Singer sweeps Golden Ochna Awards

Recognition: Pop singers Dam Vinh Hung (second left) and Thanh Thao (third left) receive the Mai Vang Award for Favourite Singer. — VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — Pop star Dam Vinh Hung won in three categories at the Mai Vang (Golden Ochna) Awards that were given away in HCM City on Saturday.

The prestigious award instituted by Nguoi Lao Dong (The Labourer) newspaper is meant to honour the year's top performers in the entertainment industry.

At the Hoa Binh Theatre, Hung was jointly named the Favourite Pop Singer along with Thanh Thao and also the Favourite Singer of Patriotic Songs award. He also won the award for Favourite Song for Viet Nam Nam 2020 (Viet Nam in 2020) along with its composer Le Quang. Hung wrote the lyric for the song.

This year was significant for the rise of young artists who won a third of the awards on offer.

Actress Lan Ngoc won her first award for Favourite Film Actress for her role of Nuong in Nguyen Phan Quang Binh's film Canh Dong Bat Tan (Floating Lives). The film is based on a popular short story of the same name by Nguyen Ngoc Tu.

Singer-actor Phung Ngoc Huy was the Favourite TV Actor for his performance in the series Cong Mat Troi (The Sun's Gate). Van Trang topped among actresses for her role in Loi Song Sai Lam (Wrong Lifestyle), a Vietnamese remake of South Korean series Terms of Endearment.

The winner of the Chuong Vang Vong Co 2006 (Vong Co Golden Bell) cai luong (reformed theatre) singing contest on TV, Vo Minh Lam, was the Favourite Theatre Actor for his role in Dua Con Nha Ho Trieu (Trieu's Son).

Viet Nam Idol host Phan Anh was the Favourite TV Host.

Comedian Hoai Linh, theatre actress Le Khanh, film actor Ly Hung, and folk singer Cam Ly kept the flag flying for veterans.

Some of the winners – Hung, Ly, Thao – and dancers Linh Nga and Dang Hung performed in front of 20,000 workers at the Pou Yuen Company in Binh Tan District at an event organised by the newspaper yesterday. — VNS

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Norwegian Wood to hit local cinemas

Nostalgia: A scene from Norwegian Wood, directed by Vietnamese-French director Tran Anh Hung. The film is based on the best-selling novel by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. — File Photo

HA NOI — Norwegian Wood directed by Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung, who resides in France, based on the best-selling novel by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, will reach Asian audiences later this month.

The film will first hit screens in Japan on December 11, Chinese Taiwan on December 17, Hong Kong on December 30 and Viet Nam on December 31.

The Viet Nam premiere will be shown at Ha Noi's National Cinema Centre on December 20 with the director's presence.

Hung and producer Shinji Ogawa spent four years trying to win the author's approval to allow the novel to be adapted to the big screen.

Hung, who won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival for his 1995 film Cyclo, said it was never an option to make Norwegian Wood outside Japan or in any other language.

He first wrote the screenplay in French, had it translated into English and eventually Japanese, and relied on help from his producer to communicate with the actors.

"Murakami was very open and said I could adapt it in any language I wanted and in any place in the world," Hung said in a recent interview.

"But I said I wanted to film Japanese faces, because what attracted me in the novel was that it was Japanese," he said.

Adapting a best-selling novel like Norwegian Wood for the cinema can be a tough task for any director, but making the film in a language the director doesn't speak is a challenge in its own right.

That's the challenge Hung faced in bringing the Haruki Murakami story of love and loss to the screen 23 years after the book enchanted millions of Japanese readers and raised the author's profile globally.

The film's score includes the song Norwegian Wood by The Beatles and original music written by Jonny Greenwood. It stars Kenichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi and Kiko Mizuhara.

Norwegian Wood, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September, is a nostalgic story of loss and sexuality. The story's protagonist and narrator is Toru Watanabe, who looks back on his days as a first year university student in Tokyo.

Through Toru's reminiscences we see him develop relationships with two very different women – the beautiful, yet emotionally troubled Naoko, and the outgoing and lively Midori.

Director Hung was born in 1962 in Viet Nam's central city of Da Nang and emigrated to France when he was 12. He has long been considered at the forefront of the wave of acclaimed overseas Vietnamese cinema for the past two decades.

His films have received international acclaim, and until recently, had all been varied meditations on life in Viet Nam.

He received his first Oscar nomination (for Best Foreign Film) for The Scent of Green Papaya (1993), which also won two top prizes at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, and a second for Cyclo (1995), featuring Hong Kong movie star Tony Leung Chiu Wai, which eventually won a top prize at the Venice International Film Festival. The Vertical Ray of the Sun, released in 2000, was the third film of what many consider his "Viet Nam trilogy".

After a sabbatical, it was officially announced that Hung was back behind the camera with the noir psychological thriller I Come with the Rain (2009), which features a star-studded international cast that includes Josh Hartnett and Elias Koteas. — VNS

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