[Video] Slick Short Film Highlights the Vibrant Life in Modern Hanoi

This beautifully shot and edited short video showcases a diverse range of activities and panoramas, capturing snapshots of life in Vietnam's bustling capital.

The roughly three-and-a-half minute video, tiltled 41 Days in Hanoi, opens with an overhead shot of a wide Hanoi intersection, dense with characteristically chaotic Vietnamese motorbike traffic. The perspective changes and we are shown a street-level view of the city teeming with energy from multiple generations of local folks.

Among them are grinning, playful children rolling around on bikes and tiny electric cars; skateboarders pulling off gravity-defying tricks; sword-wielding martial artists vanquishing imaginary opponents; and a veritable mélange of humanity found motorbiking on the thoroughfares. The videographer manages to capture some fairly candid and intimate portraits of everyday Hanoians.

The film uses slow motion camera effects with some glitchy looking edits, and synchs the clips with a moody, down-tempo soundtrack featuring ambient music from Canadian artist Loscil, an instrumental from UK rapper Jam Baxter produced by Chemo, and some classic Pink Floyd.

In one scene we are shown a group of middle-aged women dancing and chanting in unison. The audio from the scene is layered with the aforementioned Chemo track, and an organic-sounding meld of traditional and contemporary music is created in what feels like an aural metaphor for the way that Hanoian culture integrates the modern with the ancestral.

Check out the clip from Layered Visuals below:

[Video via Vimeo user Layered Visuals]

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