Singapore International Film Festival 2018
The Third Wife
Language
Vietnamese - subtitles to be advised
Cast
Trần Nữ Yên Khê, Mai Thu Hường, Nguyễn Phương Trà My, Nguyễn Như Quỳnh
Synopsis
Inspired by true events, this period drama marks a remarkable first feature by young Vietnamese filmmaker Ash Mayfair. The film opens with the marriage of 14-year-old May, who is to become the third wife of a wealthy landowner. Her youthful innocence is soon eroded by the uncovering of a dark family secret, and her own journey of self-discovery.
Mayfair’s bucolic depiction of rural 19th-century Vietnam sets a delicate stage for an exploration of issues such as child marriage and women’s rights. The narrative takes a fatalistic bend as its female characters’ desires are subsumed under the yoke of patriarchy, their fates as unrelenting as the course of nature.