“Tunnels - Sun in the Dark”: Waiting to Conquer International Awards

Scene from the movie “Tunnels – Sun in the Dark”. (Photo: Galaxy Studio)

Bui Thac Chuyen is a name that almost guarantees the film products he makes, from TV series to movies, regardless of the topic. His "Tunnel: Sun in the Dark" released on the occasion of the Liberation Day of the South and National Reunification has received many high reviews from colleagues, experts and audiences, because of the meticulousness and detail from the script, acting to sound, images, music...

“Tunnels - Sun in the Dark” is a project that has been cherished for more than 10 years by director Bui Thac Chuyen. He shared at the film premiere in Hanoi that 11 years ago, he had the opportunity to visit Cu Chi tunnels and was very moved when he witnessed with his own eyes this very special land, only about 30-35 km from Ho Chi Minh City, where a revolutionary base existed for decades, which the most powerful colonial empires could not do anything about. Because in this place there exists a unique tunnel system in the world. Even more surprising is that the owners of those tunnels are the people, who somehow stayed and fought against the most powerful armies in the world.

Bui Thac Chuyen recalled: “At that time, I thought that I definitely had to make a film about this place. And at that time, I also discovered that there had never been a film made about Cu Chi tunnels, which was also a difficulty, but I was still determined to do it.”

The guerrillas are very young in the film.

“Tunnels - Sun in the Dark” is a privately funded film, and is also the first historical revolutionary film made entirely without state investment. However, the film also received great support from local agencies and departments.

Director Bui Thac Chuyen said: “This is the first time a private film has received so much support from the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, the City Party Committee's Propaganda Department, departments, ministries, and branches…”

Many types of heavy weapons are mobilized in the film.

This is also the first time a Vietnamese feature film project has mobilized many heavy weapons that the US used during the war in South Vietnam at that time, such as M-48 Patton tanks, M113 ACAV armored vehicles, UH-1 Iroquois helicopters, Swift Boat (PCF) Patrol Craft Fast warships, LCM-8 small landing craft and other types of military weapons and equipment.

Thanks to that, the confrontations between tanks, warships, and heavy weapons between the professional American army and the "barefoot and steel-willed" Cu Chi guerrillas were convincing and captivating to viewers.

Talking about the film, director Bui Thac Chuyen said that private films like this are very necessary for history. “We hope the film will be a small gift for the 50th anniversary of the country's reunification. And the fact that many people go to see the film means that the film is truly completed.”

“Tunnels - Sun in the Dark” is inspired by real events after 1967, about a 21-man guerrilla squad fighting in the Cu Chi area, with the mission of holding out and defending the area. The squad, led by Bay Theo (Thai Hoa) at the Binh An Dong base, was assigned to support Hai Thung (Hoang Minh Triet) in “protecting military medical equipment and medicine for the field hospital.”

But in fact, their mission is much more difficult - to protect the safe area for Hai Thung's strategic intelligence group to transmit important secret documents by radio waves, as well as to infiltrate the US military's information lines. The radio communications were detected and located by the US military. From here, Bay Theo, Ba Huong (Ho Thu Anh), Tu Dap (Quang Tuan) and the guerrillas had to face increasingly fierce and sophisticated tunnel sweeps...

In the film, Bay Theo's wife sacrificed herself, her daughter (Khanh Ly) was also a guerrilla in the team, Bay Theo was both the team leader and the older brother of young soldiers such as the strong Ba Huong (Ho Thu Anh), Ut Kho (Diem Hang Lamoon) with a sweet voice or Ba Hieu (Nhat Y)... The film also had the participation of Bui Thac Phong, son of director Bui Thac Chuyen and Meritorious Artist Le Tu Oanh, in the role of a Cu Chi guerrilla.

As the raids became more and more intense, Bay Theo's entire team was exhausted from the pressure. "Uncle Sau" (Cao Minh), a superior officer, promptly arrived at Binh An Dong base to encourage them, giving them more confidence and determination. The love story of Ba Huong (Ho Thu Anh) and Tu Dap (Quang Tuan) is a beautiful, romantic story of wartime, creating an optimistic note for the film.

The scene was always dark and cramped, creating many emotions for the audience.

The film was shot from the perspective of people inside the tunnels, with close and low shots, depicting very realistically the narrow, dark tunnel space, but still the "roof" of dozens of children of Cu Chi land.

In the tunnels, there were chickens and green iguanas wandering around. In the midst of the earth-shattering bombs, there were still traditional folk songs played to “distract” people, and there were even movies shown in the tunnels, bringing hope and strong belief in a victory.

Ba Huong and Ut Kho in the movie.

The story in the film is told completely naturally by the characters. A cold-hearted Ba Huong, who caught the draft dodger Tu Dap, whose family had known her mother before, was alone and stubbornly carried a gun in the night to find the truth, and the first thing he did when he returned was to beat him because "when did you promise to marry, when did you promise to marry?" An innocent Ut Kho, between the line of life and death when the water from the river pumped in by American soldiers had reached the roof of the bunker, still calmly said "I'm pregnant". Then the "secret" scene with guns, bullets and the guerrilla was happy and joyful when he "uncovered" a B40.

Stories and frames like that made the audience cry, laugh, tear up and unable to take their eyes off the screen for even a second.

The whole guerilla team watched a movie under the rain of bombs.

If director Bui Thac Chuyen's "Glorious Ashes" still has opinions of likes and dislikes, even though the film has won many film awards, "Tunnel - Sun in the Dark" gives the audience a feeling of completeness and unity, as if they were the ones in the film.

The scenes and angles of director Bui Thac Chuyen are so realistic that, when watching the film, the audience feels suffocated more than once, and has to inhale deeply to replenish the oxygen for the scene on the film. Those are the scenes of the tunnels being bombed by rain, shaking on all sides, the dust in the tunnel, or the scene of American soldiers releasing toxic smoke into the tunnel entrance, the scene of the asthmatic guerrilla lying down, wheezing in fits...

Thai Hoa has shown the character of Bay Theo.

The film was recorded live, so the language of the film is very everyday. The audience can completely hear the characters swearing and getting angry… in many specific situations.

At the end of the film, director Bui Thac Chuyen was very subtle in bringing the heroes of Cu Chi that year to the screen, directly telling about life and fighting in that special land during those years, interspersed with documentary footage to see that the film can only reflect a part of the fierceness that once took place here.

Pieces of art and history stand together, painting tragic and heroic images but not at all clichéd about the war where victory is defined by the most ordinary and simple people. “Tunnels - Sun in the Dark” has been called by the audience “a movie to watch to be more patriotic”.

Tuyet Loan - Nhandan.vn

Source: https://nhandan.vn/dia-dao-mat-troi-trong-bong-toi-doi-cho-chinh-phuc-nhung-giai-thuong-quoc-te-post870406.html