Trần Anh Hùng

Directing

Trần Anh Hùng

Born 1962-12-23 · Đà Nẵng, Central Vietnam

Trần Anh Hùng (born December 23, 1962; Đà Nẵng) is a French filmmaker of Vietnamese ancestry. Hùng was born in Mỹ Tho, South Vietnam. Following the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, he immigrated to France at age 12. He majored in philosophy at a university in France. By chance, he saw Robert Bresson's film A Man Escaped and decided to study film instead. He went on to study photography at the Louis Lumiere Academy, which trains cinematographers. Hùng has been at the forefront of a wave of acclaimed overseas Vietnamese cinema over the past two decades. His films have received international fame and acclaim, and his first three features were varied meditations on life in his home country Vietnam. Hùng's Oscar-nominated debut (for Best foreign film) was The Scent of Green Papaya (1993), which also won two top prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. His follow-up Cyclo (1995, which featured Hong Kong movie star Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival. The Vertical Ray of the Sun, released in 2000, was the third film in his "Vietnam trilogy." After a sabbatical, Hùng returned with the noir psychological thriller I Come with the Rain (2009), which featured a star-studded international cast including Josh Hartnett and Elias Koteas. Hùng directed Norwegian Wood, an adaptation of Haruki Murakami's novel of the same name, which released in Japan in December 2010. After Eternity in 2016, his return in a French production, The The Pot-au-Feu, is announced in February 2022, with Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel in the cast.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

The Taste of Things poster
7.1

Set in 1889 France, Dodin Bouffant is a chef living with his personal cook and lover Eugénie. They share a long history of gastronomy and love but Eugénie refuses to marry Dodin, so the food lover decides to do something he has never done before: cook for her.

The Taste of Things

2023

The Taste of Things poster
7.1

Set in 1889 France, Dodin Bouffant is a chef living with his personal cook and lover Eugénie. They share a long history of gastronomy and love but Eugénie refuses to marry Dodin, so the food lover decides to do something he has never done before: cook for her.

The Taste of Things

2023

Norwegian Wood poster
6.4

Toru recalls his life in the 1960s, when his friend Kizuki killed himself and he grew close to Naoko, Kizuki's girlfriend, and another woman, the outgoing, lively Midori.

Norwegian Wood

2010

Norwegian Wood poster
6.4

Toru recalls his life in the 1960s, when his friend Kizuki killed himself and he grew close to Naoko, Kizuki's girlfriend, and another woman, the outgoing, lively Midori.

Norwegian Wood

2010

Rom poster
6.9

14-year-old Ròm works as bookie lottery runner to earn a living. He lives an unsettling life due to his separation from his parents and always yearns to earn enough money to find them.

Rom

2020

Cyclo poster
6.9

Follows a young cyclo driver on his poverty-driven descent into criminality in modern-day Ho Chi Minh City. The boy's struggles to scratch out a living for his two sisters and grandfather in the mean streets of the city lead to petty crime on behalf of a mysterious Madame from whom he rents his cyclo.

Cyclo

1995

Cyclo poster
6.9

Follows a young cyclo driver on his poverty-driven descent into criminality in modern-day Ho Chi Minh City. The boy's struggles to scratch out a living for his two sisters and grandfather in the mean streets of the city lead to petty crime on behalf of a mysterious Madame from whom he rents his cyclo.

Cyclo

1995

The Scent of Green Papaya poster
7.0

1950s Saigon through the eyes of Mui, a Vietnamese servant girl. At 10 years-old, Mui leaves her village to work for an affluent, troubled family. As she comes of age, Mui finds work in the household of a pianist she has admired since childhood, and finds their relationship growing in complexity.

The Scent of Green Papaya

1993

The Scent of Green Papaya poster
7.0

1950s Saigon through the eyes of Mui, a Vietnamese servant girl. At 10 years-old, Mui leaves her village to work for an affluent, troubled family. As she comes of age, Mui finds work in the household of a pianist she has admired since childhood, and finds their relationship growing in complexity.

The Scent of Green Papaya

1993

I Come with the Rain poster
5.6

Kline, a former Los Angeles police officer turned private detective, is hired by a powerful pharmaceutical conglomerate boss to investigate in Asia the disappearance of his only son, Shitao, whom he has not seen in person since the boy was ten. Now in his 30s, Shitao has gone missing in the Philippines where he had been helping in an orphanage.

I Come with the Rain

2009

I Come with the Rain poster
5.6

Kline, a former Los Angeles police officer turned private detective, is hired by a powerful pharmaceutical conglomerate boss to investigate in Asia the disappearance of his only son, Shitao, whom he has not seen in person since the boy was ten. Now in his 30s, Shitao has gone missing in the Philippines where he had been helping in an orphanage.

I Come with the Rain

2009

Eternity poster
5.6

Valentine marries at the end of the 19th century, and love passes through her family from generation to generation.

Eternity

2016

Eternity poster
5.6

Valentine marries at the end of the 19th century, and love passes through her family from generation to generation.

Eternity

2016

The Vertical Ray of the Sun poster
6.6

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.

The Vertical Ray of the Sun

2000

The Vertical Ray of the Sun poster
6.6

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.

The Vertical Ray of the Sun

2000

The Married Woman of Nam Xuong poster
6.2

The cinematic tale recounts the story of a woman whose husband has left for war. When night comes, she pretends to her child that the shadow projected on a sheet is his father. When the father returns, two years later, the child rejects him, telling him that his father only returns at night.

The Married Woman of Nam Xuong

1989

The Married Woman of Nam Xuong poster
6.2

The cinematic tale recounts the story of a woman whose husband has left for war. When night comes, she pretends to her child that the shadow projected on a sheet is his father. When the father returns, two years later, the child rejects him, telling him that his father only returns at night.

The Married Woman of Nam Xuong

1989

Stone of Expectation poster
6.1

Is the tale of a man and a woman, both boat people, who meet in a transit refugee camp in Indonesia. Years later, they live in Paris, married with a child. One day, the husband discovers that his wife happens to be his younger sister.

Stone of Expectation

1991

Stone of Expectation poster
6.1

Is the tale of a man and a woman, both boat people, who meet in a transit refugee camp in Indonesia. Years later, they live in Paris, married with a child. One day, the husband discovers that his wife happens to be his younger sister.

Stone of Expectation

1991