The Story of Kindness
directed by Tran Van Thuy is a pilgrimage of discovering “kindness" from the underappreciated nooks and crannies in the Vietnamese Subsidy period. Concentrating on the moment when the film crew faced the eviction of the bricklayer, this essay will expose the gap in the “horizon of expectation" in film reception of different social classes. Drawing upon the Marxist film theory, the filmmaker's ethical tightrope in compromising their artistic vision to satisfy the demands of fragmented social classes will be revealed. Subsequently, the utilization of genre theory will portray how this movie shatters the mold of previous Vietnamese documentaries by giving voice to the “phantoms" in contemporary society.
