Festival offers glimpse into Vietnamese films

Vietnamese actress Do Thi Hang is seen in a scene of the film “Yen’s life” directed by Dinh Tuan Vu. / Courtesy of Vietnam Cinema Department

• Published Jan 5, 2017 5:19 PM KST
• Updated Jan 5, 2017 5:19 PM KST

1st Vietnam Film Day celebrates 25 years of diplomatic ties

By Kim Jae-heun

The Vietnam Cinema Department and the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) will co-host the 2017 Vietnam Film Day in Korea from Jan. 12 to Jan. 14 at Lotte Cinema in the World Tower, Jamsil, western Seoul, screening the three top Vietnamese films for free. The 3-day event celebrates the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and Vietnam and established directors like Dinh Tuan Vu as well as movie stars like Do Thi Hang will visit Korea to join the festival.

Popular Vietnamese films like “The Scent of Green Papaya” (1993) have previously grabbed local audiences with their uniquely mysterious and distant emotions but it was difficult to find Vietnamese movies in Korean movie theaters.

The Vietnam Film Day in Korea will kick off the free screening at 8 p.m. on Thursday with the opening film “Yellow Flower On the Green Grass” by Victor Va, the most influential film director from Hanoi. Based on a successful novel of the same name, the story, set in 1989 in the countryside of Vietnam, depicts a young love story of two boys and a girl. The film of the Vietnamese-American director premiered in the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and was released in theaters on Oct. 2. It was selected as the Vietnamese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards for its solid content and beautiful mise-en-scene.

Last year’s hit movie “Yen’s Life” (2016), directed by Tuan Vu Dinh, will be screened on the second day at the same time in the same place. The drama film is about a 10-year old rural woman in Vietnam who gets married according to the arrangement set by her parents. Yen’s Life took the top prize at World Premieres Film Festival in Manila, the Philippines, last year, in the main competition.

The last Vietnamese film to be screened at the festival is “Quyen,” or “Farewell, Berlin Wall” (2015), directed by Phan Quang Binh Nguyen. The thriller and drama film follows the journey of an Hanoian girl named Quyen (Vu Ngoc Anh) crossing the Russian border into Germany with her husband to seek a new life in the promising land. However, the couple faces bitterness and separation in a foreign land where they happen to spend some 10 years.

The story is based on the novel of the same title and the Vietnamese director decided to make the story into a movie after listening to the struggle and plight of Vietnamese people in Germany back then.

Vietnamese filmmakers and actors will attend the opening ceremony on the first day as well as participate in various programs during their visit in Korea. The participants will not only introduce themselves and their films to the Korean audience and Vietnamese residents here but also experience Korean food, K-pop performances and Korean fashion shows.

A forum will be held on the second day to develop the film industry exchange between Korea and Vietnam and hear lectures from film experts at the Conference Room at the Lotte Hotel in Jamsil from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

The Vietnamese Ambassador to Korea Pham Huu Chi will give a speech in commemoration of the first event celebrating the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and Vietnam, and the chairman of KOFIC Kim Se-hoon will also be at the festival.

“This festival is the first event that celebrates the 25th anniversary of Korea-Vietnam diplomatic ties and the Vietnamese Ambassador to Korea has agreed to join the event, praising highly the value of this film festival,” said the festival managing company ShowBT CEO Geong Seong-han during the interview with The Korea Times.

“The aim of this event is to develop and increase the exchange in the film industry between Korea and Vietnam as well as to send Korean directors to work in the Vietnamese film industry in the future. Also, the Vietnamese community in Korea is large and we want to provide them with a chance to watch movies from their homeland,” Geong said.