Adrift (Vietnamese: Chơi vơi) is a 2009 Vietnamese film directed by Bui Thac Chuyen and stars Đỗ Thị Hải Yến, Linh Dan Pham, Johnny Tri Nguyen and Nguyen Duy Khoa. Hai Yen plays Duyen, a young tourist guide who marries Hai (Duy Khoa), a taxi driver, but her friend and writer Cam (Linh Dan) still has feelings for her. The film deals with issues in modern Vietnam such as homosexuality and loneliness of the young generation. The film is a co-production between Feature Film Studio n°1 (Vietnam) and Acrobates Films (France).
Adrift was selected to participate in the Venice Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and Bangkok International Film Festival. At the 66th Venice International Film Festival, FIPRESCI awarded Adrift with its prize for young directors and cinemas. At the Cines del Sur Festival 2010, the film won the NETPAC award. The film earned three nominations at the 4th Asian Film Awards, including Best Screenwriter, Best Cinematographer, Best Composer.
Contents
Plot
Set in modern Hanoi, Adrift begins with the wedding of Duyen and Hai. Duyen is a beautiful tourist guide and translator who marries Hai, a taxi driver who is two years her junior. Duyen thinks the marriage will make her happy but it turns out more difficult, especially since her childlike husband is uninterested in her efforts of intimacy and the marriage remains unconsummated. Cam, secretly in love with Duyen, is bitter about the marriage. Cam has Duyen deliver a letter to Tho, a handsome lothario and tourist guide who physically hurls himself on Duyen when she visits his home to deliver the letter. After Tho reports back to Cam that Duyen is sexually inexperienced, Cam diabolically persuades Duyen to take a temporary job as a translator on one of Tho's beach tours, knowing what will happen. Duyen's time at the beach with Tho results in an affair leading to Duyen's sexual awakening but continued uncertainty about herself, marriage, and life.
Cast
Do Thi Hai Yen as Duyen (Duyên)
Linh Dan Pham as Cam (Cầm)
Johnny Tri Nguyen as Tho (Thổ)
Nguyen Duy Khoa as Hai (Hải)
Như Quỳnh as Van (Vân), Hai's mother
Bui Bai Binh as Dung (Dũng)
Linh Dung as Vi (Vi)
Production
The movie's screenwriter, Phan Dang Di, is known for writing various works surrounding the topic of agriculture in Vietnam during the country's transitional and integrational period. In 2001, Bui Thac Chuyen received the script for the movie. Throughout production, the two revised the script multiple times. Before being named Adrift, the movie had many alternative titles. Examples include No Matter How Far, You Will Comeback (Đi mãi rồi cũng quay về), The End is The Sea (Tận cùng là biển), and Stuck (Mắc kẹt). Despite repeated denial from the producers, Adrift is generally categorised as a film covering homosexual topics. Because of its contents, the film went through multiple rounds of review in a span of 7 years before receiving approval. The movie is the first ever Vietnamese movie to feature lesbian themes.
Producer Dang Tat Binh shared that the movie required a budget of 7 billion Vietnamese dong ($265,860 in 2026). However, the government could only sponsor 1.6 billion Vietnamese dong ($60,768 in 2026), forcing the crew to find alternative sources of funding. The Hubert Bals Fund from the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Fonds Sud Cinéma Fund from France contributed a total of €130 thousand.
Release
In September 2009, the film was premiered at the 66th Venice International Film Festival. Afterwards, the film was also screened at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, Bangkok International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur, Busan International Film Festival, and BFI London Film Festival. In November of the same year, the movie was released in Vietnamese theatres.
In the following year, Adrift continued to be screened at various film festivals. These include the Jerusalem International Film Festival and the Melbourne International Film Festival.
In March 2010, Adrift was selected by the Global Film Initiative to be screened at the Letelier Theatre in Washington, D.C. Starting from January of the same year, the film embarked on a year-long tour in the US and Canada. In April, the film was a nominee at the 17th Titanic International Film Festival in Budapest, Hungary.
In February 2011, the film premiered in French theatres under the title Vertiges.
Critical reception
United States of America
Stephen Holden of The New York Times commented "'Adrift' ('Choi Voi') ... is a subtle, melancholy exploration of erotic angst and uncomfortable awakening."
France
The movie received generally positive reviews from critics in the country. Eric Loret of Libération applauded the director's choice of filming in a continuous sequence, giving the film a natural feel and grabbing the audience's attention. It is also noted that since the film is from a women's perspective, the men of the film is reduced to mere "objects". Jean Luc Douin of Le Monde mentioned the usage of water in the movie as "omnipresent, a symbol of sexuality". Adrien Gombeaud of Les Echos stated "[Adrift] has everything one would expect from an "Asian film", at least since Wong Kar-wai: aesthetic refinement, latent sensuality and testimony to the mores of a society."
Vietnam
Ngo Phuong Lan of Tuổi Trẻ assessed that the "novelty" and "oddity" of the film led to its success.The novelty lies in the filmmaker's ability to depict an ordinary life that flows naturally. This appearance of effortlessness, however, was the result of meticulous and logical planning. Although the cast is small, the film was still able to portray a diverse range of lives in an urbanising city, of a developing country.
The oddity lies in the fact that the director was able to achieve two things. First, visualise the characters' emotions and moods. Second, simultaneously push those emotions and moods into an enigmatic shape.