El árbol de las mariposas doradas

I don't see the point of reviewers who say a movie like this is slow and boring, and "nothing happens." (If you want a movie where indeed nothing happens, try "Goodbye, Dragon Inn.") Sure, there are longueurs, and not all the plot choices are good ones. But there is a quiet beauty about this film, and it is at its best deeply pleasurable. Some of the scenes and framing are like pictures in a museum. The uncertainties of time, place, and characters I often find annoying in other films are less irksome here. I think viewers who appreciative this kind of slow-paced movie, and are less concerned about a pulsing plot than an absorbing sensory experience, will like it.

Watching Thien An Pham's debut film, Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, I was immediately captivated by a journey that, for me, feels less like a movie and more like a meditative experience. It's a slow-cinema gem that invites you to float through an ethereal Vietnamese landscape, exploring grief, spirituality, and the search for meaning in a deeply personal and mysterious way, bringing to mind masters like Tsai Ming-liang.

The cinematography by Dinh Duy Hung is just stunning, capturing the natural beauty of rural Vietnam with exquisite detail. The camera moves with the slow, deliberate pace of a cargo ship, using long, continuous shots that force you to absorb the world alongside Thien, feeling the minutes pass as he rides his scooter through green hills and dirt roads. This refusal to use quick cuts or dramatic close-ups creates a sense of immersion that you rarely see in modern cinema.

The story, which unfolds in a realistic style, blurs the lines between past and present, reality and daydream. Thien's interactions with a few key characters, like the regretful old soldier and the nun from his past, aren't just plot points-they're reflections on mortality, guilt, and the search for decency. The film's refusal to give you easy answers invites you to fill in the gaps with your own thoughts, turning the silence and long shots into moments of real introspection. The movie is deeply involved with Vietnamese Christianity, but it never suggests that the truth lies in just one belief, instead using religion as a way to explore the spiritual landscape.

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell is a masterpiece of art-house cinema, a film that demands patience and commitment from the viewer. If you're looking for an experience that takes you on a spiritual trip, that rewards contemplation, and that uses filmmaking in a masterful way to create a hypnotic atmosphere, then it's absolutely worth watching. It's a film for those who are willing to be guided on a journey that isn't in a hurry to get to the end, but finds beauty and depth in every step of the way. However, if you're looking for a fast-paced story, a plot with clear answers, or a film that follows traditional rules, this movie might be a frustrating experience. It's a meditation on life, death, and time, and its value lies in its ability to make you slow down and just be.

This film exposed me to the calm and simple life in rural Vietnam. This is definitely not an easy watch, and I'd recommend viewers to appreciate the serene narrative set within a dilemmatic situation.

I've not experienced Vietnamese culture, but I do get a rough idea of its relevance growing up in Southeast Asia. Majority of the film's scenes have a tranquil backdrop, yet it's inhabitants are constantly challenged with the realities of life.

To sit in a dark cinema for 3 hours observing the slow pace of life while contemplating the hidden meanings within the structures and nuances of life as a young Vietnamese, I feel refreshed and grateful for this cinematic experience.

Watching this film feels like sitting for three hours in a sauna waiting for something that never comes and that I don't even care about.

Usually, I love contemplative film where nothing happens. But it should come with a mastery in mise en scene, and a certain sobriety. Artistic boldness should still hold the audience for the duration to the very end. Yet this film offers nothing beyond its self-indulgent ravishing photography. The filmmaker clearly wants to inflict suffering on the viewer, but this experience is purposeless. And this sense of purposelessness, which one may assume is the philosophical meaning that the film tries to suggesst, is forced upon the viewer through half-hearted dialogue. In fact, the dialogue didn't hold enough attention in relating to the material around it to make it interesting.

It's simply an international coproduction by a Vietnamese filmmaker indented for highbrow international critics and festivals, made for the sake of being clever and 'cinephile'.

I grabbed my first chance to see this film in the cinema on a big screen. The film is a wonder in so many aspects and definitely live up to its Camera d'Or at Cannes, and also my own expectation. I love how realistic and organic every scene is about the daily life in Vietnam from the big city to the rural area. The first half deceived me a bit into thinking how simple the film had been and then it went on to astonish me with its dreamlike second half, so mesmerizing and even haunting. There are just so many brilliant scenes. The scene of the fighting roosters in early morning is simply a masterful in long take but also a brief scene, like of the buffaloes blocking the road is immediately thought provoking. That ending is above all, to me simply perfect. It's just so wonderful I would love to meet the filmmakers and shake hand with all of them :)