As a common saying goes: "tham thì thâm" (grasp all lose all).
It's easy to find stories in Vietnamese and Asian folklore where the main theme is "greed brings about comeuppance." Vietnam's origin story of the starfruit is one such example. Commonly known as Ăn Khế Trả Vàng in Vietnamese, it tells the story of two brothers – one representing greed and the other representing the morally good. The lesson about avarice involves a prized starfruit tree and a phoenix that promises to take the two brothers to a gold island in exchange for the fruits.
Recently this popular tale was retold by a stop-motion animation project created by five students from Van Lang University: Quach Nghe Nhat Minh, Mai Ngoc Anh, Nguyen Truc Thy, Pham Quang Thao Nguyen and To Van Minh.
Keeping the starfruit story's premise about greed, the team kicked it up a notch by adding elements of horror and suspense into their retelling. If, as it is in the original story, being blinded by greed leads to the downfall of the evil brother's own life, this rendition fixates on the deterioration of one's morality when one's life is driven by greed.
Have a look at the video below:
[Photo via Youtube user Nhat Minh Quach Nghe]
