Although he has been retired for many years, Minh Tam who is considered the “King of Sound” still shows a great zeal for creating movie sounds as he did at a young age.

Artist Minh Tam is the first specialist in making sounds for films of Vietnamese revolutionary cinema. He made sounds for about 2,000 films, including famous films such as “Chung Mot Dong Song” (Sharing the same River), “Vi Tuyen 17 Ngay va Dem” (the 17th Parallel, Days and Nights) and “Dem Hoi Long Tri” (Long Tri Festival Night).

Anyone who visits the house owned by Foley artist Minh Tam at Vietnam Film Studio’s Collective Quarter at No.4, Thuy Khue Street in Hanoi, is surely surprised by a pile of “scrap iron” with odds and ends, such as damaged tyres, old farmer’s pipes that have been carefully preserved for years.

They were his props when he worked as a specialist in creating sounds for films. Today, his house has become a private documentary archive called “Props in the time of manually making sounds of the Vietnam’s cinema”.

After a long trip, we finally arrived in a village near the Day River in My Duc District where artist Minh Tam has lived since he is retired.

He told us about the subsidized period when the Vietnamese people still watched black and white films and they did not pay any attention to artists of making movie sounds like him.

They even knew nothing about this hidden art. At that time, film making technology in Vietnam was backward so it was impossible to directly record sounds right at the scene. Therefore, the Foley artists had to work in a close, narrow and dark room. Yet, they still created different lifelike sounds.

When we met him, he was hard of hearing caused by his special career. However, he was very eager to show us his techniques on making movie sounds using simple objects, such as a bamboo broom, a handkerchief and some nylon bags in different sizes.

He surprised us by making different sounds that were very true to life. For example, to make the sound of a meal tray breaking, he placed some teacups on a tray and then taped it to his hands and to make the sound of a national flag flying in wind or a flame, he only used a handkerchief.

He slightly rubbed a nylon bag to create the sound of frying eggs and strongly rubbed it to make the sound of cooking oil boiling in the pan and a thatch roofed house firing in wind.

Talking about his career, he most remembered the time he made sounds for the film “Toa Do Chet” (Coordinates of Death). After the film was shot, it was sent to Russia for making sounds and he was also sent to this country to learn the art on making film sounds.

In the film, there was a scene that needed the sound of a parade of elephants going on the road so the Russian technicians asked a group of people to stamp their feet because they thought that the sound of elephants was loud.

He knew that the Russian technician made a mistake because an elephants’ step is quite light due to a large buffer at their legs. However, he did not dare to tell what he thought.

Then, he made the sound himself of elephants running using a shoe covered with cloth. When the Russian directors listened to the sound created by him, they decided to use it for that scene.

Listening to the sounds he made, I understood why he is bestowed with different aliases, such as the “King of Sound”, “Sound Magician” and “Titan of Sound”.

“This career was rather special and sometimes I wanted to give up because I could not make the sounds I liked. However, when I found out the principle of it, I became interested in and passionate to it,” he said. For this reason, he had the career for nearly 50 years.

After nearly 50 years of contributing to Vietnamese cinema, Minh Tam is now retired and lives in a village near the Day River in My Duc District.

He is now retired and does not make sounds for film any more, but he always thinks of it. Luckily, his daughter, artist Minh Thu has followed in her father’s foot steps and he has bequeathed his passion, technique and experience to her.

Source: VNP