Tazeen Akhtar
The Embassy of Viet Nam in Islamabad screened international award winning movie ” Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass ” – Original title: Tôi thay hoa vàng trên co xanh at Cinepex of Centaurus Mall Islamabad on the occasion of Francophonie week 2025 that attracted big number of Pakistani audiance and recieved huge applause from the viewers.
Set in the countryside village of Vietnam, Yellow Flowers on the Green grass is a touching tale of innocent love, friendships and brotherhood.The movie was directed by Victor Vu, written by Nguyen Nhat AnhDoan Nhat NamLinh Viet. Stars are Thinh VinhKhang TrongLam Thanh My who played their respective roles like natural and real life.
The theme of the movie was adapted from the novel of the same name by Nguyễn Nhật Ánh.It was premiered in Cannes Film Festival 2015 and released in theaters on 2 October 2015. It was selected as the Vietnamese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards but it was not nominated. On December 5 during the 19th Vietnam Film Festival, the movie was awarded the golden lotus (the most-honored award given to a Vietnamese movie.
This is a movie portraying love and affection about a hometown, a family and teenage hood of each. Tường is an innocent and lovely boy while his brother Thiều is selfish and stubborn. Aside from brotherhood filled with love, hate, envy, regret and atonement,…this is also about friendship, childhood memory of children living in poverty in Middle Region of Vietnam during 80s. There are fights; interesting kids’ games; dreams filled with the images of prince and princess, and their first crush…
The story is demonstrated from a diary of Thiều evolving his daily life and thoughts. Thiều is a seventh grader who lives in a poor countryside with his younger brother named Tường. Tường is a lovely, generous and nice boy who loves his brother a lot; he especially loves playing with animals including bugs even. He is an introvert and loves reading many books and folk tales, especially the story of Cóc Tía (Purple Toad), therefore he pets a toad under his bed and names it “Cu Cậu”.
On the other hand, Thiều is a mischievous, extroverted boy who has been unintentionally letting Tường take all the blame for his tricks. Although being selfish on the outside, deep down Thiều still loves his brother. The brothers often hang around playing many traditional games for kids and make many memories out of it.
The story also broadens the relationship between the brothers and people in their village, including their classmates and families. Their father is described as a gentleman who is appreciated by many, yet he has a short temper and often beat the two brothers for some reasons, while their mother is a nice woman, but she scolds them for their mistakes regardless.
Đàn is the younger brother of Thiều’s father who is handicapped yet still positive and often spares his time to tell some spooky stories for two brothers. His only sorrow must be his ill-fated love caused by losing one of his arms.
Đàn loves Vinh, a girl who is the daughter of Thiều’s scary teacher and also lives in the same village. One of Thiều’s classmates is Sơn, who is 3 years older but still in the same class with Thiều due to his bad grades. Sơn is a muscular boy who is extremely naughty with much misbehavior.
Later, Thiều comes to realize his crush for his classmate Mận. Mận is cute and innocent, but she doesn’t study well enough because she has to take care of her sick father, who is locked inside a shack by her mother. Only Thiều and Tường know this secret as both have to fight against Sơn to protect Mận from evil plans.
The shack Mận’s father is locked inside catches fire; her mother is arrested for capturing her husband who is assumed to have died during the fire as bones are discovered in the ash. Mận is shocked and completely devastated; Thiều’s family decide to help her by telling her that she can live with them. Mận is aware of the fact that her father is still alive and her mother will be released soon.
However, the friendship between Mận and Tường gradually makes Thiều jealous. He doesn’t care enough to stop his brother’s toad from being taken and killed for its meat.
The incident haunts Thiều as he watches Tường mourn over the toad not knowing his big brother is partially responsible. The flood arrives and the village is drowned, once it withdraws, the village is left with poverty and a lack of crop.
Thiều, Tường and Mận discover that Uncle Đàn and Vinh have already planned for an escape from their family. At the same time, Thiều’s selfishness is getting bigger, which makes him hit Tường with a big stick of wood, leaving Tường paralyzed. Thiều feels even more regretful as Tường tells him that he is the one whom Mận would like to hang out with.
