Russian war movie filmed in Hoi An town

QUANG NAM — Viet Nam's Chanh Phuong Film Studio and Russia's IKA Film Studio are collaborating on the production of the film Nguoi Linh (The Soldiers), being directed by Stanislav Ivanov.

The film, currently shooting on location around the city of Hoi An city and the vestige site of My Son in the central province of Quang Nam, tells the story of a group of Russian military specialists who come to Viet Nam during the American War.

Pops singers to judge Singapore talent contest

HA NOI — Viet Nam Idol Uyen Linh and singer Nam Cuong will serve on the jury of Music Revolution 2011, a talent contest to be held in Singapore on Friday for Vietnamese students working and studying abroad.

Linh and Cuong will also perform such hits at the event as Cam On Tinh Yeu (Thank You, Love), Chi La Giac Mo (Just a Dream) and Bay Giua Ngan Ha (Fly in Galaxy). The contest is held annually by the Students' Association of the Singapore Management Academy.

Exhibition of S Korean illustrations on show

Ha Noi — The South Korea Cultural Centre has opened an illustrative painting exhibition in Ha Noi.

Over 70 paintings are on display, giving the public a full insight into the development of computer art graphics of South Korea as well as uniquely artistic traits of modern illustrative paintings.

Three Vietnamese painters Cong Quoc Ha, Nguyen The Duy and Nguyen Van Cuong also brought their works of net printing, wooden and gypsum carving, depicting beauty of Vietnamese countryside, nature and heritage.

The exhibition will wrap up tomorrow. — VNS

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Vietnamese models to take part in Seoul festival

HA NOI — Models Nguyen Ngoc Lan Huong and Quang Thinh will participate in the 6th Asia Model Festival today in Seoul, South Korea.

Huong, 1.75m tall, was named as fourth placed runner-up in the Miss Model of the World 2009 beauty contest held in China last year. Meanwhile, male model Thinh is 1.85m tall and won fourth prize at the Viet Nam Manhunt 2006. He also won Best Supermodel Photo 2008, Promising Model 2008 and Most Beloved at Manhunt 2008 in South Korea.

The Asia Model Festival Awards are presented annually by the Korean Models' Association. This year's event will draw over 30 models from 16 countries and will be graced by a bevy of South Korean stars and celebrities.

New TV series showcases local fashion designers

HCM CITY — VCTV12 started broadcasting fashion series The Maze in HCM City yesterday.

Top models Thanh Hang, Vo Hoang Yen, Ngoc Quyen and Kim Minh will display collections by top local designers like Hoang Ngan, Vo Phan Huy, Chung Thanh Phong, and Kelly Bui.

Ngo Quang Hai, who produced art-house movie favourite Pao's Story and the 2008 Dep Fashion Show 2008 directed the show.

Hard Rock Cafe seeks VN entries for London gig

HCM CITY — Hard Rock Cafe is giving Vietnamese bands the chance to be one of four Global Ambassadors of Rock to play at Hard Rock Calling 2011 in London's Hyde Park, one of the world's most anticipated music festivals.

In celebration of the brand's 40 anniversary, Hard Rock has launched its first Global Ambassadors of Rock Battle of the Bands, giving the rock bands the opportunity of a lifetime.

Hard Rock Cafe HCM City has asked for Vietnamese entries for the qualification round.

The best 12 bands will have an audition with a judging panel made up of famous musicians and rock music experts on February 16.

The winner will represent Viet Nam at the regional finals.

Bands need to apply to participate by sending in entries to Uyen Tran – Chloe of Hard Rock Cafe HCM City via email uyen.tran@vtijs.com.

The entry email should contain a demo in MP3 format, profile photographs and a 50-100 word bio.

Deadline for entries is January 31. — VNS

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Singers Day to discuss celebrity responsibilities

HA NOI — The fifth Singers Day will be held on January 17-19 in the northern city of Ha Long.

The day is expected to attract around 200 domestic and overseas Vietnamese singers.

The conference will host a discussion on celebrity culture, their artistic responsibility to the community, artists and internet.

The Noi Vong Tay Lon (Joining Arms) charity gala will take place on January 19 to raise funds for local poor fishing people.

The previous Singers Day was held in Quy Nhon last year.

1,000th anniversary book takes music prize

HA NOI — A book on One-Thousand Year Thang Long - Ha Noi has won the highest prize of the year 2010 by the Viet Nam Musicians' Association.

The book consists of five parts covering court music, ca tru (ceremonial singing), traditional music, modern music and music criticism.

The awards ceremony was held last night at the headquarters of Radio Voice of Viet Nam in Ha Noi.

Viet Nam Orchestra charms in New York

NEW YORK — The National Symphony Orchestra of Viet Nam on Saturday performed at a peace concert held at New York City's Carnegie Hall together with artists from Japan, South Korea and the US.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Bui The Giang stressed that the event was a symbol of friendship and closer co-operation between peoples. The event also sent a message of peace and friendship to peoples all over the world, he said.

The concert was conducted by Japanese conductor Honna Tetsuji and featured South Korean teenage talented pianist Isadora Kim.

Photos convey kids' views on social safety

HCM CITY — Photographs taken by a group of fourth and fifth grade students to express their views on pedestrian safety are on show at an exhibition at a HCM City primary.

"Photovoice" at the Nguyen Minh Quang Primary School in District 9, which has more than 100 photos taken by eight children, is part of a project to use photographs to promote social change and improve the quality of life in communities.

Express delivery company FedEx and global NGO Safe Kids Worldwide, the sponsors, have already carried out this project in Brazil, Canada, China, India, South Korea, and the Philippines.

In Viet Nam, they launched it together with the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation in October.

They selected students for photography training and pedestrian-safety education who then took the photos.

"The project will help educate children about pedestrian and traffic safety," Mirjam Sidik, executive director of the Foundation, said.

The photos will be sent to several other schools in the city where they will be displayed for three days each. — VNS

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Experts praise Vietnamese folk values

Sing it: Don ca tai tu is performed for tourists in Tien Giang Province in the Mekong Delta. — VNS Photo Van Dat

HCM CITY — Don ca tai tu (music of the talented) should be recognised as an intangible heritage of the country to curb the impact of Western music's influence on indigenous musical forms, according to international scholars at a conference on preservation of the art form.

Speaking at the three-day event in HCM City, Professor Sheen Dae-cheol of South Korea said Don ca tai tu, which began 100 years ago, holds an important position in Viet Nam.

The history of Don ca tai tu is similar to Gagok of South Korea and Nanyin of China, both of which began as amateur music and developed into more sophisticated forms.

Don ca tai tu, however, has retained its original characteristics.

Because it does not require a stage, it quickly became popular in every corner of society and could be performed under a tree, in a house, on a boat, or under the moonlight.

The Korean professor said he was impressed with the musical instruments. Some of them have only one, two or three strings, such as the monochord, two-chord fiddle and the three-string fretless box spike lute.

"The feeling and soul of the Vietnamese people are embedded in tai tu music. The music, which is an invaluable heritage, applies the yin-yang theory of the East," he said.

"The value of gender equality is also mentioned in Don ca tai tu. Since it began, it has always been performed with the participation of both men and women. Everyone considers Don ca tai tu amateur music, but it is not amateur at all. It is noble amateur music. It deserves to be considered as a world cultural heritage," he added.

Dr Joe Peters of Singapore, who noted that Don ca tai tu was important to the Vietnamese people's life, said that video and audio clips on the art form could be found on the internet.

Prof Yamaguti Osamu of Taiwan's Nanhua University said improvisational music like Don ca tai tu appears in other countries, including India and, especially, Africa.

The music is transmitted orally and has no printed musical notation.

More recordings of the music must be done so that documents can be submitted to UNESCO and the art form can be approved and recognised as an intangible cultural heritage of the world.

Gisa Jaehnichen, a professor in the music department at University Putra Malaysia, praised the charm of Don ca tai tu and the instruments used in performance.

The music is traditionally played in informal venues, often in a close friend's home or in a neighbour's garden.

Its standard orchestra includes a dan tranh (16-string zither), a dan kim (two-chord guitar), a dan co (two-chord fiddle), a ty ba (pear-shaped, four-chord guitar), a doc huyen (monochord zither) and a flute.

Professor Tran Van Khe, musician Nguyen Vinh Bao, who are experts in Vietnamese traditional music, and other local artists said they were highly impressed about the knowledge of the foreign experts who spoke about Don ca tai tu at the conference.

Experts said that performing the music on a big stage or during tourism festivals, which has been done in recent years, was not true to its original nature. —VNS

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Windsurfing race in Mui Ne

Some 30 international competitors will take part in a downwind slalom racing competition to be held by a Russian windsurfing school in Mui Ne, Phan Thiet, today.

Races for the second annual Surf4you Open Cup at Surf4you International Windsurfing School start at 12 noon with registration opening at 9am. Competitors will race seven downswind slalom events over a 4km course. The first prize is a Neil Pryde sail.

The event may be changed to the following day if the conditions are not suitable for racing, said Andrey Zabolonyvy, the event organiser and owner of the kitesurfing school.

Cyclists promote marine protection

Fifty cyclists from Cycling Club in Da Nang and other central provinces joined a cycling event last Sunday to promote protection of the sea environment.

The cycling tour was organised by Son Tra Peninsula Management Board in collaboration with the Cycling Club and authorities of tourism beaches in Da Nang.

Da Nang has become a major sea tourism destination, with beaches and sea resorts attracting some 900,000 tourists, or half of the total number of tourists to the city in 2010, according to figures from Da Nang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Four Viet Nam hotels in top 500

Sofitel Legend Metropole and Hilton Opera Hotel in Ha Noi, and Caravelle and Park Hyatt Sai Gon in HCM City won coveted spots in a listing of the world's top 500 hotels by Travel + Leisure magazine.

In its January issue, the New York City-based magazine called out the four hotels in its ninth annual survey, known as T+L 500.

The magazine polled its 973,000 subscribers, soliciting votes for the best hotels around the world.

More chartered flights for Tet

The number of chartered flights to central Viet Nam has increased significantly before the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, compared to the same period last year.

According to the director of the Da Nang-based tour operator, Vitours, Cao Tri Dung, local and foreign airlines have 12 to 15 charter flights from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and elsewhere in Asia to Da Nang for the period, with more than half of them catered to by Vitours. Half of these chartered flights are operated by Vietnam Airlines from such markets as South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan, and the rest by TransAsia Airways of Taiwan and other foreign carriers.

Vietnam Airlines has also started a series of more than 40 flights chartered by the international travel firm Vietlink from Hong Kong and Da Nang until early May 2011, using the 184-seat Airbus A321 aircraft.

In December, Russia's Vladivostok Air kicked off their chartered flights from Vladivostok and Khabarovsk to Cam Ranh Airport in Khanh Hoa Province.

Turkish Airlines flies to HCM City

Turkish Airlines began air services last week to HCM City by extending the Istanbul-Bangkok route to Viet Nam's southern city.

The airline has four weekly flights, with departures from HCM City's Tan Son Nhat Airport on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday on 270-seat Airbus 340.

The flights arrive in HCM City at 4:50 and depart at 8:30. The carrier also offers promotional roundtrip airfares at VND18.83 million for departures that last until March 31.

Hotel offers special group package

The InterContinental Asiana Sai Gon has offered a special residential package starting this January, applying to group bookings from 10 to 100 rooms per night. The package deal wraps up on February 28 and is priced starting at US$165 a person. The cost includes one night's stay in a deluxe room, daily breakfast, internet access and a one-hour welcome reception.

InterContinental Asiana Sai Gon has been honoured by the World Travel Award as Viet Nam's Leading Hotel 2010. — VNS

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Feudal-time stone and bronze instruments revived

THUA THIEN HUE -- The South Korea's Centre for Traditional Performing Arts has just handed two replica sets of music instrument, which had been used under feudal reigns in Viet Nam, to the Hue Relics Preservation Centre.

The sets include 12 bronze (locally named as bien chung) and 12 stone bars placed in order of different levels of tones (bien khanh), which have been said to be originated in ancient China, then transferred to some Eastern Asia countries including South Korea and Viet Nam.

The bells are cast with a hook on the top of each for hanging. There are four parallel emerged lines circling the bell's body. There are nine small buttons over the bell for knocking on.

Each stone bar are made in "L" shaped letter and has a hook for hanging, too.

Since 2009, the South Korea experts have co-operated with the Vietnamese partners to do research and produce the two sets using total made-in-Viet Nam materials and traditional Vietnamese producing skills.

Artisan Kim Hyunkon, who have produced Korean traditional instruments for 50 years now and has directly worked on the project, said the Vietnamese royal bronze and stone instruments were much similar to those in South Korea despite some differences in their appearances.

He confirmed that he was contented with the sound of the newly-produced instruments for Viet Nam because of the exact ratio of bronze, tin and lead mixed for casting.

The two sets of instrument then will be given to artists from the Hue Traditional Royal Arts Theatre, who then will revive the ways of using the instruments with the helps of concerned Vietnamese and South Korean experts.

The sets will be used to perform at Te Giao ceremony and Xa Tac, which are two important worshipping ceremonies practised in Hue imperial citadel in the past, at next biennial Hue festivals.

In Viet Nam, the two sets had been used during the reigns of Le (1427-1788) and Nguyen (1802-1945).

Under the Nguyen reign, the two sets were used by royal music band as hanging instruments at various important royal ceremonies like the royal ceremony at Thai Hoa Palace, Te Giao ceremony, Xa Tac worshipping ceremony.

Since the end of the Nguyen rule in 1945, no one has been able to produce the sets as well as play them. Only some pieces of the two sets had been preserved at the Hue Royal Antiques Museum until the South Korean experts offered some helps. - VNS

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"Floating Lives" deeply moves Korean audiences

Actress Do Hai Yen (black dress) casting Suong in “Floating Lives” talks with the audience at the Busan International Film Festival from October 7-15 in South Korea

"Canh Dong Bat Tan” (Floating Lives) has brought audiences of the 15th Pusan International Film Festival to tears in a room filled with the weight of human despair and the beauty of resilient emotions.

It competed in the New Currents category at the film festival which wrapped up today in Pusan port city, South Korea.

South Korean audiences saw the film before Vietnamese can do as of October 22. Silence fell in two projection rooms with nearly 800 seats in Lotte movie-theater as the Monochord’s lament came to a halt. The silent sound of tears was only broken by a heavy round of applause.

Adapted from Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tu’s novel, "Boundless Rice Field", the movie directed by Nguyen Phan Quang Binh centers around a family living in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta and a man’s search for romantic redemption.

Father Vo (Dustin Nguyen), daughter Nuong (Lan Ngoc) and son Dien (Vo Thanh Hoa) live nomadically on a boat after the father burned their house down in retaliation for his wife's infidelity.

They drift from one rice field to the next, rearing ducks and doing occasional handy jobs. When Suong (Do Thi Hai Yen), a hooker, joins the family to evade an angry mob, Nuong and Dien welcome her as a surrogate mother and object of pubescent fantasy, while a volatile relationship develops between Vo and her.

Young director Nguyen Phan Quang Binh reaches his audiences most deep-seeded emotions as he digs down through his characters’ cruelty, loss and despair to the most fundamental need and desire for love.

The waterways not only hold and lead the family’s boat, but also symbolize the characters sifting, drifting and endless fluid emotions while also embodying the graceful flow of Binh’s visual storytelling.

The actors deliver an outstanding performance. Nuong conveys not only her suffering but also her strength in containing it and mastering it while living on the edge of that painful abyss seen only through her piercing look. She is able to elicit strong emotions and bring her audiences to earnest tears without long and elaborate dialogues, but with the sheer strength of her acting.

Hai Yen (Suong) surpasses all expectations and proved her critics wrong as she aces a role many had deemed unsuitable for her talent. Her performance makes the onscreen Suong come to life more powerfully than even the carefully described one in the book. Her careful balancing of emotions, with love and compassion on one end and despair on the other, bursts out of the screen with unmatched vigor.

Dustin Nguyen (Vo), plays the most challenging role, as his rage builds up throughout the movie fueled by the pain and shame caused by his wife betrayal.

His is a very articulated acting tale of pain and interior torments ordered through daily acts of cruelty.

The carefully arranged and paired soundtrack talks directly to the audience’s hearts. The sad and lonely sound of the traditional Monochord and the melodies composed by Vietnamese Quoc Trung emerge as direct testimonials from the true soul of the Mekong Delta.

Nguyen Ngoc Tu’s "Boundless Rice Field" was published in the South Korean version in 2007.

All 12 films competing in the New Currents category at Pusan International Film Festival reflect contemporary issues like poverty, war, overpopulation and loss of traditional values. The movies include “The journal of Musan” (South Korea), “Eternity” (Thailand), “Strawberry Cliff” (Hong Kong), My Spectacular (China), The Quarter of Scarecrows (Iraq) and Ways of the Sea (Philippines).

Tickets to “Floating Lives” were sold out one week before the screening, according to organizers.

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