Ngo Quang Hai

Hanoi comes across almost picture-perfect in director Tran Anh Hung's beautiful, elegiac tale about the lives and loves of three Vietnamese sisters. A mood characteristic of Hung's films is set early on with the vivid sounds of birds, insects and water and the way the lighting enhances the subtle use of color. They all combine to gem-like effect here.

Toward the end of 1946, residents from all walks of Hanoi struggle to avoid—and eventually accept—the possibility of a full-blown war.