Spring Roll Dream is a touching animation about finding a connection between different generations of a family with food. Mai Vu’s stop-motion short film has a charm that endears you immediately to it while showing us the importance of keeping that familial bond.
Linh is a Vietnamese single mother who’s successfully forged a life for herself and her son in America. But when her father visits Vietnam and insists on cooking the family a traditional Vietnamese meal, Linh is confronted with the past and culture she left behind and the question of where it belongs in her family’s new life.
There is just something so glorious about stop-motion animation; it lures you in and fills you with wonderment about how the filmmakers managed to get it done. With Spring Roll Dream, it is no exception. Though small in scale, it is a film with so much heart and so touching that you simply cannot help but fall in love with it.
There is a charm to this paper style of stop motion that you don’t really get with other styles; the prawns magically fold up into the roll with no fuss despite being chunky things. The clothes look crumpled, as if someone had forgotten to run an iron over them. There is a glorious hand-made feel that if Spring Roll Dream was created in a standard animation style, it would lose some of that spark that makes it look so appealing.
At the heart of Spring Roll Dream, though, is the difficulty of keeping up with your culture once you move thousands of miles away and have a child who mostly only knows what they are experiencing now. While Linh may want or even yearn to cook and eat gỏi cuốn with her father, to let her son try it and love it as much as she does. She declines, seemingly for a multitude of reasons. Perhaps she is afraid of her son not liking the food she was raised on; he has become picky with his food choices, and sometimes it is simply easier to cook the food he knows and knows he will eat.
The other side of that is that she could very easily be fearful of insulting her father if Alan decides he does not like the food. This food is Alan’s culture, and she does not want to bring any shame to the proceedings. Her father, of course, just wants to cook a meal he knows Linh adores and is sure that Alan will too. When she declines, you see the pain in his animated face, and your heart pours out for him. For his fears of losing his daughter to a different culture may very well be ringing true before his eyes.
However, Spring Roll Dream allows us a shining light in relief as we easily forget just how fun it is to prepare your food as a child, so when that chance comes knocking, Alan takes it with both hands. Even though he adds his own Western twist on a tried-and-true meal, it brings a good chuckle.
Mai Vu has presented us with a scenario that has doubtlessly been echoed in many kitchens. One of the best ways of keeping your culture alive in some form after moving away is by cooking, eating the food you love and adore and hoping that your future generations love it too – Spring Roll Dream is an appealing and pleasant watch.
★★★ 1/2
The 19th HollyShorts Film Festival is running between 10th – 20th August with in person and digital screenings available through the 10th to 27th August.
For more information go to www.hollyshorts.com
Coverage of HollyShorts Film Festival 2023:
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