Mê Thảo Thời Vang Bóng (The Glorious Time in Mê Thảo Hamlet). 2002. Directed by Việt Linh, 108 minutes. Vietnam: Hãng Phim Giải Phóng (Liberation Film Company).

Abstract

This article reflects on the interpenetration of the fictive and the ethnographic in Việt Linh’s film The Glorious Time in Mê Thảo Hamlet.1 The filmmaker and theorist Trinh T. Minh-Ha has long argued “there is no such thing as documentary” (1990:76) and that “to use an image is to enter fiction” (2018). As recent writing on “documentary hybrids” brings to the fore (Ferrarini 2020), documentary filmmakers have incorporated fictional approaches in their work. Conversely, fiction films sometimes make use of real events and ethnographic sensibilities. In the digital era of transmedia (Vernallis, Rogers, and Perrott 2020) and the multimodal (Collins andDurington 2020), conventional film categories— including fiction, documentary, ethnographic, and experimental, amongst others—seem increasingly limited. Noting the overlap between different types of audiovisual work, this review explores points of convergence between fiction and ethnography, between imagination and history. The Glorious Time in Mê Thảo Hamlet is a work of fiction with a fantastical and spiritual narrative. Yet it can be appreciated for its ethnographic value, as much can be learnt from the film about traditional Vietnamese music, particularly ca trù singing.Music lies at the heart of the film; it drives the narrative and emotional arc. In the film, music has the power to influence people’s inner lives and behaviour. The interweaving of imagination and history is a hallmark of the novella Chùa Đàn by Nguyễn Tuân (1910–1987), on which The Glorious Time in Mê Thảo Hamlet is loosely based. Published in 1946, the novella is concerned with ca trù music in the early twentieth century and its uncertain future following the August Revolution of 1945. During the late colonial period, ca trù thrived as a form of entertainment in singing bars, but it became tainted by associations with prostitution and drugs. After the end of the