The White Silk Dress

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The White Silk Dress
The film poster.
Directed by	Luu Huynh
Produced by	Phuoc Sang Films
Written by	Luu Huynh
Starring	Trương Ngọc Ánh, Nguyễn Quốc Khánh
Music by	Đức Trí
Distributed by	Phuoc Sang Films
Release date(s)	2007
Running time	142 min.
Country	Vietnam
Language	Vietnamese
Budget	US$2 million^[1]
IMDb profile

The White Silk Dress (Áo lụa Hà Đông in Vietnamese) is an acclaimed (and controversial) 2007 Vietnamese war-drama epic directed by Luu Huynh and starring Truong Ngoc Anh and Nguyen Quoc Khanh. With a budget of over 2 million dollars, it is one of the most expensive Vietnamese films ever made.^[1]

1 Plot
2 Reception
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Plot

The story begins in Ha Dong, northern Vietnam in 1954, amidst the crumbling of French colonial rule in Vietnam. Dan and Gu are lovers as well as servants from different households who suffer at the hands of their cruel masters. When Gu's master is assassinated, Dan and Gu flee south, eventually ending up in the central Vietnamese seaside town of Hoi An. Once there, they raise a family, with Dan eventually giving birth to 4 girls. Though poverty stricken, the family loves and supports each other, though the horrors of the encroaching war threaten to tear them apart.

The story emphasizes the importance of a white silk áo dài that Gu had given to Dan as a wedding gift before they had fled south, with promises of a proper marriage someday in the future. Years later in Hoi An, Dan must sacrifice this one valued possession (amongst other shocking hardships and humiliations she must endure) to support her family and provide for her daughters the áo dài required to attend school.

The film is ultimately a tribute to the strength and heart of the Vietnamese woman, as symbolized through the áo dài.

[edit] Reception

The film was released in Vietnam in 2007 and was generally a hit, both critically and commercially. It won the top prize at the 2007 Golden Kite Awards (Vietnam's equivalent to the Oscars)^[2] and continues to win acclaim abroad at international film festivals. Richard Kuiper of Variety who had attended the film's screening at the Pusan International Film Festival called it "deeply moving" and remarked that "at packed screening caught, most audience members were in tears"^[3].

To date, its victories abroad at international film festivals include the Audience Award at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea^[4], the Kodak Vision award at the Fukuoka Asian Film Festival in Japan^[5], and the highly coveted "Best foreign film" award at the Golden Rooster Awards in China^[6]. The White Silk Dress has also been officially selected to represent Vietnam at the 80th Academy Awards in the Best foreign language film category.

Despite its success, the film has also received some criticism as well as controversy, especially surrounding the director's political leanings as conveyed through the film. This was preceded by similar controversy surrounding the director almost a decade earlier concerning a music video he was involved in which was perceived to be actively pro-communist by Vietnamese overseas. Interestingly, this time around Huynh faces fire from both sides rather than just the overseas Vietnamese community^[7]. Others question the historical accuracy of the film, as they contend that the Viet Minh uprising would have been unlikely in 1954, having already occurred in 1945.^[8] Furthermore, they charge that the áo dài, a recent development of the urban upper class in the 1930s, is unsuited to represent poor Vietnamese women.