"The scent of green papaya is a personal childhood memory. Everyone [in
Vietnam] knew the gestures associated with the preparation of the papaya and,
since the houses weren't soundproofed, you often heard it being prepared in the
house next door. You knew the sound because the papaya is hollow and when you
hit it (with a knife), it makes a very characteristic noise. The papaya was
really a part of everyday Vietnamese life. Since the green papaya was a
vegetable prepared by women, it immediately becomes a symbol of women's
work."
- Writer/director Tran Anh Hung
Most films depend on plot, character, and action to tell their story, but
there are rare exceptions, one of which is The Scent of Green Papaya, the
deceptively simple tale of two periods in the life of a Vietnamese girl named
Mui (Lu Man San at age 10; Tran Nu Yen-Khe at age 20). Relying more on tone and
feel, The Scent of Green Papaya manages to engross an audience because of
its scrupulous attention to detail and its ability to effectively capture the
essence of life's subtle, individual moments.
To say that The Scent of Green Papaya has no plot would be to
misrepresent it. The movie is divided into two sections. The first, which takes
place in 1951, details Mui's arrival as a young girl at the house where she will
spend the next ten years of her life working as a servant. Midway through the
film, the time frame shifts ahead a decade. Now Mui is working for Khuyen (Vuong
Hoa Hoi), a music composer, and this portion of the story focuses on what
transpires while she is with him.
The effectiveness of The Scent of Green Papaya is surprising
considering its visual limits. Filmed on French sound stages rather than
on-location in Vietnam, there is none of the lush vegetation one has come to
expect from a film set in this country. Even the papaya trees are dead husks
with real fruit and leaves glued to them (although it's not possible to tell
this from watching the movie). On the other hand, the use of sound effects is
excellent, from the chirping of a cricket to the roar of a plane overhead. In a
film with so little dialogue (there is a space of 30 minutes where only several
lines are uttered), music and sound effects become critical contributors.
The acting is adequate -- no more and no less, but because The Scent of
Green Papaya focuses more on moments than characters, this isn't a serious
detriment. Lu Man San, as Mui at 10 years old, is cute and impish, with a
commendable variety of facial expressions. Her successor, Tran Nu Yen-Khe (the
director's real-life fiancee) isn't as impressive. She smiles too much and
possesses an almost-sinuously graceful body language that seems inappropriate to
the circumstances.
What The Scent of Green Papaya does so well is to show the everyday
life of a culture that has been bombed into history. This is the kind of motion
picture that could easily become repetitive and boring, because so little
happens. But, by involving the audience in the everyday minutiae of Vietnamese
life, Tran Anh Hung holds the viewers' interest. The Scent of Green
Papaya is made all the more enchanting by its simplicity.
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