Ngo Thanh Van and Johnny Tri Nguyen in Heroic Blood (2007) - Photo: DPCC
Within the framework of the first Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival (HIFF 2024), the audience has the opportunity to re-watch the 2007 film Heroic Bloodline by director Charlie Nguyen.
After the screening, director Charlie Nguyen shared his feelings when rewatching the film he made 17 years ago, and answered questions from the audience.
At the time of its release, Heroic Blood was considered a big hit in the Vietnamese action film genre.
The film stars two top names Ngo Thanh Van and Johnny Tri Nguyen.
This can also be considered the first bright spot opening the third milestone of overseas Vietnamese directors returning to the country to make films and contributing to changing the tastes and techniques of making Vietnamese entertainment films in the past.
Don't be naive anymore.
Director Charlie Nguyen talked a lot about his memories when making the movie Heroic Blood , as well as his gratitude to the entire crew who participated in this "harsh, arduous game" with him.
He said: "Making a film is very hard, very painful for many years, just like playing with cinema, you have to play it worthily, to enjoy it."
Heroic Bloodline with Charlie Nguyen is a great opportunity for someone like him who "has dreamed of making films for many years".
"At that time, I was like a fish in water, I could swim, play and experiment freely. The entire crew seemed to surpass their own limits during the process of participating." The director recalled that he once fainted due to lack of sleep and exhaustion right on the set.
Charlie Nguyen during the time of Heroic Blood
When asked humorously whether "The Blood of Heroes" has made a profit yet, director Charlie Nguyen admitted that his film "will only pay off its debt in 2023".
Responding to Tuoi Tre Online , Charlie Nguyen confided that he still cherishes making part 2 of Heroic Bloodline .
"Up to now, I have 5 different scripts for Heroic Blood 2. But I write because I love it, but whether I can make it or not depends on many factors.
Because at this point, no one wants to play with me that way anymore.
Everyone demands that I no longer be naive, but instead have a lot of constraints. I have to be serious about their trust and investment."
If given the opportunity to make part 2 of Bloodline Heroes , Charlie Nguyen hopes to "increase the level of hardship and fierceness" in the scale of the war, choosing a setting that takes place more in the rivers of the West.
According to the director, with the current development of Vietnamese cinema, when the investment budget for films is increasing, for Heroic Blood 2 to be profitable, the revenue needs to reach 200 billion.
The biggest regret...
When asked about the biggest regret in the process of making Heroic Blood , Charlie Nguyen shared that not only in this project but also in other projects, he felt regretful because "he was not strict enough in the filming scenes", "almost every scene did not meet the desired standard of perfection".
My Husband - a film directed by Charlie Nguyen in 2018 - Photo: DPCC
He gave the example of My Husband (2018) - a film starring Thai Hoa and Phuong Anh Dao:
"When I started making that film, I told myself that I couldn't compromise with the crew. Even though the film was my film, it wasn't really mine.
It's a movie of compromise when I film. What I want is absolute, but what I get is always relative because I have to think about hundreds of people around me.
I was always hurt after the movie came out and wondered why I was so weak, why I gave in so much, why I was afraid that people would lose sleep, go hungry... so I accepted the relative things. I need to be tougher and more determined, to stand on my own side."
Charlie Nguyen admitted that because of this strict mentality, the filming process of "My Husband" was really difficult and tiring.
He humorously said: "For this reason, after My Brother's Wife, I have not made a film as a director. I do not want to put myself in a situation where I have to make the film crew suffer.
I know that when I make the next movie, I will torture the crew a lot. The game will be very painful, very miserable, very fierce, and whoever plays it will have a hard time. But never mind. Playing must be worth playing."
Source
Comment (0)