The Owl & The Sparrow (2007/Image DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B- Film: B-
We see so
many films arrive with awards attached to them that it is often more of a sign
of something safe everyone wanted to embrace than a really good film and
story. Director Stephane Gauger (who did
his own camerawork) can include his drama The
Owl & The Sparrow (2007) in this tale of four live sin Saigon and the other lives around them. It is a film that rarely even hints at the U.S.
involvement in the region as it is busy telling a later, new story.
A young
girl sells items she can on the streets, in part to get away from her strict,
cold uncle, who runs away. She becomes
instrumental in bringing together a zookeeper who has retreated to isolationism
in his work and a young woman who works as a stewardess. This runs a fine 98 minutes and Gauger wrote
his own screenplay. I was surprised
despite some minor predictability, how much depth and realism (not necessarily
violence or anything like that) this smart film offers. A pleasant surprise, it is worth going out of
your way for if it sounds like your kind of story. Cat Ly, The Lu Le and Han Thi Pham star.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image has some motion blur and color limits, so it is likely
an HD shoot, though if it is film, someone messed up the digital
internegative. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix
is not thin, but does stretch out what is not a multi-channel recording and is
dialogue-based to boot, though someone breaking out in singing a classic 1970s
hit by Lobo does not hurt. The actual
recording is not bad. Extras include
stills, original theatrical trailer, 2 Deleted Scenes, a Behind-The-Scenes
featurette and director’s audio commentary track.
- Nicholas Sheffo
