User reviews

Song Lang (2018) is a Vietnamese film co-written and directed by Leon Le.

The premise of this film is that an emotional connection is possible between two men of very different outward temperaments.

Isaac plays Linh Phung, a performer in Vietnamese traditional opera. Lien Binh Phat portrays Dung "Thunderbolt," an enforcer for a vicious lone shark.

Thunderbolt goes about his job with impassive, brutal efficiency. He says that when people borrow money, they have to pay it back. If they can't, or won't, he sees to it that they do.

The two men meet when Dung Thunderbolt is about to burn the costumes when he's unable to collect a debt at Linh Fung's opera. Linh offers him enough to keep the match unlit, although Dung won't accept it.

The two men are attracted to each other. No one ever mentions the word "gay." It's probably not acceptable in Vietnam, where all culture is controlled by the state. My sense is that Cai-Luong opera male stars are thought to be gay, even though they portray excessively masculine characters onstage.

Their relationship changes their lives, in unusual and surprising ways. The plot of the film is complex and subtle, and keeps you thinking about it after the movie is over.

A real bonus is the scenes from the opera performances themselves. The opera music sounds strange to our western ears, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy it as a true art form.

Both men are fine actors. However, for me, the best acting was done by Phuong Minh as Auntie Nga, the loan shark. I can't remember someone portraying a person with no soul so well. When tragedy strikes, her comment is, "No one is forced to borrow from me." She clearly has no guilt at all about her actions.

We saw this movie at the Little Theatre, as part of Rochester's wonderful ImageOut Film Festival. The opera scenes probably work better on the large screen, but the film is worth seeing on a small screen if that's your only option.

This movie has an extremely high IMDb rating of 8.0, with over 200 raters. That's amazingly high for a foreign film about gay men. I consider this a must-see film if you're interested in the music or in a relationship that grows between two very different men. I highly recommend it.

The heart of this story is the cai-luong theatrical style which is a Vietnamese style of folk opera very similar to Chinese opera in the 12 tone scale. The singer/actors have gone to great lengths to provide a perfect as possible recreation of the sound and story of the opera. The surrounding story is also operatic in nature, with two young men who have similar backgrounds but have taken different paths meeting and getting to know each other through coincidental meetings with each helping the other in some fashion. Linh, the singer, believes in time travel which is the core of the surrounding story as each character revisits particular moments in the path that shaped their future direction.

There are many things to love about this movie: the believably written and acted dialogues that come out of both the main and supporting cast, the wonderful Cai Luong performances that portray the characters' unspoken yearnings, and the immaculate set design that pays attention to the smallest thing to make this world feel lived-in.

"Song Lang" takes inspiration from some of Wong Kar-Wai's works in its tonality, but everything else feels authentic and carefully crafted as a Vietnamese story, both in its world of retro Saigon and its people. While i personally feel that the movie holds itself together better in the first half, overall it is an intimate piece of cinema that would delight a chance-watcher with its earnest filmmaking.

I give a lot of harsh critism toward Vietnamese movies since the day I decided to watch more movie produce from my country in order to find the same on the edge of the seat feeling that I got from other film industry in the West and the East until Furie ( 2019) and just now Song Lang (2018) make my heart burst into tears for how much well shot, well directed, well acting and most importanly how much emotionally invested I am with the characters. I don't normally seek out movies that touch on the LGBT subject because it's not my cup of tea when I'm more of a a action, horror person myself but in the case with Song Lang it not only a beautifully make movie with great cinematography and nailed the retro scenery of Vietnam down to a T but it also a heartfell drama story about two guy each from opposite site settle down their differences and learn how to love themselves more. It such a damn shame that right now only Vietnamese people can see this movie because there no overseas release for Song Lang at all and I would love to see it got the attention it deserves in the future

This is the Vietnamese excellent movie, mentioned about the traditional performance (cai luong) and the moment of boys love

The film is permeated by the vibes of cai-luong (reformed theater), a kind of traditional Southern Vietnamese folk opera. Here features a young guy who appears quite violent in action, quite muscular and rugged in build, and quite terse and monotonous in words. There features another young guy who appears meek and slim and naive and nice. They have the same childhood studded with memories of cai-luong troupes and activities. Yet as courses of their lives roll on, one strolls toward his fulfillment, and one along his perilous path and keeps that until the very end. Of course, on their ways, they have a brief pause to have a chance encounter followed by another chance one, extended by some spell of a prolonged conversation around art, life and even time travel. That's where the promising opening of the film is faded into hackneyed verbal patterns typical of ordinary situations in Vietnam. It's quite clichéd yet real.

Above all, I find the film most charming in its decent presentation of Southern Vietnamese ambience, mostly vividly expressed via minor characters, which feels so dear to me, who is also a native Southern. And it's the only big plus in my view of this film. Perhaps some people would mention its shots of beauty or exquisiteness or splendor, you name it, as an unignorable outstanding aspect, for good reason of their own. That is so exaggerated and not the case in my mind, as they are nothing more than some kind of mimicked and framed creation rather than revealing or creative one. I do find them beautiful, and only deem them as the spice of the film just as a variety of people portrayed here of life. After all, setting aside some over-romantic or over-hinted scenes and some faux coincidences, I'm left with a film of moderate caliber with few nonsensical happenings and verbalization which are usually a trademark for Vietnamese films.

This movie moves me so so much. The camera work is execellent, beautiful shots. The acting of both the lead and supporting actors is great. The retro theme of Vietnam is poitrated to detailed levels, even the gift warp... I saw some commenting about this not being a real boy-boy relationship just a friendship. That is so wrong. The realtionship is so sutle, sophiticatedly pictured and that is a beauty of it. Gay love should not be all about hot scences... I wish there were more Vietnamese films this good. I am sure there will be but can someone speed it up.

"Song Lang" stands as a shining example amidst the often tumultuous landscape of Vietnamese cinema. It distinguishes itself with a compelling storyline that gracefully navigates character development, a rarity in a country where such nuance is often overlooked. In stark contrast to the discomfort one might find in many Vietnamese films, "Song Lang" manages to evoke a sense of ease and authenticity that is a breath of fresh air.

The film's careful inclusion of traditional Vietnamese performances and folksongs is a testament to the filmmakers' dedication to preserving cultural heritage. These elements are not mere adornments but are seamlessly woven into the narrative, contributing to the film's beauty and emotional resonance.

In a cinematic landscape that sometimes leans towards the formulaic and superficial, "Song Lang" stands out as a true gem. It defies the trend of mediocrity that plagues the Vietnamese movie industry, offering a rare and invaluable experience for those who appreciate well-crafted storytelling and the rich tapestry of Vietnamese culture. This film is a testament to the potential for excellence in Vietnamese cinema when passion, talent, and a commitment to cultural authenticity converge.

Good plot, dramatic, moving, great threater music, subtle to display LGBT love, cinographic.

I'm from Vietnam, so i can clearly understand what happend in the film, i can said that the director doing such a great job in filming this film, it beautiful, but on the other side the scrip is so boring and lack of emotion. I can't event call this is a gay film cause the relationship between two main character is more like friends. This film is about our traditional called "cai luong" but actually i don't like it in this film cause it so long...

I love this film because of its colour and story :)

Spoiler ahead: I found this hidden away on Tubi, and as I enjoy foreign language films, and noted that it was about an Asian opera company, I gave it a viewing. There are very, very few films where I reach the end and go right back to the beginning and watch again, but this is one. Although the main storyline and the Saigon setting are fascinating, the best part for me was the lengthy cai-luong opera scenes. Cai-luong is a VietNamese opera form similar to Peking Opera, but less traditionally rigid, similar to light opera compared with grand opera. The characterizations of everyone in the film was beautiful, and there was one sweet scene where the hardened debt collector met two little girls while waiting for their parents to come home with the money they owed. We saw the thug softening while entertaining the little girls. The gay romance was so subtle that it went right over my head, and I was not totally convinced it was anything more than the beginning of a friendship between youths who had more in common than they realised, and who were being changed by it, until I watched it again and realized that it wasn't obvious, but they had fallen for each other at first sight, and there were several clues in the subsequent dialog. SPOILER AHEAD: There was one scene which puzzled me, where young Dung was holding an immigration form, and Auntie Nga told him he was alone now, and asked how was he going to live, then asked what he wanted her to tell his mother, This suggested that his father had died, but that his mother was still alive. Youtube has several deleted scenes which show Dung's mother, who had remarried and moved to the US, coming back to visit but missing Dung. As he was working for Auntie Nga at that time, why did she not tell him his mother was visiting? Another deleted scene showed Auntie Nga speaking to Dung's mother and telling her that she had been forwarding the money to Dung and his father, but they had had a difficult time when the father became sick and had lost their home. Did Auntie Nga keep them from meeting as she had been keeping the money? Had Dung's mother tried to get him to the US but Auntie Nga told Dung the immigration had failed so he wouldn't find out about the money? I watched those scenes in the film several times but it still isn't clear to me.

However, I was not prepared for the sad ending, which on reflection, was inevitable.