Taste (Vietnamese: Vị) is an internationally co-produced 2021 drama film, directed and written by Lê Bảo in his feature directorial debut. It stars Olegunleko Ezekiel Gbenga as a Nigerian footballer living in Vietnam who lives with four Vietnamese women, played by Thi Minh Nga Khuong, Thi Dung Le, Thi Cam Xuan Nguyen, and Thi Tham Thin Vu.
After being dropped from the football team due to an injury, Bassley, a Nigerian football player, now works as a barber and resides with four women in a slum.[1]
Cast
Olegunleko Ezekiel Gbenga as Bassley
Thi Minh Nga Khuong as Mien
Thi Dung Le as Trang
Thi Cam Xuan Nguyen as Hanh
Thi Tham Thin Vu as Thuong
Production
The project was awarded the Most Promising Project at the 2016 Southeast Asian Film Lab.[2] It was also selected and awarded for TFL Co-Production Awards and ARTE Prize at the 2017 TorinoFilmLab.[3]
Release
Taste had its world premiere at the 71st Berlin International Film Festival during its Encounters section on 1 March 2021.[4] It received the Special Jury Award for the section.[5]Wild Bunch acquired international distribution rights to the film.[6]
On 17 May 2021, the production company Le Bien Pictures was administratively fined 35 million Vietnamese đồng for submitting the film to a film festival without a general license.[7] In July 2021, the film was officially banned from release in Vietnam due to a 30-minute nude scene.[8]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 86% of 7 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.0/10.[9]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[10]
