YELLOW FLOWERS ON THE GREEN GRASS

Vietnam, 2015, 103 minutes, Colour.
Khang Trong, Thinh Vinh.
Directed by Victor Vu.

A Vietnamese film with great charm as well as seriousness.

It is set in the late 1980s, over a decade after the fall of Saigon and before the current modernisation. The location is a small village, in attractive countryside, the opening credits having great vistas from the air of the land and the sea.

It is the story of two brothers, one aged twelve, the other seven, devoted to each other, yet with a friendly rivalry – although the older brother has a touch of envy for his younger brother’s strength of personality. We glimpse their parents as well as a local uncle who gets the younger boy to be his messenger to woo a local girl, the son of the schoolteacher. There is also a young girl with whom the older boy is infatuated but who is equally at home with the younger brother – which leads to a touch of viciousness on the part of the older brother, an injury to the young boy, the parents having to sell their cow, but the young boy somewhat miraculously helped in his recovery because of a fable about a tiger and a princess in the forest.

For film for universal audiences.

1. A Vietnamese story? Idyllic? Family? Siblings? Life in the village?

2. The location photography, the opening credits, the details of landscapes, sea, crops? Jungle? The village? The homes and interiors? The musical score?

3. The setting in the 1980s, a memory with the touch of nostalgia?

4. The story of two brothers, twelve and seven, the relationship, love for each other, respect, the older boy and his dominance, yet in some ways reticent, the younger boy and his strong character? The details of their life, the fights, the reconciliation, throwing stones at the wounds, fake surrender? The older boy and his studies? The younger boy and his books? With their parents, with the uncle? Their prospects in life?

5. At school, the boys, the other children – and some bullying, the fights, the younger boy and the knife, in reality nail clippers? The brothers supporting each other?

6. Moon, her mother, the story of the father in the shed, leprosy, the burning down of the shed, the mother going to the city, the diagnosis that it was not leprosy? The mother coming back and taking Moon to a new future?

7. The younger boy, taking messages to Vinh, the meetings with the uncle? The romance? Her father, the schoolteacher?

8. The older boy, the infatuation with Moon, the younger brother getting on well with her, with the frog, going fishing, the younger boy catching the fish, the older boy and his growing jealousy? His sulking? His letting the man take his brothers frog? His brother upset? His overhearing the talk about the meal and the chicken, his hitting his brother, the fact that they were playing, the injury to his brother, the acupuncture, the need for the doctor, the younger boy saying he fell from the tree, his father’s reaction? Their having to sell the cow and other goods? The older boy and his diligent care for his brother?

9. The mystical aspect, the story of the Princess, the Tiger, the threats? The older boy and his wariness of the magic tree? Glimpses? The younger boy and his believing the story, wanting the Princess?

10. The younger boy and his recovery, talking about the Princess? His getting up, moving? The older boy and the discovery of the circus man, the story of the riding act, the little girl the flower, the accident, withdrawing to the woods? The old man confiding his story? The condition of his younger daughter – a princess?

11. A glimpse of life in rural Vietnam in the 1980s, after the war, before the modernisation?