Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18313 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-02-26
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Formats: Import, NTSC
• Original language: English, Vietnamese
• Running time: 108 minutes

Amazon.com
Although its publicity touts Three Seasons, a triple winner at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, as "the only American film made entirely in Vietnam,, there is little that is American about this movie. Its sensibility seems far more Vietnamese than American, from its lyrical Oriental imagery and its concern with the plight of Vietnamese citizens since the war to its reverence for the country's ancient culture. Similarly, Harvey Keitel is listed as the star, but his is really the most minor of the film's major roles.

Three Seasons tells three tangentially linked stories. First is the tale of Kien An (Ngoc Hiep Nguyen), a lovely young woman who works picking lotus blossoms at a sanitarium. She becomes a scribe for its mysterious proprietor, Teacher Dao (Manh Cuong Tran), a leper who hides himself away in shame but whose soul is full of beautiful poetry. Then there is Hai (Don Duong), a gentle "cyclo" (bicycle ricksha) driver who falls in love with Lan (Zoe Bui), an alluring, feisty prostitute he sees coming and going from the big tourist hotels. Last, there is James Hager (Keitel), an ex-Marine who fought in the war and has returned to find the daughter he fathered many years before. There is also a charming plot about Woody (Huu Duoc Nguyen), a little street urchin who sells contraband out of a suitcase. The narrative involving Keitel's character is the least developed in the film, and seems to be almost an afterthought, but in any event, truly magnificent visuals and a delicate lyricism make Three Seasons a haunting, bittersweet film portrait of life in contemporary Vietnam. --Laura Mirsky

From The New Yorker
The début film of the Vietnamese-American director Tony Bui, in which the lives of several people in Ho Chi Minh City-a cyclo driver and the prostitute he's obsessed with, a middle-aged G.I. looking for his Vietnamese daughter, a young woman who writes down the verse of a leprous poet, and a little street kid who has lost his merchandise-are woven into a composite picture of life after the war. The movie substitutes sensitivity for drama; it's a little too high-minded. But the cinematography (by Lisa Rinzler) is lustrously beautiful, and the editing is very fine. Bui, only twenty-six, is a superb craftsman, and the movie's lulling tone and tempo are easy to take. With Harvey Keitel as the American; the accomplished Vietnamese actors include Don Duong, Zoë Bui, and Nguyen Ngoc Hiep. In Vietnamese. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Beautiful, stirring movie
How fortunate I was tonight. The video clerk accidentally put Three Seasons in my bag instead of Blair Witch Project. I had never heard of Three Seasons & was surprised when I saw that it was about Vietnam. Cannot believe how beautiful the scenery and how authentic the depiction of Vietnamese life. I've written several books about Vietnam & believe it or not one of them includes the poem/song about the Lotus flower that the old woman was singing. Having visited South Vietnam this past March, I was especially touched by the scenes involving the cyclo drivers, children merchandise hawkers, and the American GI. The scenes are realistic and not overly romanticized like some of the other Vietnamese movies I've seen. I cried my eyes out in the final scenes, even though I knew what was going to happen. If you've ever wondered what became of Vietnam after the Americans left, this film will give you a good idea of the poverty, hardships, and eternal determination and spirit of the Vietnamese people. Highly recommend.

Breathtaking!
I've seen plenty of films about Vietnam before, including the Oscar nominated film, "Scent of Green Papaya," and this one surpasses them all. The beautiful cinematography, heart-wrenching harshness of life in modern Vietnam, and the poetic style of story telling left me overwhelmed with emotions. "Three Seasons" made me realize how much I really miss my homeland. The director did a great job in capturing the reality of life in Vietnam apart from the war. All of its predecessors have always shown Vietnam in reference to its famous war, but this movie captures the life and culture of the Vietnamese people. I highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to know about the Vietnamese culture apart from the depravity of war so often portrayed in other Vietnam War movies. I guarantee you will be enraptured by the lives of all of its characters.

What an elegant piece of work!
This movie is extremily well made. It is so great at so many levels. First, it's an incredibly beautiful movie. From the lotus lake to the rainy, foggy, dark neighborhood, everything is so beautiful and colorful. The sceneries are as beautiful as previous movies about Vietnam; Indochine is another that comes to mind. This film is quite different from the others, as pointed out by many others, in that it's directed by a Vietnamese made intirely in Vietnam, spoken in Vietnamese. For the record, i'm constantly amused by movies that mysteriously assume Vietnamese or foreigners speak English in their free time.

What is startling to me is that none of the reviews I've read seems to ponder about the film's title: Three Seasons. The purpose of the film is to expose the culture, the country, the people, and the soul of Vietnam. With this in mind, I feel the film is very carefully and meaningfully titled. The personality of a place is not in its name; the personality is defined by the experience that you have. Spring, summer, fall, winter all become meaningless. Every place has them. They don't mean anything. Names do not evoke emotions; only experiences do.

Three Seasons depicts Vietnam in three different scenarios: the moderate and beautiful scene of the lotus lake, the scrotching hot summer that the cyclo driver has to endure, and the rainy, foggy, chilly evening that the young boy is familiar with. And it's not just what they are, but also what happen, what people do. These are the personality of the place. Personality defines what something is, not names. How many seasons are they in your hometown?

The beauty of the film is the ability to blend all these seasonally contradicting scenarios into one natural interaction. Never did I feel that it was improbable for the beautiful morning, followed by a burning afternoon, then a devastatingly rainy evening. Somehow, everything flows naturally. It hightlights so convincingly the diversity in personality of the country, and the graceful interaction among them.

Harvey Keitel, who sponsors the film, plays an American who tries to find peace and closure at a place with many old memories. Interestingly, his presense is awkwardly intrusive, as though it wasn't a place for him to be. Dejavu all over again!

There are so many great things about this film -- some explicit, others quite subtle, but all artistically and beautifully portrayed. Beside all that, you are in for a cultural treat. But don't just be amazed by the picture. Think about what they mean.