Vietnamese American director Victor Vu has always yearned for the chance to make a film in Vietnam and capture a bit of the place he still considers home.
Although a large number of Vietnamese and Asians in the US appreciate his films, he has always felt the strong urge to return to Vietnam and make a picture here.
“I live and work in the US, but deep inside, I’m always a Vietnamese,” he says.
He says he regrets that his film Oan hon (Spirits) – one of his more critically successful features – is set in rural Vietnam but was shot entirely in southern California.
Vu says he initially intended to make the film in Vietnam, but ran into logistical problems and had to shoot in the US
But the 33-year-old director has finally begun to turn his dream into a reality.
He is currently working on Chuyen tinh xa xu (Untitled Love Story), which has scenes shot both in Vietnam and the US
“It feels so different working back home,” he said.
The film centers on Khang, a rich but good-for-nothing young man, and his childhood friend, Hieu, an aspiring poor student.
Both friends end up studying in the US, where Khang falls for a divorced police woman.
But their love is forbidden by their families.
Meanwhile Hieu is torn between a beautiful girl who has won Vietnamese American beauty pageants and a girl in Vietnam to whom he is engaged.
The film, a collaboration between the US’s InFocus Media group and Vietnam’s Wonderboy Entertainment, is scheduled to hit Vietnamese and American theaters over the 2009 Lunar New Year Holiday.
“The Industry”
Vu is optimistic about the film industry in Vietnam.
“It doesn’t matter to me where I pursue my career, Vietnam or the US” he says.
“Vietnam’s film industry hasn’t made enormous strides, but it has achieved steady progress over recent years.”
“This is an encouraging sign, we can’t expect it to improve overnight,” he says.
Vu also says he was happy with the local actors he used in Untitled Love Story.
“Vietnamese actors and actresses act naturally and play their roles well.”
But he also pointed out what he considered the actors’ weaknesses – they pay more attention to their appearance than to their acting.
Aspiring director
Victor Vu, whose real name is Vu Quoc Viet, was born in 1975 in North Hollywood, California.
He graduated from the School of Cinema and Television at Loyola Marymount University in 1998.
His thesis film, Firecracker, pocketed the Student Showcase Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival and the Best Short Film Award at the Newport Beach International Film Festival.
He spent the next six years working in visual effects for Sony Pictures Imageworks and Eastman Kodak’s Cinesite Digital Studios on such films as Starship Troopers, Contact and X-Men 2, all the while nurturing his dream to become a filmmaker.
“It was a really tough time, but once one is engaged in filmmaking, he or she must be ready to face challenges.”
In 2002, he co-founded Strange Logic Entertainment and began producing his own films.
Vu’s feature film debut, Buoi sang dau nam (First Morning) won the Best Feature Film Award at the San Diego Asian Film Festival in 2004.
The film also garnered him the Emerging Director honor at the 2003 Vietnamese International Film Festival.
The film is about a young man who returns home on the threshold of the Lunar New Year and finds himself a stranger within his own family.
The cold silence surrounding the disappearance of his younger sister pushes him into a quest for answers that leads him through the shadowy events of his family’s history.
From their perilous migration from Vietnam, to their separation and struggle with marital relationships, the family continues to endure the tragedy and disappointment of false expectations.
Vu’s second feature, the ghost-story Oan hon (Spirits), played at several major film festivals including the Bangkok International Film Festival and the Singapore International Film Festival.
It was also an official choice at the Hawaii International Film Festival and the Fantasia Film Fest in Montreal, Canada.
The film blends Vietnamese folklore with modern pathos to explore obsession, love and redemption.
“Vietnamese people have a rich spiritual life which, in many ways, is embedded into our culture,” Vu says.
“I grew up listening to these ghost stories and they intrigued me because they are not only meant to scare listeners.”
Vu says Vietnamese ghost stories are emotionally driven, offering a deep spiritual and philosophical look at human existence.
Vu also plans to make another film with Wonderboy Entertainment in the near future.
Reported by Kim |
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