23rd New York Asian Film Festival

July 12-28, 2024

Photo: Courtesy of Focus Features

Special Screening

Three Seasons

Three Seasons is a film that refuses to be forgotten, no matter how many pixelated YouTube links or glitchy pirate DVDs try to consign it to oblivion. A gem shot on the country's soil (and the first of its kind) just as the US decided to play nice, Tony Bui's debut feature is a love letter to rain-soaked Saigon, a city caught in the whirlwind of change. The story weaves together four lives: a cyclo driver (Đơn Dương) who finds a kindred spirit in a world-weary prostitute (Zoe Bui); a street kid (Nguyễn Hữu Được) who befriends US G.I. James (Harvey Keitel); and a young vendor (Ngọc Hiệp) who seeks beauty in the fleeting perfection of lotus flowers. It's a tale that's at once gritty and poetic, the snapshot of a place where the old and the new collide in a dance of beauty and despair. Three Seasons' long-overdue return to the festival circuit isn't just a tech upgrade—it's a rescue mission for a film that deserves to be seen in all its poetic glory.

Director: Tony Bui
Cast: Don Duong, Zoe Bui, Tran Manh Cuong, Nguyen Huu Duoc, Harvey Keitel, Ngoc Hiep
Languages: English, Vietnamese with English subtitles
1999; 113 min.

SCHEDULE:

Sunday July 21, 8:30pm
Film at Lincoln Center

Intro and Q&A with director Tony Bui

Tony Bui

Tony Bui is a writer, director and producer. His films include Yellow Lotus, Three Seasons, Green Dragon and The Throwaways. His feature debut, Three Seasons, received the Grand Jury Prize, Audience Award and Best Cinematography Award at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and two Independent Spirit Awards nominations. He is a recipient of the 2002 Humanitas Prize. He has written and developed projects for NBC, Warner Bros and HBO, and is currently developing a narrative feature film about Nick Ut's Pulitzer Prize winning “Napalm Girl” photo.