Long started his career in the early 1990s, belonging to the first generation of stuntmen in Vietnam, who were then called ‘dien vien nhao lon’ (acrobats). When the late People's Artist Ly Huynh was looking for a stuntman, he appeared to be a suitable candidate thanks to his acrobatic and sword-dancing abilities. From a Karate martial art student, Long became a stunt double for famous actor Ly Hung in nearly 10 films.

The first film he acted in was ‘Thang Long De Nhat Kiem’ (Thang Long’s First Sword) (1990). Though he had a small figure, while Ly Hung was tall, Huynh still chose Long as the stuntman because Long could do somersaults which few people could do at that time.

In his first projects, Long just did some martial arts movements and simple acrobatics. But in the next films, he alone had to work as a stunt double for many actors.

In one film project, he had to use 40 different costumes and wear armor weighing over 10 kilograms.

According to Long, Meritorious Artist Bach Long was the person who ‘gave birth’ to the new career - stuntman, when he invited acrobatic groups to act as stuntmen for artists Le Thuy and Thanh The in cai luong (Vietnamese reformed theatre) plays. 

After the success of a series of films, the value of cascadeurs was recognized and honored.

In 1992, Hoang Trieu, who was then an assistant director, applied for a license from the HCM City Cinema Association to establish a cascadeur club. 

After that, many foreign film crews from Hong Kong (China), Taiwan, Korea, the US, and France came to Vietnam to seek locations for their shooting. Their presence in Vietnam created more job opportunities for cascadeurs and helped the club develop in a more professional way.

Many martial artists, such as Nguyen Thi Hong Hai (Pencak Silat), Nguyen Hong Quy (Vovinam), and Kim Thoa (traditional martial art), became famous stuntmen in that period. Vietnamese artists learned a lot from foreign film crews and stuntmen and taught the skills to successors.

The foreign film project with the biggest investment in shooting in Vietnam was ‘Nguoi My tham lang’ (The Quiet American) (2002). 

The stuntmen in the project had to practice for seven days to act in the scene of tumbling down when bombs exploded. The average wage in Vietnam at that time was VND200,000 - 300,000 a day, while The Quiet American film paid $70. Long was paid $300 for his dangerous scenes such as being stuck in a burning car.

And then the golden days of musical films came, and more jobs came to cascadeurs. Their skills improved significantly. Many records were broken and created during that time, such as the scene of falling from the 8th floor by Bui Minh An.

In the past, Vietnamese stuntmen worked and acted in dangerous scenes with no personal protective equipment.

Long was once burned by untested fire-resistant chemicals. One day, he had to jump from the peak of Ba Hon Mountain (Nha Trang) without a trial in advance. He admitted that he was very scared before the scene, but he decided to ‘fight as a matter of honour’.

On another day, stuntmen who performed a flying scene with 2mm plastic lines instead of thick lines fell from a high place, with the lines wrapping around them many times. They were lucky to survive.

When Long participated in a project in Malaysia, his head was hit by glass fragments and he needed eight stitches.

Asked about income, Long said previously cascadeurs were paid VND3.5 million for every scene of burning. However, sometimes national television paid only VND1 million. He said that he and his co-workers sometimes worked for free to help the film crew with financial difficulties. In some cases, film crews only paid 10 cascadeurs, but his team still used 15 stuntmen.

Long and his team once participated in an Indian film and expected to receive $3,000 for each, a big amount of money at that time. But it was the most worrying trip for all of them because of serious accidents.

The veteran cascadeur is now a freelance journalist. He takes pictures of celebrities and participates in many film projects.

Thanh Phi