Someone: Is “Mai” a film worth watching?
Bờm: Yes, for many people, and for you.
Someone: Does this dialogue contain spoilers?
Bờm: It will reveal a little, including the ending.
Someone: Why do many people dislike this film?
Bờm: Everyone has their own perspectives, based on their “memories.” A person’s memories determine what they like or dislike and how mildly or strongly they resonate with something, including a film. Everyone is a “slave” to memory. So are Sâu and Mai. So are all the characters in the film. And so are we.
Someone: But some people who have never seen this film still express their dislike of it.
Bờm: That is also a choice governed by memory. Perhaps they cannot escape their subjectivity. For example, merely hearing the filmmaker’s name immediately draws them into this “trap” — imprisoning themselves in the “prison” of mind and memory.
Someone: Is this dialogue itself also a product of subjectivity?
Bờm: No fear of judgment has been placed in this conversation.
Someone: Why does this film have a sad ending? Is it because a sad ending will be remembered more? It doesn’t seem very logical, does it?
Bờm: When placed in the right “position,” even the seemingly most unreasonable behavior becomes entirely reasonable. Everyone “has a reason” in their own way, at that moment.
Someone: But Sâu fought so fiercely for this love, yet in the end gave it up so easily?
Bờm: It was not that “easy.” This is the pattern of a man’s torment in society when he is not mature enough to bring genuine reassurance to both important women in his life. Ultimately, every choice is “right” in its own way when seen in the larger picture. When people analyze whether Sâu’s choice was right or wrong, good or bad, they ultimately base it only on their own memories, not necessarily Sâu’s. Even if he rebels and wants to “live separately” from his mother, deep inside he is ultimately seeking her true recognition, the recognition he is still trying to preserve at the end of the film.
Someone: Is this film successful because it explores psychological phenomena in society so well?
Bờm: There is a great deal of “suppression” in society today. We have so many memories of it, which is why we easily resonate with films like this. This is also positive, giving everyone an opportunity to reflect on themselves. The more strongly a work resonates with the collective unconscious, society’s unconscious, the more attention it draws, as we have just seen. But it also reveals that many patterns deep within society, individuals, and families remain unhealed.
Someone: Is “healing” something overblown? Wouldn’t a few glasses of draft beer do the job?
Bờm: Yeah… And around the world, how many people still say “I’m okay,” “I’m good,” “I’m fine,” only for others to learn the next morning that they have died by suicide. As society develops, this will become more common. At some point, when we truly know how to love, and love enough — love ourselves — we will sit down to heal ourselves. With greater wisdom and love, we recognize that our former thinking was somewhat shallow. And eventually, even healing is an “illusion”; everything is already fulfilled. But it is a useful illusion, an educational illusion.
Someone: Have the wounds buried deep in the unconscious of an individual or a collective, or more specifically of the characters in these films, truly been healed by the endings of the films by this same director?
Bờm: The film succeeded in “touching” wounds in the unconscious of ordinary people in society, but calling that healing is not entirely accurate. In fact, no real healing takes place, even in some endings that may seem happy: they are “happy endings” at the conscious level, a superficial joy or happiness. If you truly understand transformation, you know that transformation does not actually occur. Transformation is not a caterpillar becoming a better caterpillar; it is a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. The knots are untied, but when the black box opens, no butterfly flies out. Everything remains there and will be buried again, sinking deeper still…
Someone: In that case, isn’t such an ending too “cruel” to Mai?
Bờm: Because some memories have not been transformed… Mai has partly denied the sacred feminine aspect within herself, shaping her character in the next stage of life. She cannot connect with feelings toward men and thinks she is unworthy of love. She says she does not want to love, cannot be bothered to love, that “I’m tired; no more love.” But throughout the film, she actually longs for love the most, and only she has the greatest courage to seize it. Beyond all her angry words, she has never “dropped” her love for her father, no matter how many wrongs he has done her. She has never lost kindness in anything she does, expressing love toward everyone, whether in small daily tasks or toward people, from unpleasant neighbors to the kind parking attendant. Even getting into a serious fight means she truly wants to love herself. When she tells Sâu that she wants love, like an aggrieved child saying they want candy, those are words from her very heart. That is truly beautiful, lovable, and moving… And in the end, only she truly “waited.” Even when she told Sâu not to wait for her, and half of her conscious mind truly wanted that, ultimately 4 years passed and she still never let go of this love. Only she kept holding on to love, never truly abandoning it. Her customers cherish her because they feel so much love within her. Happiness need not wait for tomorrow, and Mai’s love need not be left until tomorrow either. She truly is love already, however hard her mind tries to deny it.
Someone: Is this conversation suggesting that there are many people even more “pitiable” than Mai because they lack love within?
Bờm: …
Someone: Are we trying to romanticize this so that Mai’s ending feels less painful for her?
Bờm: That is still a sad ending for Mai.
Someone: By creating such an ending, might someone be haunted by the feeling that they “owe” Mai some happiness? Might something be added to “liberate” Mai, and also liberate the consciousness of the person who created it?
Bờm: That depends on the person’s memories.
Someone: If I were the director of this film, I would agree with the ending too, but I would add a little to it. A little something is missing… Just a little, but it would truly be like a “liberation.” The ending would still be remembered, all the messages would remain intact, but perhaps it would be more meaningful…
Bờm: Then…
Someone: It sounds strange, but ultimately, everything we experience serves a single purpose: our spiritual evolution. If I were the director, I would add a little “faith” to Mai at the end. But then perhaps it could no longer be a film earning a hundred billion.
Bờm: Given everything she has experienced, it is not “overstating” anything to believe there is faith within her.
Someone: Because she is always worthy of love, worthy of being loved. She has spent her entire life trying to learn how to love others. Faith is when she experiences the deep love this universe has for her. Although she does not have a “happy ending” with Sâu, she still has a “divine ending” with herself. I would let her end with this profound love. An ending that liberates everyone.
Bờm: And no religious element is needed. Because all of us deserve love.
Someone: But isn’t that too poetic? Real life is harsher, reality more ruthless?
Bờm: The reality of life? The reality is that the universe always supports people’s efforts made with true intentions. Balance will always be established. And so Mai is always, always loved by the universe. That is reality.
Someone: Let’s see… She will cry a liter of tears in the car at the end of the film. She can still cry because there are still so many feelings and so much love within her. The car will pass a scene where she asks to stop. Then she steps out, and before her is the endless green of love, the green of vast forests below, a new sun rising, a deeply blue sky, a gentle breeze caressing her hair, and soft rays of sunlight falling on Mai’s lightly dyed hair and lightly made-up face. Remember that her child’s name is Bình Minh, meaning a new beginning, a new day of hope. If Đào can also play Mai, then tomorrow also begins today. Today, let her be happy in knowing that everything that happens “ought” to happen, rather than necessarily “having” to happen. She will be bathed in light and able to smile and bless everything, above all, truly bless herself. The symbol of the sun will appear once again to remind her of this, like her love for Bình Minh; that name is also a symbol. This is when she knows that everything is a blessing, including all she has built over the past 4 years and all that lies ahead. A new dawn has come into her life. The universe always watches over and loves everyone, including Mai.
Bờm smiled.
