The Third Wife (2018) on Netflix
May is fourteen when she becomes the third wife of a landowner in a rural northern Vietnamese village. Two wives live in the house, and only a son gives a wife standing.
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- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb6.6/102,526 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes88%
Trailer
Plot summary
In the 19th century, in a rural northern Vietnamese village where silk is harvested, a landowner takes fourteen-year-old May as his third wife. The household already holds two wives. The first wife has a son and so carries more weight in the household than the second, the mother of three daughters. May learns that bearing a male child is a wife's only route to security and independence. The older wives are welcoming to her. When May tells them that sex is painful for her, they advise her to experiment with herself sexually so she learns her own desires. Her husband favors her, and May conceives a child.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Third Wife (2018)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In Vietnam, The Third Wife was released on 17 May 2019 and pulled from cinemas four days later after criticism of lead actress Nguyễn Phương Trà My, who was 13 when she shot sex scenes; those scenes were filmed with only female crew and her mother present on set.
- Producers pulled the film from Vietnamese cinemas citing online abuse aimed at Trà My and her family, and on 24 May the filmmakers were fined 50 million đồng for releasing an unapproved version after censors asked for three cuts. Director Ash Mayfair called the criticism "a silencing tactic".
- In 2020 Mayfair released Between Shadow and Soul, a black-and-white silent rework of the same footage with the dialogue stripped and a new score; composer An Ton That said a black-and-white photo he took on set inspired her to rework it.
