'Owl & The Sparrow'
(Cat Ly, The Lu Le, et al / DVD / PG / (2007) 2010 / Image Entertainment)
Overview: On the bustling streets of Saigon, three very different people all seeking connection are about to collide. A beautiful flight attendant looking for love. A zookeeper hiding within his animal kingdom to nurse a broken heart. And the young flower-selling runaway who brings them together. But to avoid the authorities and a strict uncle tracking her down, she will need all of her cleverness and determination if she is going to grab any chance at lasting happiness.
DVD: 'The Owl and the Sparrow' centers around a 10 year-old girl, Thuy (played incredibly by Pham Thi Han), who is mostly confined to working in her uncle's bamboo factory - located in a small Vietnamese village. This changes when she runs away to Saigon. They must come to grips with the challenges of daily survival and becomes part of an interconnected relationship with beautiful flight attendant Lan (Cat Ly) and lonely zookeeper Han (Le The Lu).
To avoid the authorities and her strict uncle tracking her down, Thuy must summon all her cleverness and determination in her attempt at lasting happiness.
The film is somewhat predictable but is remarkable in its feeling of hope. Young Han is immediately endearing. Though she elicits sympathy, we admire her independence and ability to survive day to day in the crowded streets of Saigon. The film starts to feel contrived when the two characters Thuy meets merge so neatly.
Though we get a sense of Thuy's less-than-ideal existence, director Stephane Gauger downplays harsher elements of life on the streets in favor of a more romanticized perspective. [MM] This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.77:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:
In Vietnamese with English Subtitles
Director's Audio Commentary
Behind-The-Scenes Featurette
Deleted Scenes.
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