Adrift (Chơi Vơi)

Vietnam 2009
105 min / color video
Vietnamese with English subtitles

Producer: Dang Tat Binh, Claire-Agnes Lajoumard
Director: Bui Thac Chuyen
Writer: Phan Dang Di
Cinematographer: Ly Thai Dung
Sound: Franck Desmoulins, Arnaud Soulier
Music: Hoang Ngoc Dai
Editor: Julie Beziau
Main cast: Do Hai Yen, Pham Linh Dan, Johnny Tri Nguyen, Nguyen Duy Khoa, Nguyen Nhu Quynh

Adrift is written by the accomplished writer and director Phan Đăng Di, whose film Bi, Đừng Sợ (Bi, Don’t Be Afraid) is also playing at ViFF this year. The story revolves around a mismatched newlywed couple: the young husband, taxi driver Duy Khoa Nguyễn, a mama’s boy, and his wife, Đỗ Thị Hải Yến (seen in The Quiet American and The Story of Pao), not yet aware of her sexuality until she runs into the Vietnamese/Việt Kiều heartthrob Johnny Trí Nguyễn.

The film is reminiscent of Trần Anh Hùng’s Vertical Ray of the Sun – meditative, beautiful, and tightly focused on the emotional, romantic, and sexual lives of men and women in Hà Nội. Chuyên sensuously captures the look of Hà Nội, from cramped working-class family apartments and gangster gambling dens to the middle-class dwellings of artists and cosmopolitans. The film initially takes its time, but Chuyên builds momentum as the husband and wife gradually realize how ill-suited they are for each other, and find comfort elsewhere. This is New Vietnamese Cinema – technically on par with Korean, Hong Kong, or Japanese cinema, not a whiff of war or politics to be found, determined to show the complexity and contradictions of urban life in Việt Nam.

By Viet Nguyen