The Scent of Green Papaya

Its strength is the clever use of recurring motifs, its weaknesses is the second part of the film, where the narrative flow becomes a bit stall. The cinematography is brilliant and almost has Renoir kind of feel to it - the small drama is displayed through small peepholes or open windows.

It's a total beauty overload. The story takes its place in the backseat and lets the movie find its own pace. The images and the sound are remarkably effective at engrossing the viewer (or at least me) in what action there is. The only thing missing from the full Vietnam experience is the titular smell. Again, there's no very complex story going on here, but looking for one would be completely missing the point. What is the point? I don't know. Maybe "beauty", or something.

Unique but not really satisfying

Breathtakingly gorgeous. Tran has a vision that I'm not embarassed to call intoxicating. Not especially deep and not a whole lot happens (though the themes of love and family and connectivity are sufficiently engaging, insightful and touching). But what I love about Tran is the way he picks out some incredibly beautiful detail, either visual or emotional, and not only allows the viewer to enjoy it, but allows his actors to enjoy it too. Again, the word that comes to mind is intoxicating.

It's definitely a beautiful movie, I'll give it that, and I don't NEED a movie to have plot, but when it does make that dive I expect the plot to be at least somewhat sensible.

Fantastic cinematography. The story left me a bit numb though.

Talk about this movie had me expecting a dedicated visual spectacle, and it isn't. It's a story-driven affair. It's just that the story is so slight, that one takes solace in the fact that the movie is quite pleasing to the senses. I wouldn't even call it episodic or atmospheric. It's just a well shot twenty-page script, with a lot of rustic Vietnamese sets and ethnic food and music.

O cheiro do papaya verde estreava há 30 anos no Festival de Toronto. Filme bem bonito, lírico, a primeira vez que o vi era adolescente e talvez não tivesse o know-how para apreciá-lo. Fico feliz que o Anh Hung Tran voltou à baila esse ano no Festival de Cannes, ganhando o prêmio de melhor diretor, ele filmou razoavelmente pouco nesses trinta anos. VXT.

Overwhelmingly an experience of it's lush visual design and soundscape. The vagaries of plotting are a little awkward, and no strong trajectory or development arises to compete for the viewer's attention, who might, like me, start paying attention to corners of the screen. Aestheticism is not always an immersive indulgence; it can also be a port-of-call for those afflicted by disinterest in other things, while we wait for them to be interesting.

Lush and sensual, some very good cinematography. But overall it left me unimpressed. The moral (or absence thereof) seems more than discutable to me.

Yes, it's very pretty. And yes, the papaya is a sexual reference. But is that really enough?!

Excellent music and soundscape in general.

Beautiful.

A good debut from the director of the wonderful At The Height of Summer. If there is a major flaw to this though, its that the film does not feel that deep even for a minimalistic drama, lacking the emotional depth Anh Hung Tram would bring in At The Height of Summer seven years later.

A little conflicted. The film is so impossibly attractive, it almost becomes a problem. It felt a little like a Westerner made it, it is very romanticized/exoticized and clean and perfect in every way. Which was problematic for me, I was high, though. Didn't help to read it was shot on a soundstage in France. The story is fine, simple but nice. Loved the soundtrack. I'm putting 85 since my mind's a mess and the film had a lovely pace and lovely-looking people and was really beautiful to look at.

Impressively bad. The worst score I've heard since that sega genesis one for that other shitty movie I can't remember. All of the characters are ugly and stupid. The acting is unbearable. Those "intoxicating" shots are of a french soundstage shot through fake walls and shit. It's not a good movie to look at in the slightest, in the fucking slightest. And my PSI for this was higher than any number of real films. Don't understand. Vietnamese is ugly as fuck too, thought this was gonna be french.

Sensuality in it's most literal sense: Touching, smelling, looking, listening above speaking or acting out. As a result you have that fascinating Asian restraint, (some would say at it's most challenging) drawing upon the 'Ozu' tradition, mastering the visual aspects of its very simple story. I can't think of a film more consistently beautifully framed, and you'll forgive me if I don't babble on. I need to find my jaw, dropped on the floor somewhere at the beginning of this Vietnamese Gem.

Though its title may sound like some middle-to-lowbrow parody of an Asian art film (no less than Ozu's _The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice_ or Mizoguchi's _The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums_), and its air of quietude may in many ways live up to that same brow's dimmest and direst imaginings, this is the real deal. The story is simplicity itself. Far more to the point is its overall narrative method, which might be described as one of selective intimacy balanced off against selective reticence.

An extremely slow-paced film that offers beautiful imagery but not much else

I found it engaging, especially the beautiful visuals, but ultimately I found it a tad bit unbelievable. The pacing was also way off in the second half of the film.

Mui du du xanh

Beautiful art direction and cinematography make this film a sort of modern silent film. Its cinema in its most pure way of storytelling: images.

Waste of time.