Sometimes a film comes along where all the pieces fall into place and the script, cinematography, music, acting, directing all form a magical symphony. Floating Lives is one such film that is so powerful that after you have followed the drama through the myriad of emotions to it’s successful conclusion you almost feel exhausted, yet so satisfied.
Ultimately it is about the women in the film whose characters are center stage and are on the one hand so strong and bold and yet on the other so fragile. Actress Do Thi Hai Yen’s performance brilliantly showcases both the strong and the fragile as a tragic yet hopeful prostitute, Suong, who yearns for a simple life of happiness. Escaping a horrible beating from angry wives, she is thrown into life on a boat with Mr. Vu and his two teenage children far from populated areas of Vietnam in the Mekong Delta. She follows the family because she sees hope in everything even in this isolated place and even though Mr. Vu’s anger at life makes him a physically and mentally abusive man to her and his own children. His daughter instantly bonds with Suong as the mother figure she is missing and finds some new joy in her life and his teenage son views her as a beautiful and sexually attractive woman that he must protect. And when the daughter reveals to Suong her mother’s infidelity, hence why their mother is not part of their lives, Suong states about Mr. Vu, “now I understand his roar” and at that moment in the film the man she thinks is handsome but so utterly mean and cruel becomes to her a person who knows how to love deeply giving her more reason to hope for a life with him and his children. And that is part of this very complex web of emotions that is formed among these four characters that makes the film so engaging.
Dustin Nguyen‘s role as the father is also a masterful performance that can easily be called one of the best acting roles of his career, certainly a role not seen from him in the past. Like Do Thi Hai Yen, his acting creates a very complex character. On the surface Mr. Vu is easy to dislike, yet he has glimpses of a happy, kind, loving man that makes him hard to hate and easy to feel sympathy for and that allows the audience to hope for a better future for him and his family. Yet time and again his bitterness wins out over his chance to reclaim love when he lashes out at the two women in his life; first his daughter for looking so much like the wife who left him; and then Suong who reaches out to him for love. When Suong willingly gives herself to him thinking there may be a chance for love, he ultimately relegates her to the role of a prostitute by throwing money at her in front of his children. Yet hope always remains for her and she picks up the money and tells his children that their father is such a generous man. When she offers to go back to being a prostitute to actually help the family, Mr. Vu does not object. When leaving to fulfill her “duty,” she looks back multiple times hoping that Mr. Vu will stop her. While he too considers that option, even opening his mouth to speak, perhaps ready to feel something good again, even at that moment he is unable to do so. This is such a powerful scene in the film showing Suong’s unwillingness to give up hope even though everything she knows tells her all hope is lost.
Throughout the film the mesmerizing cinematography of the Mekong Delta and the beautiful original soundtrack are juxtapose the cruel misery of these floating lives…floating through the waterways, floating through life surviving, and floating towards what they hope is a better tomorrow. Through all of the darkness in the film, hope is interwoven and therein lies the mastery of director Nguyen Quang Binh’s film.
While it’s 2010 release is too late for Academy Award consideration, should Vietnam make it their official selection next year don’t be surprised to find this an Academy Award nominee for best foreign language film, because it’s THAT good.
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