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THE VERTICAL RAY OF THE SUN Send This Review to a Friend
Although writer-director Tran Anh Hung, whose "The Scent of Green Papaya" sensitively evoked life in Vietnam so exquisitely, is every bit as lyrical with "The Vertical Ray of the Sun," he is less successful this time. The drama explores the lives of three sisters in contemporary Hanoi. The film in some ways verges on soap opera, and while consistently interesting in its character studies, it never emerges as a compelling deeply moving story.
One sister is Lien (Tran Nu Yen Khe), who shares an apartment with her older brother Hai (Ngo Quang Hai), and there is evidence of incestuous feelings between the two, with the sister the one who sends out flirtatious signals, although nothing concrete ever takes place. Another sister, Suong (Nguyen Nhu Quynh), has a café, in which Lien works, and Suong is married to a photographer, Quoc (Chu Hung). The third sister, Khanh (Le Khanh) is married to Kien (Tran Manh Cuong), a writer struggling to complete his first novel.
The sisterly story that unravels, structured around the anniversary of their mother's death, digs into their respective lives, involving, among other things, infidelity and dissatisfaction. They are measuring their lives against the happy lives they assumed their parents had. The filmmaker is aiming for depth, but after a while, the drama becomes somewhat tedious and despite the personal stakes in the respective quests for happiness and the revelations that the sisters learn about one another, the results lack power in terms of overall audience involvement. It is all photographed very beautifully, there are moments of humor, and the acting is exemplary, but the film never takes off with the impact that Tran Anh Hung achieved with his even more delicate earlier work. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
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