appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

A Vertical Ray of Summer  is an exotic Vietnamese visual gem that engenders a pseudo-feminism.

It hypocritically explores female sensitivity but in fact reinforces the stereotypes of Asian women as submissive to men and dependent on them for happiness.

The story revolves around three sisters, a brother and two husbands in contemporary Hanoi. It opens on the memorial day of their mother's death and closes on the anniversary of their father's death over a span of one month.

The plot unfolds as the sisters'  intimate talk about a romanticised tale of their mother's puppy love reveals each of their ideal pictures of romances that come later to mode their own romantic life.

Married eldest sister Suong (Nguyen Nhu Quynh), who puts forward the theory that their  mother has a lover besides their father, hides a secret extra-marital affair. Middle sister Khanh (Le Khanh), who elevates male sexual prowess, is devoted  entirely to her husband.

Youngest unmarried sister Lien (Tran Nu Yen-khe, who also stars in Cyclo ), insists on believing  their mother's loyalty to their father. She is so fond of the father that   she develops a big crush on her twin brother Hai (Quang Hai Ngo), whom she says remarkably resembles their father.

They seem to be strong and in control of their own happiness in  love relationships only on the surface. There is a false impression of feminine autonomy and self-centredness created with the weight of dialogues and actions centred around  the female characters. By contrast, the men are rather mute and motionless.

It is disappointing that Suong's extra-marital affair does not liberate her from being a victim of a patriarchal society.' She goes back to her traditional wife's role to compliantly share a husband with his mistress and literally voices that it is her duty.

Khanh hinges her sense of happiness completely on whether her husband cheats on her or not and ends up a suspicious but still acquiescent wife.

A so-called incestuous relationship is disproportionately played up. Lien's creeping into Hai's bed every night and the pair's morning wake-up routines keep spectators expecting an intimacy that go beyond what is going on-screen.

Yet it is later reduced  to a  daughter's extended obsession with her father and a maternal instinct that drives her to take care of his daily needs like a mother clinging on to her son.

For modern women, Lien, who mistakenly thinks herself pregnant, has unforgivably poor common sense about sex.

There is little verbal communication between men and women in the film.

Apart from its textual complexity, the richly-coloured pictures and a Bohemian mood makes the film a great pleasure to watch.

A Vertical Ray of Summer  is showing  at AMC Festival Walk, Broadway Cinematheque and CineArt House. It is in Vietnamese with English and Chinese subtitles.

Rating:

Graphic: YPFRGLO

Graphic: F22GLO



Vietnamese film centres on romance, sexuality of three sisters