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The Vertical Ray of the Sun(Mùa hè chiều thẳng đứng)

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Vietnam, France, Germany · 2000
Rated PG-13 · 1h 52m
Director Tran Anh Hung
Starring Trần Nữ Yên Khê, Lê Khanh, Ngô Quang Hải, Chu Hùng
Genre Drama, Romance

Hanoi comes across almost picture-perfect in director Tran Anh Hung's beautiful, elegiac tale about the lives and loves of three Vietnamese sisters. A mood characteristic of Hung's films is set early on with the vivid sounds of birds, insects and water and the way the lighting enhances the subtle use of color. They all combine to gem-like effect here.

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What are critics saying?

75

Portland Oregonian by

Tran's cinematography is delicate yet probing. Faces, especially eyes, tell much of the story.

80

New Times (L.A.) by Bill Gallo

It's a bewildering but deeply satisfying paradox, this constant, nearly silent collision in Tran's films of the visible world and the turbulent, unseen world.

70

The New York Times by Dana Stevens

An oblique, vaguely sorrowful study in domestic emotion, structured around the small eruptions of feeling -- tenderness, anger, and joy -- that punctuate the slow serenity of daily life.

60

Village Voice by J. Hoberman

Filled with bird sounds, Vertical Ray is almost surreal in its paradise imagery -- the movie is a sultry, harmoniously expressionistic riot of pale greens and deep yellows.

50

Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum

Story is fairly conventional and not especially well told, though as usual Tran's images are so sensual and beautiful that I was rarely bored or frustrated.

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