When I Am 20

Two young LGBTQ+ lovers in 1990s Saigon get entangled in the criminal underground and must do battle with dark forces that threaten their relationship and test the limits of their humanity.

A woman tries to cling onto dimming links to her past after inheriting a pygmy slow loris from her long-estranged husband; meanwhile, her niece prepares for marriage as the young couple ponders their gloomy future together. The present and the complex echoes of Vietnamese history are entwined before a contemplative and poetic perspective.

Văn comes back to Ho Chi Minh City from the US with his boyfriend Ian to visit his mother. Being the male heir of the family, everyone expects him to take a wife soon. And to top it all, his grandmother, who has Alzheimer, mistakes Ian for her grandson.

When they discover that they are pregnant, a young couple in Hanoi resort to desperate (and bizarre) measures to raise money for an abortion.

Soon after her wedding, newlywed Duyen's excitement begins to fade as she realizes her young husband is not only naive but overly occupied by his job and doting mother. As her marriage goes unconsummated and her emotional isolation grows, she reaches out to her closest girlfriend, Cam, who secretly desires her, but pushes her into the arms of a dangerous and provocative suitor. The resulting infidelity puts Duyen in a precarious love triangle, challenging her notions of conventional relationships and also the stability of her new family.

In an old house in Hanoi, Bi, a 6-year-old child lives with his parents, his aunt and their cook. His favorite playgrounds are an ice factory and the wild grass along the river. After being absent for years, his grandfather, seriously ill, reappears and settles at their house. While Bi gets closer to his grandfather, his father tries to avoid any contact with his family. Every night, he gets drunk and goes and see his masseuse, for whom he feels a quiet strong desire. Bi's mother turns a blind eye on it. The aunt, still single, meets a 16-year-old young boy in the bus. Her attraction to him moves her deeply.

Saigon, early 2000s. Photography student Vu has just arrived from Vietnam's backwaters and is immediately attracted to his handsome roommate Thang, who works odd jobs as a bouncer and low-level drug dealer. Entranced by the nocturnal rhythms of Thang's world, Vu follows him around the city where he meets Van, a ballet-cum-exotic dancer and Thang's sometimes-girlfriend.

Leaving their village to earn a living in the big city, Tham and Quy's relationship soon suffers in the face of impoverished conditions.

Thu lives in a village near the river with Lan, her single mother working as a fruit seller. Thu befriends a boy in the village, Đăng, who lost his mother at a young age and is thus mainly raised by his grandparents. As the two children bond, they find in each other the parental figures they have been longing for.

A Ho Chi Minh City-based chef charms a gorgeous stewardess with a special tofu dessert, but soon realises that they are incompatible.