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THE WHITE SILK DRESS

By Luu Huynh LUU

VIETNAM MEDIA CORP. / BHD CO, LTD - as SALES All rights, World

Drama - Completed 2006

- Year of production
- 2006
- Genres
- Drama
- Countries
- VIETNAM
- Languages
- VIETNAMESE
- Duration
- 135 mn
- Director(s)
- Luu Huynh LUU
- Cast
- Khanh QUOC, Ngocanh TRUONG
- Producer(s)
- Bich Hanh NGO (Vietnam Studios), Ngoc Anh TRUONG (AVA Production), Phuoc Sang LUU (Phuoc Sang Entertainment)
- Synopsis
- For Vietnamese, however, hard living conditions, the world of dreams and the hope of a better future, are always there to help them survive.
  The story is about a very poor family in Hoi An during 1960s – a beautiful ancient town near the Marble Mountains of Da Nang. Set against a background of the deep-rooted traditional culture the characters survive a passionate tangle of love affairs and emotional dramas.
  Dau, like all Vietnamese mothers, works hard for her four kids. Her immense love for her family enables her to suffer all the hardships and deprivation she undergoes in order to earn money to feed and look after them. She even goes as far as selling her own breast milk to feed an old Chinese and becomes a street vendor, during which time she is beaten and victimized by the Southern police who considers her a Northern communist...
  Gu, a poor ill-educated boy from Hanoi, dreams of having a nice wedding where Dau, his beloved, wears a traditional wedding dress, a silk made Ao dai. The cople make a remarkable journey south after the defeat and departure of the French colonial occupiers. They settle in Hoi An and, because of their poverty, still do not have the opportunity for a wedding even after having four children. However the wedding with a white silk Ao Dai continues in their dreams.
  Her aim also, is to have white Ao Dai, which her two daughters need in order to attend school , and eventually to have her own, one day, for a wedding dress. Failing ever to earn enough to buy one she finally sacrifices her only family heirloom, a white silk wedding dress have it made into an Aodai. The two young girls have to alternate going to school, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon wearing the same Aodai....
  When Gu is almost on the point of realizing their dreams his wife Dau is drowned by a tragic flood...
  This is not only the story of a family, the sacrifice of a mother or one couple’s love story. It illustrates also the spirit of a country and of a nation through the determination of its people to keep their traditional culture as symbolized by the role of the Aodai in this beautiful story.
  Aodai is the graceful traditional dress of Vietnamese women. Made from three to seven layers of silk it is tied by a bell, or there is a peasants version which consists of four pieces of material which are also tied in the front. Early last century the Aodai was modified to become the simple, elegant garment worn today.