The Scent of Green Papaya

Set in Saigon in the early 1950s, The Scent of Green Papaya follows Mui, a young Vietnamese girl who leaves her village to work as a servant for a well-off family in the city. She finds a guide in the household's older woman, who teaches her the routines of the kitchen and the careful preparation of food, while the family around her carries the weight of an old loss and a marriage strained by it. The family's young son also makes her life difficult.

Years later, now grown, Mui goes to work for Khuyen, a young pianist she has quietly admired since childhood. Their relationship develops in ways that complicate the distance between servant and employer.

The film is the feature debut of Vietnamese-born French director Tran Anh Hung, who also wrote the screenplay. It was produced by Christophe Rossignon through Les Productions Lazennec. Tran Nu Yen Khe plays the adult Mui, with Man San Lu as the child Mui, Thi Loc Truong as the mother, and Hoa Hoi Vuong as Khuyen, among a credited cast of 24.

Tran returned to Vietnam for his second film, Cyclo, two years later, and his later work includes Norwegian Wood and The Taste of Things. On IMDb the film holds 7.3 out of 10 from around 11,000 votes, and on TMDB 7 out of 10 from roughly 218 votes, while its critics' rating stands at 8.1 out of 10 from 18 reviews, indicating stronger critical than general-audience response.