The Third Wife

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2:04

The Third Wife

R

2019

1h 36m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

88%

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50 Reviews

64%

Popcornmeter

50+ Ratings

In 19th-century rural Vietnam, 14-year-old May becomes the third wife of wealthy landowner Hung. Soon, she learns that she can only gain status by asserting herself as a woman who can give birth to a male child. May's hope to change her status turns into a real and tantalizing possibility when she gets pregnant. Faced with forbidden love and its devastating consequences, May finally comes to an understanding of the brutal truth: the options available to her are few and far between.

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Critics Consensus

The Third Wife uses one woman's experiences as the framework for a reserved period drama whose haunting beauty belies its devastating impact.

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Roxana Hadadi

AWFJ.org

Feb 25, 2020

The Third Wife spends its time considering the hidden depths of these women not only as defined by their individual wants but also by what society dictates upon them.

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Matthew Lickona

San Diego Reader

Jul 19, 2019

3/5

Perhaps most remarkable is the contrast between the intense interior drama and the lush, languorous world in which it rages.

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David Stratton

The Australian

Jul 8, 2019

3.5/5

It's certainly a curiosity for connoisseurs of Third World cinema.

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Brandon Stanwyck

InSession Film

Jul 17, 2024

A

Mayfair’s first film is one well-constructed and daring examination of such injustices, and it’s absolutely worth checking out.

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Wilson Kwong

VCinema

Feb 13, 2022

When it comes to cinemas growing need for more female voices, seeing someone like Mayfair create such a powerful debut is exactly what the medium needs right now.

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Brett Pardy

Seventh Row

Jun 8, 2021

Ash Mayfair's The Third Wife is a powerful exercise in empathy, an exquisitely beautiful film on the surface which contains one of the bleakest portrayals of how patriarchy limits women's autonomy.

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Minh N

@Minhopoly Feb 3, 2026

It's pretty until it's dredggy and groanny. The film doesn't really go anywhere, and instead relies on innuendoes of injustice to muster some resemblance of a story. The wikipedia plot summary is a better story than the actual fufu vomit.

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Ryi B

@RT31923339 Jan 14, 2025

It's good but it's sad

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Georgan G

@RT98616417 Nov 23, 2024

A moving Vietnamese drama that is beautiful but full of despair. The women have no options in life.

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Jan 24, 2020

A beautiful and tragic drama from Vietnam. Again, this movie premiered in 2018 at TIFF but had its wider release in 2019. This movie is slow, but it's gorgeous and very well-acted. There are so many striking visuals and tons of symbolism. This movie is also very sad and very disturbing. It's about a young teenage girl in 1800s Vietnam becoming the third wife of an older man in hopes to give him a son, and it just gets worse from there. This movie deals with some very heavy subject matter and it certainly isn't for everyone, it can be pretty uncomfortable, but I thought it was great and think it's worth a watch. It's depressing, but very good.

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Lincoln K

@RT85628835 Jan 22, 2020

This film has a lot of promise, and it certainly is interesting.. as we follow a 14-year old girl who becomes the third wife of a wealthy landowner in 19th century Vietnam. The photography is terrific here and the performances are good, if understated. I occasionally had trouble telling certain characters apart or understanding which of the children belonged to which wife... but eventually got my bearings in this. As a period piece about a time when women had very few options it has an inherent sadness to it.. and the ending is a bit uncertain, but intentionally so.

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nefasto r

@Nefasto Nov 25, 2019

"The third Wife" cannot be compared with the beauty of "Raise the Red Lantern", but remains an immersive experience with minimal dialogs and with stunning visuals. This are the kind of films women need, not remakes of "Ghostbusters"!

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Ash Mayfair

Director

Mai Thu Huong

Xuan

Le Vu Long

Hung

Nguyen Nhu Quynh

May

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Lien

Nhu Quynh

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The Third Wife: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

In 19th-century rural Vietnam, 14-year-old May becomes the third wife of wealthy landowner Hung. Soon, she learns that she can only gain status by asserting herself as a woman who can give birth to a male child. May's hope to change her status turns into a real and tantalizing possibility when she gets pregnant. Faced with forbidden love and its devastating consequences, May finally comes to an understanding of the brutal truth: the options available to her are few and far between.

Director: Ash Mayfair
Producer: Tran Thi Bich Ngoc, Ash Mayfair
Screenwriter: Ash Mayfair
Distributor: Film Movement
Rating: R (Sexual Content)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Vietnamese
Release Date (Theaters): May 15, 2019, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 10, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA): $81.0K
Runtime: 1h 36m

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