The Scent of Green Papaya (1993) 4/10
Boo, hiss. I quite liked the beginning portions of this film too. Quiet storytelling can be very well done and it was nice to see her limited world (though I thought it was too artificially empty, considering it takes place in Saigon and all and Vietnamese culture is not so... quiet). Over-romanticization and the falling anvils masquerading as symbolism in the second half were not appreciated. (Also the actress portraying Mui at 20 was weaker.)
The first half was infinitely more interesting, and the second half should've expounded further on it (seeing how those circumstances affected the men the sons grew up to be, the passing on of people, the passing of the torch from the mother to the main character- how she learned). Instead it didn't seem like she learned anything at all. And the problematic thing of the pianist primarily falling for her silent devotion for him, her perfect serving-ness and her beauty rather than ... ever talking. Learning anything about her. Of course, why would a man want a talkative "Westernized" woman, he wants a silent servant girl? But he still wants to change her a little.
Thematically, the end-game isn't bad, but the way it comes about irks me. Ah, of course, it is the role of the woman to be perserve the traditions, regardless of the fact it might make her incredibly unhappy, while men feel free to pursue to their heart's content. It's good that the move from the grandmother (close-minded) to the mother (in love, unhappy) to the main character (pretty happy), but the inaction of the main character and the "taking" of the woman is just so archaic.
And in the end, it just didn't feel very... "realistic", in that the characters weren't very nuanced or fully formed in the world that they were supposedly coming from. I compared the women in this film to my grandmother, and the extent to which they were portrayed just fell short. My grandmother would probably be between the ages of the mother and the main character- she had an overbearing mother-in-law, she lost her husband at a young age, had to be the breadwinner, she was a mother, a daughter, a teacher, a cook, a full-fledged human being. I didn't get that from this movie. The characters lived in a bubble- and the movie deliberately ignored historical events (that would've had a huge impact on the character's lives, and intersected with the personal events that *were* mentioned): Japanese occupation, First Indochina War, Vietnamese separation, etc. Especially glaring considering the thematic portrayal of the "French/Western"-ness (of the pianist, and his fiancee) and the same natural-silent-"Vietnamese"-ness of the main character.
Great sound mixing though. The sounds of nature intensely permeating. To the point where you don't know a siren from an airplane from a cricket and the soundtrack or the piano. Very impressive use to convey meaning through the music.