As I was a few minutes into The Scent of Green Papaya, I was quite sure I’d seen some of the director’s (Tran Anh Hung ) other films. And yes – the visual style is easily recognizable: the slow, fluid camera panning across rooms and yards and walls, a strong sense for the sounds of nature. Even though The Scent of Green Papaya was a good film, it was not as good as Cyclo and Vertical Ray of the Sun (the initial scene of the latter film is sheer beauty). Even though several scenes of the present film made a real impression on me, I couldn’t stop thinking that the film’s aesthetics is too predictable, too pretty, and perhaps a tad contrived. How am I to swallow the obvious nostalgia of the film? I felt that I’ve seen this before: an attempt to capture the past through glowing, tranquil images and sounds, a mildly experimental score, hauntingly beautiful surroundings. Certain images are repeated: ants, frogs, papayas, and start to take on an almost-symbolic meaning. The film starts off with a child who gets a place as a servant in a richer family in Vietnam during the 50’s. The quiet storms of family life is seen from the young servant's perspective: a boy torturing ants, a wife saddened by her husband's infidelity, a grandmother mourns her husband. Rather than scrutinizing colonial structures, The Scent of Green Papaya follows its characters in their joys and miseries, in the routines of work - and all this is evoked in a very sensual way. In the second part of the film the child has, as Ebert puts it, “flowered into a beautiful woman”. Well, you know the rest, you know the score. From here one, I can no longer take this film seriously. My description of this film might sound negative, but for all its compromises and indulgence, this is a captivating cinematic experience where the visual stands in the centerfield.
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