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Set in Hanoi, Vietnam, THE VERTICAL RAY OF THE SUN is a rich visual banquet overflowing with lush, artful images that unfold with the same languorous slowness with which the the film's enigmatic characters and relationships develop. Three sisters, Lien (Tran Nu Yen-Khe), Khanh (Le Khanh), and Suong (Nguyen Nhu Quynh), and their brother, Hai (Ngo Quang Hai), come together to prepare a feast in remembrance of their deceased parents. They end up discovering that they each harbor important secrets.
The two older sisters, Suong and Khanh, are both married, one to a novelist and one to a photographer. Though their marriages seem quite tranquil and happy on the surface, there is trouble brewing for both sisters. Their scenes of dreamy domesticity become more poignant as the fragility of this bliss--which the sisters try to hide both from themselves and from each other--is revealed. Their younger sister, the gorgeous Lien, lives with their brother, Hai, a struggling actor. Lien is both naive (she isn't quite sure how a woman gets pregnant) and very sensual. At night she sneaks into her brother's bed; she claims it is to stay warm, but there's an ambiguous sexuality in her feelings for her brother which adds another layer of complexity to the film.
Director Tran Anh Hung's first two films, THE SCENT OF GREEN PAPAYA and CYCLO were also masterful explorations of Vietnamese life; THE VERTICAL RAY OF THE SUN is perhaps the most elegiac and serene of the three, weaving a very delicate fabric of relationships which are as elusive as the dappled, changeable Hanoi sunshine.
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