When the Tenth Month Comes (1984)

Set right after the end of the war, the film follows Duyen, a young mother who has just received the news of her husband's death a year prior. Devastated, she cannot bring herself to tell her young son or father-in-law so instead asks the local schoolteacher and poet Khang to write letters pretending to be her dead husband. But it is not long before the two are enveloped in a romance that can only end tragically. Director Dang Nhat Minh shot the film in the style of a mid-century melodrama, replete with luminous black and white photography, a crackling soundtrack, shaky tracking shots, and the old-school aspect ratio. But these techniques are more than just a gimmick, they lend the film a timeless, magical feeling. This is an emotionally joyous and heart-wrenching film. It is shot with an emotional honesty and passion that is hard to find. And Minh is a man who clearly loves the cinema. This film bursts with cinematic energy, there are moments that just gave me goose-pimples all over. An absolutely lovely, yet sadly underrated and underseen masterpiece.