Song of the Stork into War Movies: Wayne Karlin’s Retrospective Cinematic Techniques

Derived from his journalistic writings as a correspondent in French Indo-China, Graham Greene’s poetic description of the evocative nature of the Vietnamese landscape in The Quiet American parallels features within that country’s literary and cinematic tradition as well as impressions recorded by foreign journalists and writers. It also matches scenes of countryside and the Ho Chi Minh trail during several sequences of Song of the Stork (2003), the first international production shot in Vietnam following the end of the war and that preceded the second film version of The Quiet American (2002), directed by Philip Noyce, also featuring two of the earlier film’s leading actors Do Thi Hai Yen and Quang Hai Ngo in the roles of Phuong and General The.