There’s a scene that plays out in the pitch-black darkness of the night in the Vietnamese debut filmmaker Pham Thien An’s Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell. We can see nothing, just hear the protagonist Thien (Le Phong Vu) coaxing his young nephew Dao (Nguyen Thịnh) to fall asleep, only to get questioned about faith. What is it? The child is curious because the recent memorial for his dead mother had the priest talking about her strong faith. Faith doesn’t have a form, Thien tells the baffled Dao and then gives a simple, basic explanation by way of two questions. Do you ever give your toys to your friends? Are you sure they will return them to you? “Faith is a little bit like that,” he adds. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell is all about many such existential affairs and the essential purpose of life.
When his sister-in-law dies in a motorcycle accident, Thien must take over as the guardian of Dao whose father—Thien’s brother Tam—had disappeared mysteriously years ago. He undertakes a journey in search of his estranged sibling. As he meets people—old friends and lovers and new acquaintances—and traverses across Vietnam, the physical quest also becomes all about the spiritual wanderings within. The past intermingles with the present, assorted memories take over his mind to make Thien gauge and weigh in on what he has gained and lost on the way to this specific juncture in life. In trying to find his brother, he gets to confront his own vital self.
The film is founded on Catholic theology that its characters believe in and follow but the essential search for meaning in life is a universal driving force across all religions. In fact, for me, Thien’s human pursuit seems to parallel Siddhartha’s divine path to Enlightenment—through encountering pain, suffering, sickness, death and loss—in becoming the Buddha.
The film is structured around seemingly simple but profound conversations between people. Thien’s humorous wordplay with a masseuse on God and death. A church service talking of death as eternal happiness for being able to be one with God.
A Vietnam War veteran who has found a new direction in life by making shrouds for the dead. A former girlfriend who chose to join the convent and teach children. And the many chats with the nephew who misses his mom and wants the uncle to take him to heaven to meet her.
The sprawling, 3-hour film is in no hurry to reach anywhere. It ambles along gently. Like life itself. No high drama, no needless propulsion. Thien An tries to stay close to the rhythm of life with one long take leading to the next, punctuated with an equally interminable pause. It’s the sound of daily life, and silences, that populate the frames, save one short, reiterated piece of the strumming of the guitar that interjects every now and then.
Thien An doesn’t just play with time but with spaces as well, from the chaotic streets of Saigon, the small, confined homes to the vastness of mountains and the countryside and mist rolling over the hills. It’s about revealing the puny speck of life that a human being is when juxtaposed against the magnificence of nature. The camera often starts off static, becomes a distant observer as the characters talk, and pans leisurely to capture another moment. Thien An attempts to represent Thien’s restless mind and inner transformation on screen through his unique imagery and complex narrative.
Premiering in the parallel Directors’ Fortnight sidebar, Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell won the Camera d’Or for the best first feature film at the Cannes Film Festival in May this year. Having travelled the world—from Busan to Toronto and San Sebastian—its most recent halt was the Singapore International Film Festival where it won the best film award in the Asian Feature category.
Despite all the laurels won, it’s also easy to see that Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell is not a film for everyone. Certainly not for most of us trapped in our impenetrable cocoon shells of desires, ambitions, and egos. A demanding meditation on human existence and mortality, it’s a film that is as much about what it has to offer, as about what we bring to it on our own as viewers. A film that is as challenging as life itself.
Cinema Without Borders
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Film: Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
