Thưa Mẹ Con Đi (Goodbye Mother) is the 2019 debut feature film of Vietnamese director Trinh Dinh Le Minh. The film follows Văn, a young Vietnamese man who returns home from the United States with his longtime boyfriend Ian, intending to introduce him to his family.
Directed by Trinh Dinh Le Minh and written by Nhi Bui, the film stars Lãnh Thanh, Võ Điền Gia Huy, Hồng Đào, Lê Thiện, Hồng Ánh, Kiều Trinh, and Thanh Tú. It was produced by An Nam Productions, CJ HK Entertainment, and Muse Films, and was released theatrically in Vietnam in August 2019.
A Story About Love and Family
At the center of the film is Văn’s return to his family after several years abroad. In the United States, he and Ian can live openly as a couple. Back in Vietnam, however, Văn faces the expectations associated with being the eldest son of a traditional family — including marriage, children, and continuing the family line.
Rather than treating the subject through confrontation or melodrama, Thưa Mẹ Con Đi approaches the relationship between Văn and Ian through the quieter dynamics of family life.
The film places their relationship within a multigenerational Vietnamese household, where affection, responsibility, tradition and personal choices often exist side by side. The resulting conflicts are not only about sexual identity, but also about the expectations that families place on their children and the difficulty of communicating across generations.
A Film Rooted in Contemporary Vietnam
One of the film’s distinctive elements is its use of an ordinary Vietnamese family environment rather than an exceptional or highly dramatic setting.
The countryside, family gatherings, conversations and everyday routines provide the backdrop for the characters’ emotional conflicts. This gives the story a sense of intimacy while allowing broader questions about tradition and personal identity to emerge naturally from the family setting.
The film was also notable for presenting a same-sex relationship without making tragedy the central narrative device. Instead, the relationship between Văn and Ian is presented alongside humor, affection, family tension and everyday life.
Sound and the Intimacy of the Story
The sound team included Arnaud Soulier as Sound Editor and Hoàng Thu Thủy as Sound Effects Editor.
Unlike a large-scale action film, Thưa Mẹ Con Đi relies heavily on intimate environments and everyday interactions. Conversations, domestic spaces, outdoor environments and small physical details form an important part of the film’s sonic world.
For a story centered on family relationships, sound does not need to constantly call attention to itself. The natural presence of a room, a household, a rural environment or a moment of silence can help establish emotional proximity and make the characters’ interactions feel grounded.
The balance between dialogue, environmental sound, effects and music therefore becomes an important part of maintaining the film’s restrained and personal tone.
From Vietnam to the International Festival Circuit
Thưa Mẹ Con Đi premiered internationally at the 24th Busan International Film Festival in 2019, where it was selected for A Window on Asian Cinema, one of the festival’s official competition sections showcasing contemporary Asian filmmaking.
The film subsequently travelled to festivals in different countries, including the Hawaii International Film Festival, San Diego Asian Film Festival, Vancouver Queer Film Festival and others. It was also released commercially in Taiwan in 2020 and later became available in additional international markets.
Its international festival journey helped introduce a contemporary Vietnamese family story to audiences outside Vietnam while retaining its distinctly local cultural setting.
Awards & Recognition
The film received several awards during its international festival run:
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Best Narrative Feature Film — Jury Award, Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival 2020
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Audience Award — Feature Film, Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival 2020
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Audience Award — Narrative Feature, Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival 2020
These awards were given across both jury and audience categories, reflecting the film’s reception in different festival contexts.
A Quiet Story with an International Reach
Thưa Mẹ Con Đi demonstrates how a relatively intimate Vietnamese family story can travel beyond its original cultural context without losing the specificity of its characters and setting.
Through its restrained storytelling, naturalistic performances and attention to family dynamics, the film places a personal relationship within a much larger conversation about tradition, identity, belonging and the expectations between generations.
For Vietnamese independent cinema, the film also represents an important example of a locally rooted production reaching an international festival audience — beginning with its world premiere in Busan and continuing through screenings and releases across multiple countries.
