Rating: 
Summary: visually stunning, yet...
Review: the story isn't very captivating and terribly slow. the accompanying music complimented the visual beauty of the film quite nicely. acting was good. unfortunately, the good qualities in this film fail to compensate for the slow story & laconic dialogue.
Rating: 
Summary: Style is a rather elusive thing
Review: The Vertical Ray of the Sun is a mood movie, i.e. poetry in visuals and emotions, if it works right. I found that a number of scenes worked, and many didn't. I'm afraid it's like comedy - it can't really be explained simply. The story, involving three sisters, is rather confusing as two of them look like twins. As they are involved in adulterous relations, we don't know who is with who. I suppose that is the point - we aren't supposed to really care about who it is. We are supposed to let ourselves go. Very well : there is a lot of beauty in this movie, from the close-up of a skinned chicken to a cliffside surrounded by deep jungle, from monsoon rains to a hip house where everything seems to be on the verge of crumbling into dust. Style, style... is a rather elusive thing, I'm afraid.
Rating: 
Summary: lots of languishing
Review: This 2000 Vietnamese film portrays a Vietnam that is unique to Westerners. It is a Vietnam without war or poverty. Set in modern Hanoi, in the midst of a hot lazy summer, we meet three adult sisters and are immediately drawn to each of their particular romantic melodramas. The film moves at a slow, languid pace. And the story unfolds quietly, in layers. It's a simple story. There's love, adultery, family ties. There are secrets and upsets and pregnancies. And sometimes it is quite boring, as the concerns of the individuals do not carry high dramatic potential. And yet, it's nice to relax, let myself be steeped in the Vietnamese culture, and feel the very real but subtle emotions of the complex, interwoven relationships. The parents of these three sisters have recently died and the youngest sister lives with her twin brother in a very lovely apartment where the young woman displays incestuous feelings for her brother. The second sister is married to a man who researches plants and spends long weeks away from her. The third sister is married to a writer who also travels. There are infidelities and secrets and sometimes it all gets confusing. But the mood is one of romance coupled with the lushness of the countryside. I found the film a little too slow for my taste. I was waiting for something outwardly exciting to happen. But the story stayed squarely inside the psyches of the characters and because it was so well done, I cannot help but recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Secrets, upsets and family ties set in modern Vietnam
Review: This 2000 Vietnamese film portrays a Vietnam that is unique to Westerners. It is a Vietnam without war or poverty. Set in modern Hanoi, in the midst of a hot lazy summer, we meet three adult sisters and are immediately drawn to each of their particular romantic melodramas. The film moves at a slow, languid pace. And the story unfolds quietly, in layers. It's a simple story. There's love, adultery, family ties. There are secrets and upsets and pregnancies. And sometimes it is quite boring, as the concerns of the individuals do not carry high dramatic potential. And yet, it's nice to relax, let myself be steeped in the Vietnamese culture, and feel the very real but subtle emotions of the complex, interwoven relationships. The parents of these three sisters have recently died and the youngest sister lives with her twin brother in a very lovely apartment where the young woman displays incestuous feelings for her brother. The second sister is married to a man who researches plants and spends long weeks away from her. The third sister is married to a writer who also travels. There are infidelities and secrets and sometimes it all gets confusing. But the mood is one of romance coupled with the lushness of the countryside. I found the film a little too slow for my taste. I was waiting for something outwardly exciting to happen. But the story stayed squarely inside the psyches of the characters and because it was so well done, I cannot help but recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This is a brilliant film. I disagree with reviewers who complain that it is slow; I think contemporary Hollywood techno-action film has unfortunately raised thresholds for ordinary moviegoers who now expect more and better pyrotechnics, sex and action. This movie is authentic, the treatment elegant with great attention to details (every frame - and frame within a frame - is exquisite) and the cast generates an amazing combination of alluring warmth, familial comfort, underlying sensuousness, and lightness that makes this a fascinating, thoroughly bewitching film. Guys, this is Vietnam, not Bel Air, not some space station about to go to war with the cosmos. It is a different world, a diffrent culture, and this film is true to it. A special mention to the use of ambient sound, as well as the surreal yet totally appropriate juxtaposition of Velvet Underground. Amazing!! At this point words fail me. The movie speaks for itself. And it doesn't have to say much to make a lasting impact.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most beautiful movies I have seen in a long time.
Review: This is a no brainer. Do you love movies that send chills down your spine as you begin to cry with a smile on your face. Buy this film. You will want to own it after the first 5 minutes. Tai Chi to Lou Reed. Wow!
MAF
Rating:
Summary: THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF PRETENSION
Review: This is about a brother and sister's monogamous relationship and how it relates to other troubled marriages. Writer, Director Tran Anh Hung also directed "The Scent of Green Papaya" which was a spellbound sensual delight with a shattering dramatic climax about a young Vietnamese girl's rise through the glass ceiling of Asian domestic hierarchy. But in "The Vertical Ray of The Sun", again starring the Director's wife, Tran Nu Yen Khe, he creates a dull psychological drama with an ingratiating attitude towards it's audience, asking us to confront our own judgmental predisposition regarding the on-again, off-again relationships of a group of middle class Asian couples. Visual references to Picasso and American commercial art only reveal a photographer's keen eye as if to serve as commercial interruptions to the weak-kneed drama that muddles in and debates the sanctity of marriage and fidelity. The influence of Western culture is seen as a wind blowing away Asian morals and codes as the siblings wake every morning to the sound of rock group icon "The Velvet Underground" playing from a stereo so serenely, one expects a Pepsi-Cola logo to appear on the screen. Very nice to look at but what's the point? Maybe divorce is a political issue in Viet Nam and maybe symbolizing that is the Director's intent. Regardless, when a baby's goos and gaas are subtitled as coherent sentences, as they are here, I suspect the rest of the dialogue as being a more adult version of psycho-babble.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: This is easily the best looking, and one of the best, movies I have seen in ages - although "Cyclo" is still my favorite from this director. "Cyclo" is, by the way, available as an inexpensive region free HK DVD - with a very good widescreen (but not anamorphic) transfer. So there's no reason to settle for the crummy scan and pan American VHS. The presentation here is respectable. I won't describe what goes on in this wonderful movie - that would be pretty pointless. Just see it. As we've come to expect from Tran Anh Hung, it is filled with moments of everyday sensuality (animal, vegetable and mineral), states of being, and a powerful sense of location. The visuals are almost tactile. The sense of beginning, middle and end is more "felt" than determined by a simplistic sense of narrative. In other words, if you are looking for a "plot" per se, don't bother. What's here is actually too good to be contained in as inadequate a vessel as the common three-or-so-act movie story.
Rating:
Summary: a visual feast
Review: This movie is a visual feast. I was captivated by the brilliant imageries of land, the seasons, and the people ' the rhythmic of every day living in this exotic land. The director used this setting to reveal the life of the three sisters that unfold softly, smartly, like a poem.
Rating:
Summary: Magic artistry
Review: This movie misses 5 stars only because the storyline is depressing. It gets 4 stars on the strength of its cinematography. This is the most visually beautiful film ever made. I have to include the set design and color as well as the cinematography in handing out praise. Warning 1. If you love this movie, don't think that Scent of Green Papaya will give you more of the same. This is as good as it gets.
Warning 2. If you need action to enjoy a movie, skip this one.
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