"'Love Letters': Can Teenage Directors Bring Real Depth to Film? One Critic Says Yes"

Aug 30, 2026 11:00 AM - Huong Vu

When young hotheads make films, is there enough depth?

The directors of the Hanoi Cinematography Club are all 17 to 18 years old, the age the elders call "still wet behind the ears," not yet fully fed, not yet fully aware. And yet their films all carry messages that go beyond their age. Perspectives on the invisible pressures of life, from young love to family affection to self-imposed pressure, are all turned into cinema in an interesting way.

Đặng Minh Nam's "Love Letters" is far more mature and reflective than the director's age or even his own personality would suggest. "Love Letters" searches for an answer to the question of whether someone who has never loved can write the melodies of love. The storytelling is fairly conventional and the script predictable, but the film focuses on light, color, and authenticity, from the setting to the emotions to the performances of its entirely non-professional cast.

The film's music is quite striking. It is never loud or showy, beginning tentatively, with a touch of nervousness, then swelling powerfully once it finds its true love, drawing all attention, before settling back into calm. This is perhaps "Love Letters"'s most interesting artistic device, a way of making an impression that is both distinctive and effective.

"Love Letters" also carries the metaphor that real music does not have to be academic, and that real love is not far away. Whether in music or in romantic love, love only comes alive when you truly find yourself in it. Perhaps that is precisely the quiet ache of a generation, an age, just beginning to search for its own true love.