HDTV Forum

"Vietnamese-American Tony Bui's film THREE SEASONS has the distinction of being the first American production to shoot in Vietnam since the war. A cinematic tone-poem that works more as a reflective mood piece than a traditional story, Bui's lyrical script and Lisa Rinzler's magical cinematography combine to create an original, lasting motion picture. Set in modern-day Ho Chi Minh City, the film is a triptych of stories about characters dealing with loss and redemption: an American veteran (Harvey Keitel) searches for a daughter he fathered during the Vietnam War; a young woman harvests lotus blossoms for a reclusive leper-poet; and a lonely cyclo driver offers love to a world-weary prostitute. The three stories subtly converge to deliver a portrait of a strife-worn society attempting to heal itself."

This film won several awards at Sundance in 1999. And deservedly so. It is a beautiful film that I recommend. The story of the American veteran is the weakest of the 3 stories. The story of the cyclo driver and the prostitute may be the best of the 3. Some of the cinematography in this film is gorgeously done. The language is Vietnamese with English subtitles. I am not sure what exactly the aspect ratio is ... it has narrow bars top and bottom as opposed to the normal wider bars with 16:9.

How did you watch it? Appears to be out of print...

Richard wrote:How did you watch it? Appears to be out of print...

I got it from Rogers Video Direct ... by mail. They have 40,000 DVD titles in their library ... all widescreen by the way. They claim to be the 5th largest video distributor in North America. They are a great source of older movies, which is primarily what I use them for. I go to one of their stores for new releases.

The copy I had was pretty bet up ... there were to spots on the disc where 1-2 minutes were skipped over.