The Vertical Ray of the Sun
Mua he chieu thang dung
France, Vietnam
2000
112 Min
Color
1.85:1
Vietnamese
Synopsis
On the anniversary of their mother’s death, three sisters meet up to honour her memory. Intensely close, they seem to tell each other everything and seek one another’s advice on every subject. And yet, each of them has a secret. One month later, following a turbulent period of temptations, disappointments, suspicions, separations and misunderstandings, each of them has revealed what the tact and discretion of familial relationships has always kept hidden. Exquisitely acted and beautifully photographed my Mark Lee – Tràn Anh Hung’s sensuous and beautifully crafted film is an elegant and resonant combination of mood, ravishing visuals and music. —Artificial Eye
Director
Tran Anh Hung
Trần Anh Hùng (born December 23, 1962) is a French film director of Vietnamese ancestry.
He was born in Đà Nẵng, Central Vietnam, and emigrated to France when he was 12 following the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
Being exposed to and loving classic films, Tran indicated the immense effect they had upon spurring his film-making desires. Admittedly, Bergman, Tarkovsky and Kurosawa all had a hand in the evolution of his directorial aspirations.
His Oscar-nominated debut (for Best Foreign Film) was with the The Scent of Green Papaya (1993) which also won two top prizes at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, and his followup Cyclo (1995) featured top Hong Kong movie star Tony Leung Chiu Wai, also eventually nabbing a top prize at the Venice International Film Festival. The Vertical Ray of the Sun, released in 2000, was the third film in what many consider now to be his “Vietnam trilogy.”
After a sabbatical, it… read more
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dapose
16Jul11
My first exposure to art house cinema, I knew it as The Vertical Ray of the Sun. I remember watching this when I was about 10 yrs old, sitting near the front of the packed theatre with my aunt, craning my neck. I have vivid memories of seeing the saturated greens on screen, hearing the sound of glasses clinking, feeling as if I was sitting in the Hanoian humidity, this film showed me the power of cinematography.
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Laura Katherine
24Apr12
I remember seeing this at a young age as well. The images stuck so vividly that they were exactly as I remembered upon rediscovering it! The heat and those white sheets...
who told you this room exists? and 3 others like this
Robert W Peabody III
30Oct09
The Vertical Ray of the Sun (2000) aka At the Height of Summer DIR Anh Hung Tran SCR Anh Hung Tran innocence as a harmonic in paradise
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Vertical Ray of the Sun
By Joshua Robert Hathaway on January 5, 2010
Vertical Ray of the Sun is the culmination of Anh Hung Tran’s works and ties together both his amazing ability to use color and his eye for character movement and development throughout a film. The… read review
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