When the tenth month comes (a.k.a The love doesn’t come back, Vietnamese title: Bao giờ cho đến tháng Mười) is probably one of the most remarkable films in Vietnam after American war. It was made in 1984 and was directed by Dang Nhat Minh. Le Van, who used to be Dang’s muse, starred in this film as well as in his other one over ten year later.
It is set in a village in North Vietnam in the years after the reunification of Vietnam where the traditional values still influence people. It is about a rural woman, Duyen, whose husband joined the army a few years ago but his family haven’t received his news since war ended. Finally, Duyen knows that her husband died already but no other one knows this awful truth except a village’s teacher who loves her secretly. She decides to keep the bad news in secret by herself to avoid shocking her ill father-in-law and little son who is desperately waiting for him. She asks the teacher to write some fake letters of her husband and send to her family. This activity helps her father-in-law get well but brings to her many misunderstandings from the conservative community. The teacher writes to her a poem and it makes trouble so that he has to go away from the village. The son, who still thinks his father is still alive, leaves home to find him. On the way, he meets a captain and asks him if the man knows his father. The captain leads the boy back home and then meets his grandfather, who is getting sick again. In his nearly unconscious state, he thinks the captain is his son.
Although the film is black and white, it still portrays many poetic and colorful scenes of Vietnam, which introduces a human and sensitive face of a country which has much loss not only in life, but also in spirit.
Recently, both Dang Nhat Minh and Le Van has published their memoir/autobiography in which said little about this movie and the cooperation between them. According to them, the second film that Dang invited Le Van to star in was not good as their expecting. Nostalgia for countryside [Thương nhớ đồng quê, 1995, based on a well-known story of writer Nguyễn Huy Thiệp] was still a success, but the last one by Dang Nhat Minh which Le Van starred. After that movie, Le Van appeared in another one - The Promise [Lời thề, 1996] - and it was also her last movie. She has never back to silver screen since then. In 2006, her autobiography (Lê Vân: Yêu và Sống [Le Van: Loving and Living, Le Van and Bui Mai Hanh]) became the best-seller book in Vietnam and created a large debate in Vietnamese media. Till now, she is still regarded as one of the most famous movie actresses in Vietnam. Other movies which she plays you should see: Chị Dậu [Mrs. Dau, 1981], Đêm hội Long Trì [Festival night at Long Tri palace, 1990], Kiếp phù du [Evanescent life, 1991].
You can buy English-subtitled DVDs in store. You also can see some parts of Bao giờ cho đến tháng Mười in You Tube with English subtitle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hNLC_FIapA.
