The Big Picture

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell is a quietly astounding film that explores themes of searching and meaning. The film’s deliberate pacing, use of long takes, and stunning cinematography draw viewers into its world. It is a bold and beautiful debut from writer-director Thien An Pham that leaves a distinct impression.

The experience of Vietnamese writer-director Thien An Pham‘s quietly astounding Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, winner of the Caméra d’Or for best first feature at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, is one defined by searching. Sometimes this is straightforward, as in when one searches for a place to go for shelter in the pouring rain, whereas at others it is more slippery and spiritual, like when we try to make meaning after a loss. Of course, sometimes these two can become intertwined, as the simple acts of our lives take on a more grand significance that sneaks up on you. As it does in this film, the result is simply magnificent to behold.

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell A man returns to his hometown, where he’s haunted by past memories and desires. Release Date January 19, 2024 Director Thien An Pham Cast Nguyen Thi Truc Quynh , Nguyen Thinh , Le Phong Vu , Vu Ngoc Manh Runtime 179 minutes Main Genre Drama Writers Thien An Pham

Though it has drawn praising comparisons to the work of those like Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a masterful filmmaker known for everything from Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives to Memoria, this is merely the tip of what Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell achieves. While letting it wash over me, I couldn’t help but also think of another recent debut in Raven Jackson’s arresting All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt with their shared interest in the rhymes of the natural world, the deliberate pacing that sweeps you up, how each cut between moments in time, and the use of sound to then draw us into every single moment. Each feels bound up in history, both personal and cinematic, while remaining distinct from anything you’ve seen before. On the surface, Pham‘s film is about a man returning home following a tragedy. Look deeper, however, and you’ll find an entire world of emotion gradually unlocking as these moments accumulate before you. Though 2024 is still young, it already feels like one of the first films that will remain essential to any conversations about the year’s best.

What Is ‘Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell’ About?

The film begins with a simple yet no less spectacular opening shot, the first of many where Pham patiently lets his camera hold on the scenes he’s constructed for long stretches without cutting, into the city center of a bustling modern Vietnam. As our eyes search along with the camera, we observe people playing, eating, and talking while watching the World Cup before we eventually settle on a group of friends who seem to care little for the competition taking place on television. The man at the center of this, Thien (Le Phong Vu), also feels like it’s most pointedly detached as they discuss fundamental questions about life and faith. This is soon disrupted, though also not, by a horrible motorscooter crash that we first hear happening right out of frame. The camera gently drifts over to see its gruesome aftermath, but notably, life continues as other motorists pass by before someone eventually calls for help. Notably, Thien does not go over. Instead, only after going to a spa and starting to get a massage that becomes sexual, he learns via a phone call that it was his sister-in-law Hanah who perished in the crash. This leaves Thien to look after his five-year-old nephew Dao (Nguyen Thinh).

This all encapsulates only the opening thirty minutes and the late title card drop, which is merely the beginning of a three-hour odyssey where we are taken back through time and place to find some meaning in this loss. Thien, who notably seems to work doing video editing for weddings, is himself single, alone, and uncertain of how to care for the young Dao. As the two go back for Hanh’s funeral service, we watch a sincere yet notably brief bond begin to form just as we observe the different corners of this world. In one scene, the duo takes a slow but bumpy ride on a motorscooter over to a nearby residence where Thien goes to speak to an older man and Dao goes to play with other kids. While each is initially obscured from our view, with us just hearing what is happening, this doesn’t create a disconnect. Rather, when we are brought right up into the room with Thien, it feels like all that distance was never even there in the first place. This happens multiple times throughout the film, with Pham favoring long takes that all feel precise and purposeful. You feel as if you are in the hands of someone who has made not one feature but dozens. It is the type of experience worth giving yourself over to as you peer deeper into every corner of the stunning vistas just as it does the small conversations that we see play out yet more uninterrupted shots overlooking all of it.

Though the camera often flows throughout a scene, it never becomes aimless. When we are brought in from more framing to intimate closeups, it feels like we are honing in on something fleeting as Thien tries to make sense of what has happened. All of this is beautifully captured, making the landscape feel alive in a way that is as frank as Thien often is. It is bursting with discoveries that remind us of how simultaneously small and essential all of us are in the vastness of the world. Collaborating with cinematographer Dinh Duy Hung, whom he worked with on his previous shorts, Pham never loses sight of the people who populate this story. Though they may fade from the story, drifting apart by circumstances both within and beyond our control, the emotional core remains continually, unshakeably present even while it all remains deliberately paced without ever being boring in how it unfolds.

‘Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell’ Is a Gorgeous Triumph of “Slow Cinema”
Image via Kino Lorber

While the film leaves some loose ends dangling, forcibly tying them up would serve no purpose other than to make itself more palatable when that is the last thing it should be. Though some may use the term “slow cinema” derisively, ignoring that some of the most enduring cinematic masterpieces work precisely because of their pacing and what they reveal to us, it is probably apt if you compare it to the speed of most other films. However, maybe more works ought to slow down and soak in the world as completely and poetically as Pham does. Cinema as an art form is made infinitely richer via films like Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell. As we let it linger in our minds just as the camera does up until one final unbroken shot, you drift somewhere you’ve never been before and may never be again.

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell REVIEWInside the Yellow Cocoon Shell is the first great film of the year that marks the arrival of a bold new cinematic voice. ProsWriter-director Thien An Pham’s approach is bound up in a history both personal and cinematic that he exercises deft command of in his feature debut. The use of multiple extended, unbroken shots draws us deeper and deeper into this world with an ease that is breathtaking. It is a film that lingers in the mind just as the camera does in each scene, leaving a distinct impression that may never be replicated quite like this again.

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell comes to limited theaters in the U.S. starting January 19. Click below for showtimes.

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