Want your heartstrings tugged?

The Owl and The Sparrow is a charming film about a little orphan who plays matchmaker in Saigon.

Han Thi Pham is Thuy, a 10-year-old child who works in her uncle's factory in the country. She is the centre of the story.

The film opens on a day when Thuy has cut and measured all her work incorrectly, and her uncle gives her hell. "I'm all you have," he sternly reminds her, and the child's response is to run away to the city.

In Saigon, Thuy's story becomes connected to two others: That of a broken-hearted zookeeper (The Lu Le) who has just broken up with his fiancee, and that of a stewardess who is likewise challenged in the romance department. The stewardess (Cat Ly), Lan, has a relationship is with a married man, and it's going nowhere.

Thuy gets help from other street urchins in Saigon, and first tries her hand at selling postcards. Another child suggests she sell flowers instead, and Thuy soon becomes part of a group of little girls who sell roses. The woman who runs this Dickensian group of street children dresses them in sailor suits and school uniforms, the better to win the hearts of potential flower buyers.

On her first day, Thuy has sold nothing until she meets Lan, who buys two flowers. On another selling day, Thuy wanders into the zoo and meets the gentle zookeeper, who happily shows her around and lets her help buy food for the animals.

It's inevitable that the two adults, through their connection to Thuy, will meet and develop a relationship. Too bad Thuy's uncle has also come to Saigon to find the child.

The Owl and The Sparrow manages to be a true crowd-pleaser that never gets maudlin -- quite a feat when one considers the waterworks potential of any movie about children in peril.

The story ends in a rather pat fashion, but everything that has gone before that is quietly engaging, and the performance from Han Thi Pham is heartbreakingly good.

The Owl and The Sparrow, which has English subtitles, is at the Carlton Cinema this week.

(This film is rated PG)

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