Tran Anh Hung’s (The Taste of Things) “luxuriant, visually seductive debut” (New York Times) recreates antebellum Vietnam as seen through the wide eyes of childhood and the whirlwind of first love. In 1951 Saigon, 10 year old Mui enters household service for an affluent but troubled Vietnamese family. Despite her servile role, Mui discovers beauty and epiphany in the lush physical details that envelope her, while earning the fragile affection of the household’s grieving matriarch. As she comes of age, Mui (Tran Nu Yen-Khe) finds her relationship with a handsome pianist, whose she has admired since childhood, blossoming into something more.
Though steeped in writer-director Tran Anh Hung’s southeast Asian heritage, The Scent of Green Papaya was realized entirely within a Parisian soundstage. The film’s heady, scrupulously detailed depiction of a society in decline, a family in quiet turmoil, and lovers on the threshold of romance earned the Camera D’Or at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.