Vietnam: Fast Forward
It’s hard to say exactly what Eladio Arvelo’s Vietnam Fast Forward is. On the surface this dive into modern Vietnam is a charming travelogue eschewing the country’s 20th century history to focus on what it is today. And what it is, is a growing, modern society with unique resources ready to take its place on the world stage for what it has to offer and not what it has endured.
Intentional or not, however, that version of Vietnam Fast Forward only occasionally surfaces. At zippy 59 minutes and with a focus on Vietnam as a nesting ground for future economic growth, Vietnam Fast Forward more often toes a strange line between government sponsored infomercial and pilot for proposed travelogue series.
Director and host Arvelo bounces back and forth between city and country side interviewing a handful of residents in his quest to learn about Vietnam and what it is now. But almost all of those interviews and their related stories about the businesses involved – from tea leaf grower to chef to tech entrepreneur – and the case they make for investment in Vietnam.
There’s nothing out and out wrong with a filmmaker having and pushing a point of view; documentarian doesn’t mean the same thing as journalist. Everything from Harlan County, USA to Bowling For Columbine had a definite stake in their subject and a way the filmmaker wished it to be viewed and didn’t bother to hide it.
Nor is it all informercial all the time. Arvelo has a keen eye not just for a business success story but for an interesting back story like entrepreneur Huong Dang who lost her family early in her life but through hard work attended college and came back to Vietnam to create new paths to success for others. And he recognizes a gem of a personality like Chef Tan, a successful doctor who gave up medicine to pursue multiple different ventures looking for fulfillment in his work until he became a farmer and chef.
The humanity in those stories butts heads often with Arvelo’s focus on the Vietnam they are building for the future and the case for Vietnam’s growth. Those don’t have to be mutually exclusive propositions, but they sometimes play that way here. A lot of that comes down to Vietnam Fast Forward’s brevity. At just short of an hour it goes down smoothly without dragging, but it also feels more like episodic television that a unique entry on its own. (And if it were a travelogue series, it would probably be a good one). But it also makes it harder to dig to in depth into his subjects. There is so much ground to cover Arvelo flits from story to story like a butterfly, just whetting the appetite before moving on to the next person and the next and the next. Only the surface seems to be scratched, with too much depth left behind.
There are worse things to say about a film than it left money on the table (thematically speaking). Arvelo does indeed open a world in front of us and the quick peeks at it are enticing. If only we were able to get the full course instead of just the appetizer.