Show honours film composer

Popular film composer Trong Dai will perform in the monthly music programme Con Duong Am Nhac (Music Road), to be televised live tomorrow.

Dai, who is director of the Thang Long Sing and Dance Theatre, has written music for a number of popular movies and television series, including Mua La Rung (Season of Falling Leaves), Nguoi Ha Noi (The Hanoians), Dat va Nguoi (Land and People), Duong Doi (Road of Life), Chuyen Pho Phuong (Street Story) and Canh Bac (The Gamble).

The theme he wrote for director Tran Trung Dung's Duoc Song (To Be Lived) won the Best Music prize at the 2009 Golden Kite Awards, while his music won the same award for Di Trong Giac Ngu (Walking in the Sleep) in 2005 and Ky Uc Dien Bien (Memory of Dien Bien) in 2004.

Dai's wife, singer Mai Hoa – who performed many of the songs used in these movies – will join Dai in tonight's programme, along with popular singers Thanh Thanh Hien, My Linh, Dang Duong and Duc Tuan – all of whom have gathered to honour Dai and his wife.
The programme will take place at the Ha Noi's Friendship Palace at 8pm, and will be live broadcast on VTV3.

The monthly programme Con Duong Am Nhac (Music Road) appears on VTV monthly, aiming to present different Vietnamese composers and their careers and provide audiences a panorama of Vietnamese music.

Action flick kicks off holiday season

Viet Nam's first holiday season movie release, Em Hien Nhu Ma So (Gentle as a Nun), hits cinemas yesterday.

In the film, directed by Hoang Thien Tru, a former singing star (real-life singer Siu Black) meets a Buddhist nun (Anh Thu) who is a martial arts expert on a secret mission to recover a priceless religious artefact. The two of them witness a murder committed by the son of a mafia boss and, entangled with the underworld, take refuge in a church.

Anh Thu has previously appeared in such popular films as Nhung Co Gai Chan Dai (Long-Legged Girls) and Hon Truong Ba Da Hang Thit (The Butcher's Soul and Truong Ba's Body). Playing a Buddhist martial arts nun in the new film, she spent two months in martial arts training and performs her own stunts in the film.

For Black, movie acting is still an experiment, although she turned in an engaging performance in the film Huyen Thoai Bat Tu (The Legend Alive). She turns in another surprising performance here, as a former star sour with the passing of her youth.

"I'm keen on action movies," said Black. "Sometimes I forget dialogue, but I'm absorbed in the action scenes,

The holiday movie season will eat up at Tet (Lunar New Year), when the Thien Ngan Studio will release Bong Ma Hoc Duong (Ghost at School), the first 3D movie from director Le Bao Trung.

"To prepare for my biggest project, I spent time to learn 3D filmmaking from specialist Chuck Comisky in Hong Kong," said Trung.

Trung and his crew were supported by cinematographer Joel Spezeski, and post-production for the film was completed in Hong Kong.

Pop singers Wanbi Tuan Anh, Truong Quynh Anh and Elly Tran all play leading roles in the film.

"By using 3D technology, we can make films completely different from 2D products, which have poorer images and music," said Dinh Thanh Huong, the movie's production manager.

High-tech, sophisticated productions would attract fans of different ages and backgrounds, he added.

Ghost at School will be screened in both 2D and 3D versions.

Viet Nam first saw 3D technology in the cartoon Phu Dong Thien Vuong, produced by the HCM City-based LCKSoft Company. Other 3D animations like Tho Va Rua (Rabbit and Turtle) and Chu Heo May Man (Lucky Pig), produced by the Viet Nam Cartoon Studio and the 3D Sao La company, have impressed children.

"I think making 3D cartoons and movies isn't difficult for domestic filmmakers," said Trung, who recently opened his own studio, LBT Entertainment. "But the problem is how to encourage movie producers to become involved in the new business."

Other movies expected for the holiday season will be the Viet Film Studio's Dai Chien Co Dau (Fighting Bride), Thien Su 99 (Angel 99) – produced for the teen market by Phuoc Sang Studio – and Sai Gon Yo! from the Chanh Phuong Studio.

VN's first insect photo exhibition opens

The country's first ever photo exhibition of insects is on display in Ha Noi offering a closer look at Viet Nam's anthropological population.

Co-organised by the Viet Nam Nature Museum and the Italian Embassy, the exhibition has gathered over 200 photos of insects from across the country taken by researcher Vu Van Lien and Italian photographer Saolo Bambi.

Each panel features a characteristic of the insect life in an artistic style although they were initially taken purely for scientific research purposes.

There are also nine photos of typical forests throughout Viet Nam, located at various different altitudes from the southern island of Phu Quoc to Fansipan, the peak of Indochina, in the northernwestern province of Lao Cai.

The exhibition aims to celebrate 2010 as the first year of international biological diversity initiated by the United Nations.

"The exhibition also has a further purpose of promoting the protection of biological diversity as well as our living environment for now and for future generations," said Professor Chau Van Minh, chairman of the Viet Nam Science and Technology Institute.

The exhibition will be on display at Exhibition House, 45 Trang Tien Street, until tomorrow.

Concert features Tchaikovsky works

The HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) will present an evening of Tchaikovsky's music this weekend.

Beginning with Slanovic March in B-flat minor, Op.31, a popular work which highlights the spirit of Russian people, the concert will continue with Symphony No 5 in E Minor, op.64, which was written in 1988.

The work includes four chapters that comprise Russian folk and European music. It has been performed many times by prestigious orchestras worldwide.

The evening will finish with ballet performances by HBSO's young dancers, including Phuc Hung, Hong Chau, Phi Diep and Diem Trang – four talents who have helped infuse new ideas into traditional Vietnamese dance.

They will perform five extracts from popular Russian and French dances like Diana&Acteon, Chopiniana, The Flowers and Le Corsaire.

The concert, conducted by Tran Vuong Thach, will begin at 8pm tomorrow at the HCM City Opera House, 7 Lam Son Square, District 1.

Tickets priced from VND20,000 (for students) to 200,000 (US$10) can be bought at the theatre.

Sculptures celebrate origins of life

Nineteen sculptures symbolising rice, seeds, and embryos, which their creator Bui Hai Son considers the original source of humans, are on display at an exhibition in HCM City.

Originarium (in Latin characters), or "The Origin," on at the HCM City Fine Arts University's Applied Arts Gallery, displays sculptures in bronze, wood, glass, and some other materials.

Son's works are displayed in two separate sections – one features just sculptures and in the other several works have been put together to create installation works.

For instance, Nguon (The Origin) and Lua (Rice) are among the highlights in the first section while they have also been put together along with more works to form Phuong Nam (The South).

"I spent at least a year working on my pieces, which depict Vietnamese culture and lifestyle," Son said. Nguon, representing a grain of rice and made from wood and bronze, is three metres long.

His colleagues and he faced challenges in exhibiting their works because of the giant size of most of them, he said. "I wanted a big open space to display my works and finally settled for the Applied Arts Gallery."

Son, born in An Giang Province in 1957, graduated from the Fine Arts University in 1987. He has displayed his works in many group exhibitions and fine-arts festivals at home and abroad. Last year he was invited to the Miyazaki International Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture in Japan.

Originarium will be on show at 52 Phan Dang Luu Street, Binh Thanh District, until Monday.

Teen takes audience choice award

A documentary film entitled Mother and Children, directed by seventeen-year-old Phan Huyen My has won the audience choice award at the Golden Bee student short film festival.

My, who has been a cinema-goer from an early age, joined the Chung Ta Lam Phim (Let's make movies) project organised by the Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents (TPD) in 2009 to fulfil her film-making dream.

"The film is based on true stories of my family's daily life, and centres on the difference between generations. While my mum tries to forbid my younger sister from spending her money, using a mobile phone or dying her hair, my sister continues to assert herself," said My.

The film won praise from the judges and was selected to be shown along with films by People's Artist Dang Nhat Minh, and director Bui Thac Chuyen in the US.

Quang Nghia, another film contestant entrant said: "Mother and Children will set the trend for future movie making through the use of bitter-sweet humour."

My also expressed her thanks to director Chuyen for his great support and help in the production of her movie.

"This award has whetted my appetite to study at the Ha Noi University of Theatre and Cinema," said My.

The film festival's awards ceremony was held at the Kim Dong Theatre on Thursday.

Other awards included the Golden Bee prize for Catching Shellfish, Silver Bee prize for The Gift and the Room, best director for Into the Wild, best cinematography and consolation prize for The Shoeshine boy.

Source: VNS