The guys fall in love with each other while fervently playing the video game Contra. For a film concerned with a high art form, “Song Lang” doesn’t neglect the little moments that make it an absorbing story which is simultaneously super relatable. What makes “Song Lang” an absolute winner is that there is also a lot of delightful humor and a hard to imitate coolness about it. Not only did Le create the main narrative of Dung and Linh Phung’s romance, but he also personally wrote the opera inside the film, in which Linh Phung plays the leading role: a searing story of love, betrayal, and magic.īut this multi-disciplinary approach would not be enough to pull the film off. Leon Le, the director of the film, is a US-educated Vietnamese photographer and musical theatre performer, who brought his passion for vivid imagery and Vietnamese music together in this feature debut. It seems possible that cải lương, the tradition in which Dung grew up and a source of his sorrows, might be the origin of his happiness, as well.
Once their paths cross during Dung’s shakedown of Linh Phung’s theatre, the two men become drawn to each other. Linh Phung (Isaac, a Vietnamese pop star) is a rising cải lương star who remains naive about the outside world. “Song Lang” is that perfect film from Vietnam: a queer and very gentle love story between a thug and a performer that showcases cải lương, the Vietnamese folk opera.ĭung ( Lien Binh Phat ) is a debt collector nicknamed “Thunderbolt” who roughs up locals in a Saigon neighborhood for his loan shark boss. If we wanted to make a perfect feature film per Supamodu standards, it would be very queer, stunningly shot, and prominently feature an art form partially obscure to the viewership outside of its country of origin.
0 kommentar(er)
