Cinema
Tướng về hưu
Nguyễn Khắc Lợi · 1988
Synopsis
An old officer returns to live with his son after a life of campaigns. He finds a prosperous, cold house: a daughter-in-law who counts everything, guard dogs fed on what she brings back from the maternity ward where she works, a son who lets things be and no one to talk to. Used to commanding and serving, he looks for a place, offers to help, and runs up against customs that no one questions and that he alone finds monstrous.
Context
The original text had appeared in 1987 and immediately divided the country's literary world; the adaptation came the following year, and critics at once compared it with its model, as happens when everyone has read before seeing. Hoàng Cúc plays the daughter-in-law and was honoured for the role at the national festival of 1990. It is one of the first times that the country's cinema goes looking for its material among the writers of the renewal.
Who it is for
In Vietnamese, subtitled. What it is drawn from takes up a few pages and can be read in an hour; the film is best seen afterwards.
Prizes and reception
Debated on its release for what it kept and what it lost, it remains the first screen adaptation of texts from the đổi mới period.