The Moon At The Bottom Of The Well

(Trăng Nơi Đáy Giếng)

Vietnam 2008 84 min / 35mm color
Vietnamese with English subtitles
Producers : Nguyen Thai Hoa, Morteza Mohammadi
Director : Nguyen Vinh Son
Writer : Chau Tho (based on the novel by Tran Thuy Mai)
Cinematographers : Trinh Hoan, Nguyen Nam
Sound: Le Quang Dao
Music : Quoc Bao
Editor : Phung Doc Lap
Main Cast : Hong Anh, Hoang Cao De

A routine, a role, a life that she performs to perfection, in the end, turns out to be nothing more than
an illusion that is necessary for her self-perseverance. This is the story of Hanh (Anh Hong), the wife
in modern-day Vietnam of a well-revered high school headmaster. She is the epitome of the society’s
righteous woman and the homemaker of every man’s dreams.

Her husband, Phuong (Cao de Hoang), is her world. Hanh tends to everything – from bringing him
fresh flowers for his morning tea to cleaning his motorcycle wheels. The devotion, the patience, and
the grace with which Hanh serves her husband can certainly make us uncomfortable at how devoted,
yet unnatural, her love for him is. Yet, in the eyes of a community, Hanh is indeed a perfect wife.

Hanh is considerate, virtuous, and faithful. Yet Hanh cannot give Phuong enough. Their world is not
perfect for she is unable to bear him children. In her determination to give Phuong everything she
thinks that he wants, she is introduced into a world of grief, betrayal, and loneliness. Local gossip
further induces the separation of her marriage bonds. In trying to regain what is ripped away from
her, Hanh is crushed to see that Phuong is content in his new home and new wife, even without all the
meticulous care she thought he needed. In pain and desperation, Hanh turns away from that society
that had victimized her and finds peace in the world of the dead.
- Quyen Lam