Three Seasons (Vietnamese title: Ba Mùa) is a 1999 Vietnamese-American film, shot in Vietnam, about the past, present, and future of Ho Chi Minh City in the early days of Doi Moi.

In the misty mornings of Saigon, young girls wake up to pick lotuses from a flower pond, to later sell to American tourists and fellow Vietnamese alike.

To pass the time, the girls sing rich folk songs that touch the heart of a poet (Teacher Dao) who lives in an old temple overlooking the pond.

The girls (one of them a newcomer named Kien An) are trucked off to the bustling streets of Saigon where they sell the lotus in bundles for 5,000 đồng VND (roughly 30 cents USD).

Woody is a 9- to 10-year-old street peddler who sells cigarettes, chewing gum, and various other things in a box that hangs on a strap to his shoulder.

Through a chance meeting, Hai eventually falls in love with Lan who works as a prostitute in big hotels.

She tells Hai that she won't be doing this job for long and dreams of sleeping in an air-conditioned room, with no one to bother her.

During one of the last scenes of the film, Lan finally comes to terms with herself and Hai as he takes her to a place streaming with red phượng vĩ (Royal Poinciana) blossoms.

Teacher Dao is particularly interested in Kien An's song because it reminds him of his days as a small boy (when he was "light and pure") along the river markets.

Teacher Dao corrects her and says that even though he never leaves the place, in spirit, he yearns for the songs of the birds, the scent of the lotus, and the freedom of the clouds that lazily float in the sky.

Hai (the cyclo driver) acts as a bridge between the past and the present, living care-free yet observing the "improvements" of westernization with a silent resentment.

[2] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three out of four and wrote "We require Asia to be ancient, traditional and mysterious.

"Three Seasons" is so languorously beautiful, because it has the sentiment of a Chaplin film, because exotic customs and settings are so seductive, we change the rules.