With a languorous and mannered sensuality familiar to Hung's debut 'The Scent of Green Papaya', this is an elegant combination of mood, ravishing visuals and music in which the emphasis is placed on tenderness, resolution and reconciliation. The story revolves around three sisters who meet up for their mother's memorial meal.
With a languorous and mannered sensuality familiar from The Scent of Green Papaya (and sharing a number of the same cast), the device of filming through screens, windo... more >
With a languorous and mannered sensuality familiar from The Scent of Green Papaya (and sharing a number of the same cast), the device of filming through screens, windows and foliage, the close-ups of food, of water on skin and the significant use of insect and bird noise in the soundtrack, places us firmly in the same territory as the director’s debut film. However, whereas Papaya was held together firmly (and surprisingly) by the melodrama at its heart, At the Height of Summer is a more fragmented work. It’s certainly more ambitious but it isn’t bound together tightly enough to prevent a drift in emphasis and the feeling that sometimes its obvious and self-aware style seems to be the main substance of the film. This may not be entirely fair given that much of the dramatic action takes place offscreen and we are presented instead with moments of reconciliation, tenderness and the general daily business of living, but it’s a feeling that is exacerbated by the curious sections when the music dominates and it begins to look like a promotional music video, especially when each morning Lien and her brother wake up to Lou Reed. Finally, mention has to be made of the really awful artwork that adorns Lien’s apartment. It raises the delicious possibility that after The Rebel, Hancock got on a boat and continued his painting career in Vietnam.
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