04/03/2025 - Stéphane Ly-Cuong delivers a funny, kind-hearted and refreshing first feature film about the misadventures of a woman in search of her identity and dreaming of a career in musicals

"If we’re not allowed to dream anymore…” – “You have to give it up.” The life of protagonist Yvonne in In the Nguyen Kitchen [+see also:
trailer
interview: Stéphane Ly-Cuong
film profile] - the delectable first feature film by Stéphane Ly-Cuong (who previously turned heads as the co-screenwriter of Winter in Sokcho [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Koya Kamura
film profile]) which is released in French cinemas on 5 March, courtesy of Jour2Fête - is at a slightly alarming though crucial turning point, because what could be worse for her own self-image than having to return home to live with her mother in the outer suburbs of Paris, wondering whether the great artistic hopes of her youth haven’t all been in vain.

"There’s nothing that fits your profile." Yvonne (the charismatic Clotilde Chevalier) has the blues. For this French woman of Vietnamese origin, opportunities to be cast in musicals, where she’s always hoped to hit the big time, are few and far between. Reduced to scraping a living by singing songs to promote sales of Vietnamese spring rolls in the frozen aisle of a supermarket and earning next to nothing (six euros per show) for working in the troupe headed up by her friend Koko (Gaël Kamilindi) with whom she performs to smatterings of children, she also decides to leave her boyfriend who was determined to see her give up on her dreams. So she’s back in her childhood bedroom, above the La baie d’Along restaurant run by her mother (Anh Tran Nghia), who doesn’t do her any favours either: "I’ve got a profession: comedies are all well and good, but they’re non-existent", "you’re living here, you’re going to help the family". Despite being requisitioned to work in the kitchen at the heart of the Vietnamese culture which she’s always kept at arm’s distance and which she’s not really all that familiar with, Yvonne still refuses to give up, because she "prefers to see life as a musical." And, as it happens, famous director Philippe Vernon (Thomas Jolly, known around the world for being the artistic director of Paris’ Olympic Games’ opening and closing ceremonies) is looking for an actress to play “Lotus Flower, the enigmatic mistress of the Far East”, in his show Le tour du monde de Casanova…

Marrying authenticity and comedy to wonderful effect, In the Nguyen Kitchen explores the complexity of mother-daughter relationships and the reality of straddling cultures with great finesse and humour, focusing on the challenge of finding our place in the world and breaking free from the stereotypes which society and our own families try to impose on us. They’re clichés which the filmmaker also turns his back on, showcasing actors with appearances and origins rarely seen in French cinema. Steeped in infectious good humour and affectionate irony, the film also delivers some brilliantly executed musical theatre sequences (with music by Clovis Schneider and Thuy-Nhân Dao, and lyrics by Stéphane Ly-Cuong and Christine Khandjian) and ultimately proves to be a wonderful surprise and an incredibly enjoyable shared moment of culinary immersion and cinema.

In the Nguyen Kitchen was produced by Respiro Productions in co-production with Jour2Fête. The Party Film Sales are steering international sales.

(Translated from French)