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Product Detail |
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Audio Format: DD 2.0
Video Format: Widescreen 1.85:1 (Anamorphic)
Languages: Vietnamese
Subtitles: English, Korean
Region Code: ALL
Year Made: 2009
Running Time: 97
Release Date: 03/23/2009
Combining arthouse lensing with a sweet story sure to make auds feel warm inside, fledgling helmer Stephane Gauger comes up with an appealing balancing act to please cinephiles and mainstreamers alike. "Owl and the Sparrow" plays like Cassavetes meets a Vietnamese made-for, following a 10-year-old orphan's escape to the big city and her friendship with an airline stewardess and a zookeeper. Charming, unabashedly old-fashioned storytelling gets a further dimension from Gauger's full immersion in Saigon street life (helmer is half Vietnamese himself). Indie cinemas should help these birds fly moderate distances.
Uncle Tran Le Minh (Nguyen Hau) is the boss of a bamboo factory, where he's put young ward Thuy (Pham Thi Han) to work. After one berating too many, she grabs her Barbie knapsack and runs away to the big city, befriended by a couple awfully nice street kids who advise her on how to survive.
While peddling roses, Thuy meets zookeeper Hai (Le The Lu, "Buffalo Boy"), who introduces her to the baby elephant his superior is planning on selling. The young man and the little girl develop a bond, strengthened by the parallel Gauger draws between the homeless orphan resisting returning to her uncle and the beloved elephant unwilling to be shipped away from where it belongs.
Thuy ends each day at a soup cafe, where she pals around with the young boy (Hoang Long) manning the stall. Air hostess Lan (Cat Ly), another customer, takes an interest in the little flower seller and invites her to stay at her hotel until she has to fly back to home base. Recognizing Lan's loneliness, Thuy plays matchmaker between the stewardess and the zookeeper, an unlikely couple considering Lan's jet-set sophistication and Hai's more limited outlook.
Though the pic definitely borders on sentimental, Gauger saves it from sappiness with inventive handheld lensing and rapid edits that give the whole a more cutting-edge look than the subject seems to warrant. A montage at an orphanage, which plays like an infomercial for Vietnamese foster kids, could easily be excised.
Awards and nominations <7 wins & 2 nominations>
WINS
2007 Los Angeles Film Festival - Audience Award
2007 San Diego Asian Film Festival - Jury Award
2007 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival - Jury Award
2007 Big Apple Film Festival - Festival Prize
2007 Denver International Film Festival_ - Emerging Filmmaker Award
2007 Hawaii International Film Festival - Netpac Award
2007 Heartland Film Festival - Crystal Heart Award
NOMINATED
2007 Gotham Awards - Breakthrough Director Award
2008 Independent Spirit Awards - John Cassavetes Award
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