Vietnamese Nha Phuong won the Asian Star award at the Seoul International Drama Awards last night.

Vietnamese actress Nha Phuong

Phuong is known in South Korea for her role in the television series Tuoi Thanh Xuan (Forever Young), which is co-produced by VN Television (VTV) Film Centre and South Korea’s CJ E&M Pictures.

“I’m honoured to be here tonight to receive the Asian Star award. It is a real surprise for me,” Phuong said at the award ceremony held at the KBS Hall.

Phuong beats five other artists, namely Japanese Fujii Mina, Hong Kong’s Anthony Wong, Taiwanese Yi Hao Liu, Singaporean Rebecca Lim and Phillippino Dennis Trillo.

Directed by Nguyen Khai Anh and Bui Tien Huy of VN and Myung Hyun-woo of Korea, the 36-episode series tells the story of the youth, who are enthusiastic about discovering life and its precious and unique experiences.

The series is the first collaboration between VTV and the Korean company and was a success in VN. It earned the highest ratings among the programmes aired at the same time. It was also aired on the Korean cable channel last year.

The series won the VTV Award for the New Series category in 2015. Phuong and her Korean partner Kang Tae-oh won the Impressive Actor and Impressive Actress awards, respectively.

The couple continue playing their roles in Forever Young 2, which will be aired soon on VTV.
The role in Forever Young has made the 26-year-old actress popular among audiences. She was awarded Impressive Actress at the VTV Awards 2016 for the second time, just one night before she reached Korea to attend the Seoul International Drama Awards.

With the aim of building a strong infrastructure for cultural exchange and development of the TV drama industry, Seoul International Drama has been playing a critical role to connect different countries, encouraging them to share their finest drama productions since the awards were launched in 2006.

This year the Grand Prize went to British production The Night Manager with performances by Tom Hiddleston and Huge Laurie. 

VNS