VietNam Life Style: 8/29/10

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Writer receives ‘Love for Ha Noi' award

Big love: Pham Quang Nghi, secretary of the Ha Noi Municipal Party Committee, presents the Grand Prize to writer To Hoai. — VNS Photo Truong Vi

HA NOI — The Bui Xuan Phai - Love for Ha Noi awards ceremony took place yesterday in honour of individuals and organisations who have made great contributions to Ha Noi in the fields of culture, arts and society.

The Grand Prize is granted to an individual who devotes his or her life to Ha Noi and has a career that strongly connects to the capital city. This year, 90-year-old writer To Hoai, who has written 30 books about Ha Noi and contributed to 50 others, took home the top prize.

Last year, scholar Nguyen Vinh Phuc walked away with the Grand Prize for his extensive research on Ha Noi over the past 55 years.

The Idea Prize is awarded to an individual or idea that respects the capital's unique qualities and contributes plans to beautify and develop the capital. Architect Hoang Thuc Hao and his partners took home the prize for their project named Peaceful Road, to restore a part of the Thang Long Citadel.

Last year, the prize was presented to architect Dinh Viet Phuong and the website ashui.com for their Old Quarter restoration ideas, including restoration of colonial architecture using 3D technology and the establishment of an online museum.

Musician Nguyen Cuong was awarded the Work Prize for his chorus of bronze drums. He successfully played the drum, which is considered by the Vietnamese as a holy symbol.

Last year, the Work Prize was given to writer Pham Van Quy for ten plays about Thang Long (the former name of Ha Noi) in three traditional genres: tuong (classical drama), cheo (traditional opera) and cai luong (reformed theatre).

This year's Job Prize was granted to a group of scientists and specialists who proved the values of the Thang Long Citadel and nominated it as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.

Professor Phan Huy Le represented the group of winners.

"This prize is for many domestic and international scientists who have worked for a long time to protect and respect the citadel of the 1,000-year-old capital," he says. "We are so happy that we contributed our part to helping the world recognise our heritage."

Last year, the Ha Noi People's Committee won the prize for its efforts to transform the Ha Noi Opera Plaza project into the 19/8 Park in August Revolution Square near the Ha Noi Opera House.

This award is special because it's the only one granted for love, said Ngo Ha Thai, editor-in-chief of The Thao&Van Hoa (Sports and Culture) newspaper.

"It recognised the love culture activists have for Ha Noi," he says. "This year, it is more meaningful than ever because Ha Noi is turning 1,000 years old."

This year's awards were organised by the Ha Noi People's Committee and sponsored by the daily The Thao&Van Hoa and the Bui Xuan Phai Fund.

Judges included poet Bang Viet, chairman of the Ha Noi Literature and Arts Association; researcher Nguyen Vinh Phuc; journalist Ngo Ha Thai, deputy general director of the Viet Nam News Agency; painter Tran Khanh Chuong, chairman of the Viet Nam Fine Arts Association; architect Doan Duc Thanh and musician Phu Quang.

The awards were established in 2008 in honour of painter Bui Xuan Phai (1920-1988), a founder of modern art in Viet Nam.

The foundation was established by the painter's son, Bui Thanh Phuong, and one of the largest art collectors of Bui Xuan Phai's works, Tran Hau Tuan. — VNS

Tran presents 'Norwegian Wood' at Venice filmfest

French film director Tran Anh Hung is pictured arriving for the screening of "Norumei no mori"(Norwegian wood) at the 67th Venice Film Festival, on September 2, at Venice Lido.

Photo: AFP

The pacing, the blowing wind, the music and other atmospherics all helped create the tension in "Norwegian Wood," says Tran Anh Hung, presenting the haunting movie at the Venice film festival.

Based on a best-selling novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, the story of love, sexuality and loss -- mainly through suicide -- is set in Japan in the volatile 1960s.

"The film is rich in physical variation," the Vietnamese-born Tran told AFP, discussing scenes in which the lead character Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama) paces around an apartment with the troubled Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi), and later tries to keep up with her in a green field.

Watanabe falls in love with Naoko despite her imbalance over losing her sister and boyfriend to suicide.

While promising to wait for Naoko until she overcomes the trauma at a special sanatorium, Watanabe gets deeply involved with another woman, Midori (Kiko Mizuhara), tumbling into romantic confusion.

"In the field scene the conversation is very physical, Naoko is talking about not being able to get aroused with her previous boyfriend," Tran said. "In fact it's a confession, which in church you would do sitting down."

Scenes in which blowing wind competes with the dialogue "also adds tension," Tran, 47, said of a story that in book form "has a very intimate relationship with the reader."

The film adaptation "was not just adapting a story... it was also adapting all the poetic ramifications, all the emotional ramifications that the book provokes in you," said Tran, who won the top prize Golden Lion here in 1995 for "Cyclo".

"I had to find a way to unlock this personal side," Tran said.

Even the language gap -- Tran used interpreters to direct the all-Japanese cast -- was a way to "find a different energy," he said.

And while the sexuality of the film, presented on Thursday, is replete with 1960s overtones, Tran sought to minimize visual references to the era, notably in the clothes, all neutral, even prim.

"We eliminated anything too hippy," he said.

Apart from the emblematic Beatles' song of the title, he shunned familiar tunes from the era, preferring to use "less well-known music but with strong emotional power... mostly to avoid the nostalgic side," Tran told reporters earlier.

"The story could otherwise be seen as something softer, nicer," he said. "Instead it's seen as harsher, crueler because of the music."

The many love scenes in the film are for the most part awkward, with the focus on the lovers' faces.

"I wanted to show the impact on Naoko when she made love with Watanabe. The rest could only distract from what is most important in the film," Tran said.

The Paris-based director had several exchanges with Murakami at the start of the project, but eventually, Tran recalled, the author said: "Do the film you have in mind. All that is needed is for you to make the best film possible."

"Norwegian Wood" is one of 24 films vying for the Golden Lion at the festival, which opened Wednesday and runs through September 11.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Tran presents 'Norwegian Wood' at Venice film festival