek and melancholic, yet informative. The modest period drama tells the story of May (Nguyen Phuong Tra My), a 14-year-old who inherently accepts her fate of becoming the third wife of a wealthy, polygamist landowner (Le Vu Long) in the late 19th-century Vietnam. Sharing the same will of the other wives, May intends to give birth to a male baby since it would allow her to grow in status within the closed community.

For good or for bad, she develops a strange attraction to Xuan (Mai Thu Huong Maya), the second wife, whose secret she shares and whose freedom she deeply admires.

The film, loosely based on the life of director Ash Mayfield’s great-grandmother, was keenly filmed, capturing idyllic landscapes immersed in gracious hues. These imagery provides a contrasting effect when compared to the emotional disquietness that the characters experience, most of the times, in silence.

Despite clear, the ideas are never vehemently expressed, with Mayfield preferring a subtle flow that may attract some viewers and keep others aside. The approach is simplistic in nature, oozing delicacy even in the toughest moments. Yet, although fumbling from time to time, this is a respectable first work from Mayfield, who didn’t thrill me with her methods of bringing out emotion and intimacy, but revealed a huge capacity to embrace aesthetic filmmaking.

Bi, Don't Be Afraid (2010)

Directed by: Dang Di Phan
Country: Vietnam

Plot: In an old house in Hanoi, Bi, a 6-year-old child lives with his parents, his aunt and their cook.

Review: Delicious images emerged in this first feature film from Vietnamese Dang Di Phan.  Bi, a 6 year-old child observes with curiosity all members of his family: a busy mother, an aunt with a strange behavior, a drunk and absent father and a sick grandfather who returned home after many years abroad. Bi spends his time wandering between his home, the surrounding fields and an old ice factory, becoming more and more lonely. Magnificently directed with a lyrical style and with many answers to be sought.

Relevant awards: Best feature film (Cannes).