This October, K+ television will release the long-running Tet drama series in Hell Village. This is the first Vietnamese historical horror series to be broadcast on the small screen, promising to bring many interesting and haunting experiences to viewers, especially the "unique" film production process also brings many unexpected experiences to the whole crew.
Hell village steps out of the book page
During production, the most difficult challenge for the film crew was to choose a setting that could recreate the dark and creepy atmosphere of the original novel. The crew spent a long time surveying, going through 14 villages to find a place that could become Hell Village but got no results.
“It was the 10th day, when we were preparing to return to Saigon, we were coincidentally shown a small village by a young Mong man,” director Tran Huu Tan said.
"Tet in Hell Village" brings together Vietnamese screen stars.
In a last ditch effort, the film crew was surprised to visit Sao Ha village (Ha Giang) and described the place as 99% similar to the Hell Village in the book. With a completely primitive landscape, the village has no electricity, water, or phone signal.
According to Mr. Hoang - Logistics Manager of the crew, to have water for daily use, the crew had to transport it from a town 15km away from the filming location. "Then, we had to carry the water pipe up nearly 3,000m, passing through 2 hills, at an altitude of 2,000m" , Mr. Hoang shared.
With the difficult conditions and filming at the beginning of the year in a harsh geographical location, the crew had to work even harder.
Meritorious Artist Phu Don said the conditions were very difficult, the crew started filming on an extremely cold day. The high humidity made the tents and sleeping areas of the crew almost waterlogged, some equipment could not even run.
Actor Quang Tuan described the process of making this film as “seeing everyone suffer a lot, make a lot of sacrifices”. He also confessed that “just walking made me tired”.
Filming process of "3 no"
For more than two cold months, the film crew worked hard to recreate a village at an altitude of thousands of meters. Finding the setting was difficult, but recreating the village according to the concept from the novel was even more challenging. The entire crew had to live in “three no” conditions: no electricity, no water, no shelter in the cold weather.
Actor Phu Don participates in the movie "Tet in Hell Village".
The actors and crew had to live, eat, sleep and work together under makeshift canvas tents in the freezing cold weather. There were even days when the temperature dropped below 5 degrees Celsius with rain and other typical harsh weather conditions of the remote mountainous region of Ha Giang. Not only were human lives affected, many electronic devices could not function.
Because the costumes of the characters in the film were not warm enough, many hot water bags and charcoal basins were continuously prepared and supplied to the actors to ensure the body temperature of everyone. Most of the actors from the South were stunned by the harshness in Ha Giang.
Quang Tuan said that even when he had to concentrate on the scene, he could not stop shaking. Nguyen Thao was "so shocked that she could not talk or joke like usual, sometimes she was so cold that she cried".
In addition to the harsh weather conditions, unstable electricity and water supply made it even more difficult for the cast. According to the producer, there were days when water pumped from the foot of the mountain was scarce, so the logistics team had to take turns boiling hot water continuously for 4-5 hours to ensure the actors could shower and remove makeup.
Despite the difficulties, everyone's spirit is strong to work together to celebrate Tet in the hell village . Even these harsh living conditions are considered as inspiration to increase experience, helping actors fully immerse themselves in each scene.
Horror folk setting
According to the film’s screenwriter – Dao Dieu Loan, there are many difficult things in literature that cannot be translated into images. During the process of writing the screenplay for the film, she revealed that there were many details that had to be considered omitted, or new details added to make the work more cinematic.
This has caused a lot of disagreement with the original author – Thao Trang. “There were even times when we argued and could not make a final decision,” Thao Trang shared. But thanks to that, every detail and story when on film became more realistic, vivid and had more emotional nuances.
Meanwhile, director Tran Huu Tan said he had never seen a work with so much local culture. Right from the original story, Tran Huu Tan assessed that this was a book that gave him a feeling and uniqueness that he had never had before . "The story also describes horror elements that I have never seen before, even in movies," he expressed.
During the filming process, the crew also experienced many exciting and thrilling experiences. Notably, there were some inexplicable coincidences. One day when filming began, Nguyen Thao lost her bag of important documents. She was advised to go to the temple at the beginning of the village to ask for help finding them. Half-believing, half-doubting, the actress still tried, and the next morning she found her lost items.
With the massive scale and level of investment, producer Hoang Quan said he and the director have devoted all their heart and soul, even postponing another project to focus on the first Vietnamese historical horror series on television.
My Anh
Source
Comment (0)