The Scent of Green Papaya (1993)
"Mùi du du xanh" (original title)

A little girl, Mui, went to a house as a new servant. The mother still mourns the death of her daughter, who would have been Mui's age. In her mind she treated Mui as her daughter. 10 years... See full summary »

Director:

Tran Anh Hung

Writer:

Tran Anh Hung

Stars:

Tran Nu Yên-Khê, Man San Lu, Thi Loc Truong

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 4 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tran Nu Yên-Khê	...	Mui Age 20 (as Trân Nu Yên-Khê)
Man San Lu	...	Mui Age 10
Thi Loc Truong	...	La mère (as Truong Thi Lôc)
Anh Hoa Nguyen	...	La vieille Ti (as Nguyên 'Anh Hoa)
Hoa Hoi Vuong	...	Khuyen (as Vuong Hòa Hôi)
Ngoc Trung Tran	...	Le père
Vantha Talisman	...	Thu
Keo Souvannavong	...	Trung
Van Oanh Nguyen	...	Mr. Thuan
Gerard Neth	...	Tin
Nhat Do	...	Lam
Thi Hai Vo	...	La grand-mère
Thi Thanh Tra Nguyen	...	Mai
Lam Huy Bui	...	Le médecin
Xuan Thu Nguyen	...	L'antiquaire

Storyline

A little girl, Mui, went to a house as a new servant. The mother still mourns the death of her daughter, who would have been Mui's age. In her mind she treated Mui as her daughter. 10 years later Mui (now a young woman) was sent to another family, a young pianist and his wife. The musician falls in love with the peasant, he taught her literacy and they eventually married. A movie about a girl's life.

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Plot Keywords:

girl | death | servant | love | pianist | 

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Genres:

Drama | Music | Romance

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Details

Country:

France

Language:

Vietnamese

Release Date:

28 January 1994 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Scent of Green Papaya

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Box Office

Gross:

$1,910,763 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lazennec Films, SFP Cinema, La, La Sept Cinéma

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although the cast and crew of the film are mostly Vietnamese and the film takes place in Vietnam, it was actually filmed completely on a sound stage in Boulogne, France.

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Connections

Referenced in I peina (2002)

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Soundtracks

"Prélude no 24"
Music by Frédéric Chopin (as Chopin)
Performed by Geneviève Ibanez

User Reviews

Gorgeously filmed but incredibly slow and not particularly interesting

The video case for this film reads "a story of beauty, passion, and forbidden fruit". Are they talking about the same movie I just saw?! They can't be, as the film I just saw was beautiful, but there was no passion and as for the fruit, this is all hogwash meant to entice the potential viewer to see this movie. If only it did have some passion or some life to it, I would have greatly enjoyed this film. Instead, it was an agonizingly slow paced and not particularly interesting film that I would definitely not want to see again. It isn't that it's a bad film (after all it IS very beautifully filmed), but it is dull beyond belief. I kept waiting for something exciting or interesting to happen, but then the movie just ended. There was no great sense of excitement, mystery or anything--just a rather unexciting story about a young girl who becomes a servant and spends the next 10 years of her life working as a maid.