Vietneamse movies (from my perspective)

[Thanh Dang Nguyen <Nguyen.Dang.Thanh@Eng.Auburn.EDU>]

Hi Hai,

> Needless to say, I spent a lot of time watching movies 
> (freely) during the years 83-86.

Lucky you! I think most of the movies I mentioned were from TV,
since I didn't have money to go to the cinema very often,
and back then I didn't like "phim tam ly xa hoi". You're quite
right in that there is a huge difference between watching a movie
on TV and in a real movie theater with wide screen (even without 
air conditioner :) So what movies were you managed to watch?

However, I still remember my curiosity and enthusiasm before
each movie was shown on TV (do you guys remember the well-known
opening little tune before the film program? -- all the kids
playing in the street rushed home or to a neighbor's place to
watch the movie at once). And if I think about it, it's really amazing.
We didn't have color TVs, just some lousy, black-and-white, maybe 
10-year-old equipment, a real big one (mostly Polish, or Russian
product which sometimes requires a fan to cool them down during its
operation, since transistor TV was still quite an expensive thing).
So was lousy the sound quality, and the voice synchronization was
awful. But altogether we didn't bother ourselves much because of
these, and each movie was quite a good topic to talk about for
a while.

For those of you who like nostalgia (a bad thing in general, but
we can't help it, can we?), I would recommend an Italian movie
titled "Cinema Paradiso". I watched it about a year ago, thanks to
Va(n in Yale and his friend. Too sentimental for me, but good movie
anyway. Look what a cinema really meant for people before the
video age.

> Hey, remember "Tha^`y Lang" from Poland? Also a popular film.
> There was also a lot of "u+o+'t a't" Indian films during this time, a lot 
> of dancing and singing, hehehe. I think one of the more famous ones was 
> called "Ti`nh ye^u va` gio.t n'c ma('t" (???).

If I remember correctly, "Thay lang" was a controversial movie.
Can't remember why, but I remember watching it on TV with my
parents, and falling asleep in the meantime. Probably I was too
small to understand. About Indian movies, I really hated them,
even now. Overacted love stories. Well I admit that the actresses
are often very good-looking, but for a young boy, it's too much
love, tears, and adult conflicts. Did anybody have any good
experience with these movies? Don't feel ashamed if it's so :)

Talking about Indian movies, remember that other than these
tearful cinemas (which were made in Bombay, a la Hongkong style),
some real good ones with completely different styles were also made.
I strongly recommend all of you to watch "Salaam Bombay", a 1988
movie which won some prize in Cannes festival later on. It's about
homeless children, and played by real homeless children in Bombay
(the director just picked them up in the street, and taught them
how to look into camera!). I nearly cried during the movie, since
it made me think back to some of my poignant childhood memories
that I experienced in Vietnam. Watch it, and you will see that India
is not much different from Vietnam, not at all!!!

"Nhu+~ng ng` kho^'n kho^?" (French) was also popular at the time.
"Gia?i Pho'ng" (Russia)

Don't remember "Giai phong", but Victor Hugo's "Nhung nguoi khon kho"
was a good one. I still remember the voice of the woman who used
to synchronize most of the French movies. Her name is Thu The^',
or something similar. Very nice voice indeed.

> I'm interested in watching them too. If anyone knows how to get hold of 
> them here in the US, pls let me know.

Here in the US, foreign movies are for quirky people :) I couldn't 
imagine before coming here that they would never show any kind of
program from other countries (be it movie, cartoon, or documentary).
Hungary is quite different in this aspect. Here in the US I first
realized what "mass media" means. Just watch the Olympics coverage,
it's so stupid, awful and ridiculous! (my opinion only -- please
send your flames to my email address)

BTW, you can find some international movies in a real small section
in Blockbuster, Movie Gallery or similar places. If you're lucky,
you may catch some good stuff, but chances are you will never find
the mentioned Russian movies. Maybe they have "Moscow Doesn't Believe
In Tears" since it's relatively new. The version I saw here is the one
with synchronization (usually foreign movies are distributed with
subtitles only -- one more reason why Americans don't like watching
these movies), and it's bad.

I know some places where you can buy these movies, but they cost
anywhere between $30-$100. For a poor grad student, it's not a
good investment I guess :-( Folks in Hungary may help us, if
they show it on TV, but this is nearly hopeless. I stayed there for
7 years, but never caught them on TV.

> Hey, perhaps we should talk about VNese films at the time as well; they 
> drawed huge crowd during the 80s, not like now. Remember "Va'n ba`i la^.t 
> ngu+?a", "Tu+. thu' tru+o+'c bi`nh minh", "Vu. a'n vie^n dda.n la.c",
> "Xa Ha` no^.i", "Co' mo^.t ba`i ca kho^ng bao gio+` que^n", "La`ng Vu~ 
> DDa.i nga`y a^'y", etc? :-)

IMO, they were popular since there was nothing else to watch. Movies
like "Biet dong Sai gon" are stupid (no flames please!) I think the
best well-known Vietnamese movies were "Sao thang 8", "Vi tuyen 17 ngay 
va dem", "Canh dong hoang" (or something like that which won the Moscow 
film festival in 80-81), "Bao gio cho den thang muoi" (according to my
mother, lots of people swept after the movies, those who lost
some family members in the war). "Van bai lat ngua" also used to be
a good spy movies with the popular and handsome Nguyen Thanh Luan,
and other good-looking actresses (Thanh Lan, and others). "Lang Vu dai
ngay ay" was the first adaptation with some funny and "obscene" scenes.
But I think that most of these movies didn't match the world standard,
and could not distributed abroad (except a few countries who in one way
or another are related to our history).

BTW, what was the first Vietnamese movie with a sex scene? I think it's
a big thing in a country like ours where censorship is a king; just
think what a big headline it made when the Russians made "Little Vera";
not a good movie at all, but ground-breaking as the first glanosty movie
with nude and sex scenes. The actress later went on to playing model
for Playboy. In this case, the business was dominant over the artistic
values.
 
> as "Dance with Wolves" can only be watched on tape in Hanoi (as the 
> situation was in 92), we still have a long way to go.

What annoys me was the synchronization, it was so bad on tape. Sometimes
too loud, sometimes too quiet, and often incomprehensible. Btw, talking
about "Dance with Wolves" specifically, it needs to be watched in a
movie theater, no matter what! My roommate here bought a video tape
of this movie, and it looks so dull on TV (sound, color, acting). To
experience the movie, that's the main point. I think the plot is
in the second place. I like "Dance with Wolves" mostly due to its
spectacular cinematography; its story and other controversial historical
facts are unimportant to me.

BTW, can anybody enlighten me of Vietnamese movies industry in the
90's? I'm talking about real movies, not "mi an lien" stuffs.
Did any Vietnamese movie win any prestigious international prize?
(I don't count "Scent of the Green Papaya").

Gotta say goodbye here!

-Thanh