When the Tenth Month Comes (1984)

Original title

Bao giờ cho đến tháng Mười

Directed by

Đặng Nhật Minh

Genre

psychosocial

Country

Vietnam

Runtime

1h 35m

Rated

PG

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 21 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young woman in rural Vietnam struggles with grief after her husband dies in the Cambodian-Vietnamese War. The story follows her daily hardships as she tries to keep up appearances while living with loss and hardship. The film shows the quiet tragedy of ordinary people caught in the shadow of war.

slow-burnmelancholicbleakoppressivesadcontemplativewar-tornintimate

What happens

When the Tenth Month Comes (Vietnamese: Bao giờ cho đến tháng Mười) is a Vietnamese war film. The first Vietnamese film to be shown in the West after the Vietnam war, The film primarily centers around the misery of a young woman whose husband has died in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. Despite the peaceful rural setting, the film is shot in black and white illustrating the oppressive and suffocating atmosphere of war. The theme of sadness and the inevitability of death dominates the film, uncovering a painful daily reality - a living imprint of Vietnam's history on the common people. Since the actress Lê Vân played the title role of this film, her name has been closely linked to the character Duyên, the wife of the sacrificed fighter, a symbol of the fate of thousands, even millions of Vietnamese women in the face of war. Minh wanted to represent and embody this figure of the soldier's companion but also show the difficulties experienced by peasants in their daily life during the war. The film was important in establishing the career of director Dang Nhat Minh internationally and it was also subject to multiple governmental reviews. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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