Three Seasons (1999)

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Given the IMDb score and the many high praise reviews that this movie had gotten, I must say that I had expected something quite more from the movie. That being said, then don't get me wrong, because "Three Seasons" is a beautiful and entertaining movie.There are several layers and stories told in the movie. Stories that are all connected together. Some better and more interesting than others. "Three Seasons" tells the story of an American looking for his daughter - this was the least interesting of the stories. It also tells the story of Woody, a street urchin who thinks the American stole his case of tourist trinkets. While this story is better than the searching for the daughter story, it just seemed a bit too shallow. "Three Seaons" is also the story of Hai, a cycle driver who gives a ride to Lan, a hotel callgirl, whom he ends up falling in love with. This was a good story, albeit quite generic, but this story was really well-told on the screen. And finally, it is also the story of Kien An, a young woman hired to harvest lotus flowers, who end up bringing a glimmer of life back to a reclusive man stricken with leprosy. This was the most touching and beautiful of all the stories told in "Three Seasons"."Three Seasons" does have some really good acting performances by the Vietnamese cast. Ngoc Hiep Nguyen (playing Kien An) stole the screen with her performance. But Duong Don (playing Hai) and Diep Bui (playing Lan) were also putting on very memorable performances.This is a story and character driven movie, so it might come off as a slow and dull movie to some. But it is a beautiful movie on different layers, and it is well-worth watching.

This film is a quiet, thoughtful and engaging look at a cross-section of modern Vietnam...It takes us through the lives of several people in a careful and moving way, but it avoids being sappy or sentimental by being honest.This film is beautifully written and filmed. Sometimes sad, sometimes (oddly and fleetingly) humorous, sometimes bittersweet, often poignant, this movie reminds us to take chances and to seek out and clarify the threads of connections between us all.You will enjoy this film if you are patient and observant. There is a real balance in this film between accessing the viewers' emotions (without imposing on them) while still providing intellectual stimulation and food for thought on many issues. Reminders of American influences are everywhere in the film, but are not overtly stated. Instead, they form the backdrop to tell a series of stories. I particularly enjoyed wondering how each story might connect to other or if they even would.Remarkable. Enjoyable.

Kien An takes a job harvesting white lotuses in the fields belonging to a reclusive man and then selling them in the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. After her song catches the ear of Teacher Dao, he invites her to his home where she engages him and starts to write the poetry he has within him. At the same time a cyclo driver collects Lan as a standard fare and, despite her being a working girl, decides to wait for her, quickly becoming practically her own private cyclo driver; however his interest in her quickly becomes love and he tries to break though her tough exterior to find her heart. Meanwhile on the streets of the city, Woody is a street kid selling cigarettes out of briefcase in all weather. It is here where he meets James Hager, an American looking for a daughter he believes he fathered during the war. After meeting James, Woody loses his case and believing James robbed him, sets out to find him. These three stories barely touch but are delivered as all part of the same one in this film.The only thing I knew about this film prior to watching it was that it was the first American film to be made in Vietnam once the embargo was lifted and that inspectors for the Vietnamese government observed the entire process. With this acting as a hook for me, I decided to give this film a stab and in a way I am glad that I did. The film does the well-known technique of mixing together several stories with a vague connection (in this case seemingly flowers or some general meetings between the characters) and this succeeds in making it interesting while at the same time preventing it from really becoming as engaging as it should have been. The stories all have enough going for them to get an audience interesting in the various characters but sadly none of the three stories are original or emotionally involving enough on their own or in combination to make this a particularly impressive film. The three tales all pretty much go where you expect them to, even if some of them are pretty unlikely and unconvincing; it's a shame of course as this could have had a place in history and been really good but instead it is just OK.The thing that will stick in my mind is how good the film looked and most of this is down to the cinematography and the direction of Tony Bui. For all his weaknesses in his plot and script, Bui makes the city look appealing without simplifying or sweetening it – the use of colour is nice but for me it was more enjoyable to see the energy, bustle and depravity of the city itself. For the western audience, Harvey Keitel is naturally going to be the biggest draw but he actually does very little other than be his own reliable self in a minor character. Duong is slightly more impressive and he plays a hackneyed character well enough to make it better than it should have been. However he, like the others, are hampered by the material to some extent. Ngoc Hiep Nguyen is sweet and pretty good; Huu Duoc Nguyen is probably the best thing in the film as he is convincing and never slips into 'cute kid' mode. Bui is alright as Lan but her character is far too simple to really allow her to have the tools to work with.Overall this is an interesting film that is good enough to be worth seeing however it is hard to really ignore how basic the plots all turn out to be and it isn't as emotionally impacting as it could have been. The direction is good and the performances are as good as the material allows them to be but without a better script the film cannot really be more than OK.

There are several story lines in the film which seldom or never cross. So just relax and let the film unfold with beautiful photography of contemporary Vietnam. You will see Ho Chi Min City and the countryside. A rather poetic film.