In the Nguyen Kitchen review – cooking up a heartwarming Vietnamese-French diaspora musical

Aspiring performer Yvonne dreams aloud in candy-coloured reveries that carry the hopes of a marginalised singer in a rarely-seen Parisian communityParis is home to one of the oldest and largest Vietnamese diasporas in the world – not that you could tell from mainstream French cinema. In this heartwarming feature debut, Stéphane Ly-Cuong turns to the magic of the musical comedy to portray not only the dreams and the struggles of Vietnamese-French artists, but also a side of Paris seldom seen on screen.A hopeful performer and singer, Yvonne Nguyen (Clotilde Chevalier) can’t help but dream in songs. Her candy-coloured reveries unfold like a Jacques Demy fantasy, bursting with tunes and light. In reality, however, she is stuck belting out jingles for spring rolls to indifferent supermarket customers. Without much luck getting cast in acting roles, Yvonne moves back in with her mother (Anh Tran-Nghia), who runs a restaurant in the outskirts of Paris. Generational clashes soon follow, but so does a too-good-to-be-true opportunity to star in a big-budget musical. While Yvonne’s mother scolds her for not being Vietnamese enough, the role she is offered – Lotus Flower, an exotic Asian mistress – ironically demands that Nguyen play up cliche stereotypes. Continue reading...

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So long, London boys – Taylor Swift is engaged to the all-American Travis Kelce, and it makes so much sense

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