Blog 2 CA

The movie " The scent of Green Papaya" takes the audience onto a journey of a Vietnamese girl called Miu. However, it soon becomes clear that we, as the audience, are not only on a journey of Miu's life, but also a journey through Vietnamese culture and lifestyle. I therefore believe that this movie is a great introduction to the course, due to the fact that we get background information of a culture and of people who we will start evaluating very soon.
The main concept that has been discussed in this movie is the culture and lifestyle in Vietnam. The creators of the movie have given special care to evaluate Vietnamese culture. Music, communication, family structure, nature, food and even the preparation of the dishes are carefully discussed and presented to the audience. We can simply detect that the movie will have a cultural aspect to it by the first scene where we are shown a frame where father and son play instruments together. We realize that music is not just a tool for entertainment but also a tool for communication and bonding in Vietnamese culture. We see similar bonding between individuals through the use of the piano as the movie progresses. The importance of music in the vietnamese culture is also underlined by the fact that the grandmother always has some kind of musical tool by her side.
The depth of variety in the Vietnamese cuisine, and the vast difference between western eating habits and eastern consumption habits are clearly shown by the movie. The audience is shown how precious food is to the Vietnamese by the vast effort that is put into the preparation and by the scene where the children find ways to consume the food they have, altough they are not very happy about it.
We can see that nature, and especially animals have a big role in Vietnamese daily life. Although very small creatures: many insects and reptiles are represented in themovie: yet again showing the harmony between animals and the humans surrounding them.
The Vietnamese social class is another subject that has been described in this movie. The importance of family structure is shown by therespect given to elders. This isclearly highlighted by the communication between the mother and grandmother. The most interesting concept however is the transformation of a second class working girl, into a beatiful lady that becomes educated and climb up in the social class.
All of these subjects are discussed in the movie " The Scent of Green Papaya" and give us a very general but firm background on Vietnamese culture and lifestyle.