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Song Lang (2018)

Song Lang (2018)

A lovely, melancholic love letter to Saigon of the past

7.9

Movie

Vietnam
Vietnamese
Drama, Music
2018
LEON LE
Isaac, Liên Bỉnh Phát, Phuoc Tinh
101 min

TLDR

Leon Le, please make more films like these.

What it's about

Ho Chi Minh City, 1980s. The star of the Thien Ly cải lương theater troupe develops an unlikely connection with an underground loan shark.

The take

At the first few moments, Song Lang seemed to be something akin to Farewell My Concubine– the film takes a snapshot of a communist Asian country in a different time, through the lens of a regional opera form with painted faces, elaborate costumes, and captivating tunes. But there’s more to Song Lang than this. Tragedy isn’t prophesized through songs of an already existing opera (in fact, the film features all new tunes), but instead, it occurs because Dung, the loan shark, didn’t reflect on the past early enough for him to reclaim the art form his family once loved, a concern shared with cải lương as a declining genre. Song Lang is a moving drama, but it’s also a nostalgic time capsule of 1980s Saigon and cải lương as a whole.

What stands out

The leads. It’s actually insane that this is Liên Bỉnh Phát’s first lead role, and that Isaac, who portrays the opera singer Linh Phung, actually came from V-pop.

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