The Third Wife

The Third Wife (Vietnamese: Vợ ba) is a 2018 Vietnamese costume drama film written and directed by Ash Mayfair, in her feature debut. Set in the 19th century, it follows a 14-year-old girl who becomes the third wife to a landowner in rural northern Vietnam.

The Third Wife
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAsh Mayfair
Produced by
  • Trần Thị Bích Ngọc
  • Ash Mayfair
Written byAsh Mayfair
Starring
  • Trần Nữ Yên Khê
  • Nguyễn Phương Trà My
  • Mai Thu Hường
  • Lê Vũ Long
  • Nguyễn Như Quỳnh
Music byTôn Thất An
CinematographyChananun Chotrungroj
Edited byJulie Béziau
Production
company
  • Mayfair Pictures
  • An Nam Productions
  • Three Colors Productions
Release date
  • 7 September 2018 (2018-09-07) (TIFF)
  • 17 May 2019 (2019-05-17) (Vietnam)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryVietnam
LanguageVietnamese
Budget28 billion đồng[1]

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2018, where it won the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) Award.[2] It also won the TVE-Another Look Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival[3] and the Gold Hugo for New Directors at the Chicago International Film Festival in October 2018.[4]

The film was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Someone to Watch Award at the 35th Independent Spirit Awards.[5]

Plot

14-year-old May is married off as the third wife to an older landowner of a rural village where silk is harvested. She soon finds that, having given birth to a son, the first wife exerts greater influence in the family than the second, who has only had three daughters, and that the only way to gain security and independence is to give birth to a male child.

May conceives a child, and discovers that Xuan, the second wife, is having an affair with the landowner's son, and that the first wife is also pregnant. May is also attracted to Xuan and confesses her feelings to her, who rejects May's advances. Having discovered the affair, the landowner arranges a marriage between his son and a girl, who is even younger than May. Rejected by her new husband, who is still attached to Xuan, the girl commits suicide.

The first wife has a miscarriage. May gives birth to a girl, and contemplates poisoning her. The film ends with one of Xuan's daughters, who had once expressed desire to become a man and have many wives, cutting her hair with a pair of scissors.

Cast
  • Trần Nữ Yên Khê as Hà
  • Mai Thu Hường as Xuân
  • Nguyễn Phương Trà My as Mây
  • Nguyễn Như Quỳnh as Lao
  • Lê Vũ Long as Hùng
  • Nguyễn Thành Tâm as Son
  • Lâm Thanh Mỹ as Liên
  • Mai Cát Vi as Nhàn
  • Nguyễn Hồng Chương as Cụ Bá
  • Bùi Trung Anh as Tuyết's father

Production

The film was financed in part by the Spike Lee Production Fund of the Tisch School of the Arts, which its screenplay had won in 2014.[6] More than 900 girls were auditioned for the lead role.[6] Tran Anh Hung provided artistic consultancy.[7]

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2018, where it won the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) Award.[2] In October 2018, it also screened at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, where it won the TVE-Another Look Award,[3] and at the Chicago International Film Festival in the New Directors Film Competition section, of which it won the Gold Hugo, the top prize.[4]

In Vietnam, the film was released on 17 May 2019, only to be pulled four days later, after drawing criticism for allowing the lead actress Trà My, who was 13 at the time of shooting, to act in sex scenes. The scenes were filmed with only female crew and My's mother present on set. My also said she was protected during the filming.[8] On 20 May, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism ordered the Cinema Department to review the licensing of the film.[9] On 21 May, producers pulled the film from cinemas, citing concerns over online abuse that had been directed at My and her family.[10][11] On 24 May, the filmmakers were fined 50 million đồng for releasing an unapproved version despite censors' request to make three cuts to the film.[12][13] Mayfair described the criticism as "a silencing tactic". Regarding the decision to screen the film in Vietnam, she said, "We had to try, even though we knew we could be attacked by a lot of conservative viewpoints. This is a part of our history that is very dark and this kind of history is perpetuating itself in Vietnamese society still. There are so many artists, and specifically female artists, who don't think they can speak out. So I feel that I have done my part."[13]

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 90%, based on 39 reviews, and an average rating of 7.11/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Third Wife uses one woman's experiences as the framework for a reserved period drama whose haunting beauty belies its devastating impact."[14] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[15]

gollark: Top bit is author.
gollark: ```"You mean that a program designed to let an unprivileged usermount/unmount/eject anything he wants has a security flaw because it allowshim to mount/unmount/eject anything he wants? I'm shocked."Unfortunately, sarcasm does not make you right. Yes, this is a critical security flaw, because anyone with calibre installed on their system now allows any user to gain root privileges by mounting on top of important directories. Just because your application allows this by design rather than by mistake doesn't make this less of a problem.```
gollark: Er, has.
gollark: Didn't it make its own SUID disk mounting thing which had several major bugs?
gollark: Yes, that.

References
  1. Nguyen, An (9 May 2019). "Film The Third Wife set for theatrical release in US". VnExpress International. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  2. ""The Third Wife" wins Toronto International Film Festival award". Vietnam Plus. 18 September 2018. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  3. ""The Third Wife" grabs second international award". Vietnam Plus. 2 October 2018. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  4. Stamets, Bill (19 October 2018). "'Happy as Lazzaro,' from Europe, wins top Chicago Film Festival award". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  5. D'Alessandro, Anthony (21 November 2019). "Spirit Award Nominations: A24 Leads For 4th Straight Year With 18 Noms As 'Uncut Gems' & 'The Lighthouse' Come Up Big". Deadline. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  6. Majumdar, Antora (6 September 2018). "TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Ash Mayfair — "The Third Wife"". Women and Hollywood. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  7. Le, Nguyen (29 May 2019). "With 'The Third Wife,' Vietnamese director Ash Mayfair turns family history into a #MeToo story". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  8. Nguyen, An; Hai, Ho (24 May 2019). "Controversy around The Third Wife's use of child actress in sex scenes deepens". VnExpress International. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  9. Nguyen, An (21 May 2019). "Acclaimed film faces probe amid underage heroine scandal". VnExpress International. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  10. Nguyen, An (22 May 2019). "Screening of The Third Wife suspended in Vietnam". VnExpress International. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  11. Scott, Matthew (22 May 2019). "Award-Winning Vietnamese Film Pulled From Local Release Over Intimate Scenes Involving Teenage Actress". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  12. Nguyen, An (26 May 2019). "The Third Wife fined for releasing 'unapproved' version in Vietnam cinemas". VnExpress International. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  13. Scott, Matthew (31 May 2019). "Vietnamese Director Defends Award-Winning Film After Controversy Over Intimate Scenes Involving Teen Star". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  14. "The Third Wife". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  15. "The Third Wife". Metacritic. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
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