Film Journal 2024: Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell
Directed by Bên trong vỏ kén vàng
Features one of the most engrossing and powerful opening shots I’ve seen in a long while. A single take shot that establishes the films thematic interest in a profoundly visual and visceral way.
This debut (and yes the fact that this is a debut is astonishing) will challenge even the most patient of viewers- this is slow cinema with a richly drawn contemplative edge- but for those willing to invest it offers a transformative experience that explores the edges of some of life’s biggest questions.
A crucial aspect of that opening shot establishes a studied contrast in sensibilities. We meet three individuals, one who is a devout believer, the other a skeptic and an atheist, and the third an agnostic who states a desire to believe in the face of very real ambiguities.
It is this middle ground that frames the journey, following this third individual as his world is unsettled by sudden tragedies. He seeks the mystery that the films controlled approach, filled with roaming long takes and quiet detail, keeps present but hidden at the same time. If nothing else, what the film reaches to uncover is an inner longing, that desire to believe, suggesting that such a truth is compelling in it’s own right, even if we aren’t able to fully grasp the thing we long for. It is, nevertheless, the thing that keeps us seeking, the thing that continues to push and pull us forward amidst the ambiguities, or perhaps into the ambiguities.
And if the films title has power, it is precisely because these are the spaces where we are able to be formed and transformed by the unseen realities that run underneath. The spaces where the hidden begins to become visible, where once our eyes glanced over the spaces and details around us, fresh details and awareness begin to emerge. The essence of a spiritual awakening, one not built on certainty but on a willingness to seek.
The Stories of my Life 