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Adrift (Choi Voi)

Summertime in Hanoi is sticky and languid. There’s a quivering sense of expectation in the air, and movement seems to slow down to a deliberate pace. ADRIFT in this delicately beautiful city are a handful of young people with unfulfilled longings. Duyen and Hai are newlyweds. Hai, a baby-faced taxi driver who’s coddled by his mama, is sexually unsophisticated; his radiant bride Duyen is happy to simply float along, not expecting much from her husband or herself. Her best girlfriend Cam, a brooding novelist who harbors a secret longing for Duyen, has become physically ill at the thought of her beloved’s marriage. Cam introduces Duyen to Tho, a rough, sensual, handsome man who begins to awaken a desire in Duyen she never knew existed. Duyen agrees to travel to the beach with Tho; and while she’s gone, Hai befriends a local girl with longings of her own. These new relationships unfold like lotus flowers, each laying bare new emotions. ADRIFT is as quiet and introspective as a still-life painting until the heavens break open, releasing the welcome rains of the typhoon season and offering the characters new perspectives on life. (In Vietnamese with subtitles) – B.B.