Gentle

In the opening scene of Gentle, a woman falls to her death; what follows is the attempt of a husband to understand how things could get this far. Jumping backwards and forwards between present, memory and imagination, the husband reconstructs the story of their fateful marriage. He thinks back to the day when a fragile girl stepped into his pawnshop to pawn her humble possessions and reminds himself how he was determined to save the poor orphan child.
‘A Fantastic Story’ is the subtitle of Fyodor Dostoyevksy’s short story A Gentle Creature, on which Gentle is based. The subjective narrative of the pawnbroker occasionally acquires the tension of a psychological thriller in this contemporary adaptation by Le-Van Kiet. Close-ups of the angelic face of Linh contrast sharply with the coldness that surrounds the pawnbroker Thien. His poisonous brew of reality and wishful thinking is commanded and served up precisely and aptly by Le-Van.

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