Supermodel contest to crown winner in HCM City on Saturday

HCM CITY — The annual Super Model Competition will crown its winner in HCM City tomorrow.

Forty finalists will take part in talent and quiz competitions before the jury.

The event, produced by HCM City Television (HTV) and Cat Tien Sa Company, is organised by Thoi Trang Treû (New Fashion) magazine.

The aim is to discover young and talented models for the country's modelling industry.

The jury chose 40 finalists to compete in fashion shows and dozens of cultural and charity activities.

The top two women and men will receive trophies and cash prizes of VND50 million (US$2,500) each.

Organisers will also give prizes to both women and men for the Best Photograph, Best Appearance and Favourite Fashion Model.

Paris exhibition presents Ha Noi through photographer's eyes

PARIS — Photos of Ha Noi by French artist Dominique De Miscault are on display at an exhibition in Paris.

The exhibition entitled Ha Noi Nowadays introduces the 1,000 year old city with photos of its ancient quarters and large landmarks like the Ha Noi Opera House and the Metropol Hotel.

The exhibits features many beautiful sites in Viet Nam and Ha Noi.

Dominique De Miscault exhibited her work in the capital in 1994 and 1998, and in HCM City in 2003.

Luxury yoga, fitness centre opens in Ha Noi

HA NOI — After opening two immensely successful clubs in HCM City, California Fitness&Yoga Centres have landed in Ha Noi.

Located in the new Sky City Tower at 88 Lang Ha Street, the new fitness centre offers fitness programmes, state-of-the-art fitness equipment, and other services, including five yoga studios, an aerobics studio, a juice bar and internet lounge, a kids fitness centre, and a swimming pool. The centre also offers holistic beauty treatments.

The club offers four membership levels and operates from 8am to 8pm Monday to Saturday.

Apollo students earn Cambridge English certificates

HA NOI — Apollo English has granted certificates to more than 300 young learners in Ha Noi and HCM City.

The Cambridge English certificates were awarded to Apollo English students, aged 7 to 12 years old, who sat for three tests titled Starters, Movers and Flyers.

The Cambridge English tests for young learners are part of Apollo's summer programme each year.

Chairman of Apollo English Khalid Muhmood said students at the school gain confidence in their English skills.

"Seeing the children's progression in their English learning is a great joy to me and also for their parents," he said.

"The certificates are the students' ‘shields' that makes them more confident and familiar with international-style examinations. It's a good start for their future". — VNS

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Little stars not dreaming of big time

Bored with walking: Phuong Trinh, 17, began her career on stage at the age of 10 playing a gamut of roles in city theatre productions. —VNS Photo

HCM CITY — Does every actor dreams of becoming a movie star?

Five-year-old Dang Khoi of HCM City, who has acted in many films and TV serials, says: "Being a movie actor is not my dream. I dream of becoming a doctor who takes care of poor women and children."

The most important things in his life are his parents, teachers and friends, he says.

Khoi, who took part in Nhat Tam Lasta Studios' actor training programme for children, has played leading roles in TV series like Giac Mo Co Tich (Legendary Dream) and Mot Ngay Khong Co Em (A Day Without You).

He is now shooting for the film Ve Dat Thang Long (Returning to Thang Long Citadel), a 40-episode work on Ha Noi's history and culture produced by HCM Television.

Like many of his friends, he enjoys watching films but never seriously thinks of himself an actor.

"I saw my son's acting ability and wanted him to join the field because it can make his life more joyful," Khoi's mother says.

But she admits that while her son laps up the adulation he gets from people who have seen him on the screen, his true interest is his family and friends.

Seventeen-year-old Phuong Trinh, who has been an actress from a very young age, retains a child-like innocence despite the accolades she gets from fans, colleagues and critics.

Five years ago, when a director needed a pretty child actor, his first choice was Trinh whose maturity then belied her age.

She had begun her career on stage at just 10, playing a gamut of roles in city theatre productions like Ba Me Nhi (The Little Mommy).

Her latest TV offering is Nhung Ong Bo Doc Than (Single Daddies), a sentimental, 30-part series produced by MT&Pictures.

"I like to act in movies and commercials," she says.

But she is wary of the ivory tower many stars are forced to occupy and wants none of it.

"I love acting in movies but do not want to become a lonely star."

She adds she prefers spending time with her parents and friends who mean everything to her.

Like normal children, she has to finish her homework every day and study hard.

Le Thanh, a theatre director at Nhat Tam Lasta Studios, says: "Most of my students are children and teenagers who enjoy acting for fun but not as a career."

Most of her young wards learn acting for at least six months before joining the industry.

"But the most important lesson I teach them is how to become a good kid. That's what their parents want." — VNS

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Singapore art show in HCMC seeks college applicants

The LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore will hold an arts exhibition and open day at the HCMC University of Fine Arts gallery, 5 Phan Dang Luu Street in HCMC’s Binh Thanh District.

The exhibition will feature works by 17 Vietnamese and Singaporean students studying in the college. Works include five graphic designs, two interior designs, nine paintings, six fashion works, three animations and four short films. There will be information about the college and Vietnamese interested in studying there can enroll at the exhibition.

The college has a growing number of Vietnamese students enrolling in design and film courses. Two film study graduates, Boo Junfeng and Jennie Nguyen Vo Ngoc Diem, will be there to talk about their experience at Lasalle. Boo Junfeng directed a film called Sandcastle which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and has been selected to compete at the Vietnamese International Film Festival in Hanoi from October 17-21. Jennie Nguyen Vo Ngoc Diem, a lecturer at HCMC University of Theater and Cinema, directed one of the short films to be screened at the exhibition. “…We want more Vietnamese students to go abroad to add their vision to international arts education,” said Kim Dy-Liacco, director of marketing at the Lasalle.

Visitors can design a poster for one of the short films being screened at the exhibition, to be in the running for a prize trip to the LASALLE campus in Singapore, including return flights, food and accommodation for four nights, plus VND4 million spending money. All the entries will be uploaded on Facebook, with winners to be decided November 7.

LASALLE offers a comprehensive range of 26 diploma and degree awards in design, fine arts, film, media arts, fashion, dance, music, theatre, art history, art therapy and arts management in the region. As an accredited institution of The Open University, the United Kingdom’s largest university, the undergraduate and postgraduate programs offered by LASALLE are benchmarked against the best universities in the UK, making them internationally recognized.

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Toyota Classics brings Florentine orchestra to Hanoi

Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV) on Tuesday announced the lineup for this year’s Toyota Classics concert at Hanoi Opera House.

This year, Toyota presents the Città di Firenze  orchestra from Florence (Italy) conducted by Lorenzo Castriota Skanderbeg. The orchestra featuring tenor, Leonardo Melani, and young pianist, Luu Hong Quang, will play music by Verdi, Puccini and Rossini.

Quang has won several awards “The Piano Recital Award” in 2008 and first prize at “Chopin Piano Competition” in Australia in 2009.

It will be the 13th Toyota Classics in Vietnam supported by  the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

“We granted total ticket proceeds of the 12 previous Toyota Classics concerts to support cultural activities and charity in Vietnam. This year TMV will continue what it started last year by using all ticket proceeds for the Toyota Scholarships for Vietnamese Young Music Talents,” said Akito Tachibana, President of TMV.

Since 1990, the humanitarian Toyota Classics has been held annually bringing classical music to the country and enhancing cultural exchange.

So far, the Toyota Classics has attracted audiences of more than 200,000 to154 concerts in the Asia-Pacific. In its 21st year, the event will be held from Oct. 23 to Nov. 12 in Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi, Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei), Bangkok, Seoul, Taipei (Taiwan), Manila and Bombay. 

Tickets cost VND300,000, VND600,000 and VND800,000 and are available at  the Hanoi Opera House, 1 Trang Tien Street., Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi, or at TMV’s Hanoi branch, eighth floor, Viglacera building, No,1 Thang Long Avenue, Me Tri, Tu Liem, Hanoi.

HSBC grants millennium wish to 100 first-graders

HSBC Vietnam presented VND500 million to Tuoi Tre newspaper’s Study Promotion Society to provide scholarships to100 poor first-graders in Hanoi as part of the bank’s “1,000 wishes for Hanoi” campaign.

During September, the campaign called for Vietnamese people around the country to share their future wishes for the capital to mark the 1000-year anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi Capital.

At the ceremony on Wednesday the bank announced the 1000 winners of the campaign and granted the 10 best entries with a Sony DSC HX1 Cyber-shot digital camera each, valued at VND10 million, together with a specially commissioned Thang Long cup.

To be eligible the wishes meet three criteria: they had to be meaningful, feasible and reveal a way to unlock Hanoi’s potential.  Over four weeks, thousands of wishes were sent in from everywhere in Vietnam, expressing the desires and dreams of Vietnamese people for a rich, prosperous and developed capital that continued to build on the country’s existing strengths and history. The top 1,000 wishes have been posted on www.ngandieuuoc.com.

Each wish of the thousand selected, represented a HSBC donation of VND500,000 to help poor kids start their education.

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Hanoi to host first Vietnam International Film Festival

Anna Mouglalis – who plays Fashion Queen Coco Chanel – will present at VNIFF

Photo: Mongrel Media

68 films from 23 countries will be featured at the first-ever Vietnam International Film Festival (VNIFF) which will be held at Megastar Cinemas, the National Screening Center and the BHD (Vietnam Media Corp.) Cinema Complex in Hanoi October 17-21.

As a country in focus, France’s cinema will be represented by a selection of award-winning features including Pascal Chaumeil’s “Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky” and documentary films “Babies” by Thomas Balmès and “Oceans” by Jacques Cluzaud.

Honored guests Thomas Balmès, Jacques Cluzaud, Pascal Chaumeil and Anna Mouglalis – leading female character of “Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky” will present at the event.

“Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky” tells about the rumored affair between Fashion Queen Coco Chanel and Russian composer and pianist Igor Stravinsky around the time legendary Chanel No. 5 perfume was created. This film was chosen as the closing film at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival in 2009.

Central to the film is the song “The Rite of Spring” symbolizing both Stravinsky’s revolutionary musical ambitions and Chanel’s revolutionary fashion exploits.

Chanel, mesmerized by the musician’s scandalous premiere in 1913, invited him to stay in her Garches villa seven years later when as a penniless émigré (refugee) he retouched “The Rite of Spring” for a Paris revival.

Chinese film also carved itself a nice niche as French director Fabrien Gaillarg’s Chinese film “Lao Wai” will compete in the Best Film category while Chinese female director Hu Mei will introduce the 2010 biographical movie “Confucius” which stirred controversy in China.

Two famous Chinese actors Ngo Ngan To and Truong Gia Huy will also attend this year’s festival on October 19. To co-stars in the action film “Triple Tap”, with Hong Kong actor Co Thien Lac.

Ten feature films from eight countries in the East Asia and Southeast Asia will compete in the In Competition category.

VNIFF chairman Lai Van Sinh, said: “Vietnam is hosting the International Film Festival for the first time, so it will focus on East Asia and Southeast Asia as world cinema’s new potential areas of interest.”

Many films competing in the Feature Film category will be screened in the region, or even the world, for the first time. They include “Sandcastle” by Singaporean Boo Junfeng, “Lao Wai” by French Fabien Gaollard, “Red Shoes” by Philippine Raul Jorolan, “The Dreamer” by Indonesian Riri Riza, “Ice Kaeang Puppy Love” by Japanese Nobuhiro Doi, “Big Boy” by Thailand Monthon Arayangkoon, “Breaking Up Club” by Hong Kong Barbara Wong, and “Long Thanh Cam Gia ca” by Vietnamese Dao Ba Son and “Lieutenant” by Vietnamese Ha Son.

“We want to start out small but steady to make sure to do things at the right pace,” said Ngo Thi Bich Hanh, vice president of sales & acquisitions at Vietnam Media.

The festival – co-organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Vietnam Cinema Department and Vietnam Media Corporation – will showcase films in seven categories: Competition, Shorts and Documentaries, World Cinema Today, Vietnamese Cinema Today, Country in Focus, Surprising, and Tributes.

Eight prizes will be awarded in the following categories: Best Film, Best Documentary, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, the Netpac Prize, and the Media Award and Best Short Film.

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Nation bags Asian hip-hop competition

Hipsters: Members of the Big Toe hip-hop crew pose after winning Southeast Asia's Battle of the Year contest in Singapore. — File Photo

HA NOI — A Vietnamese hip-hop dance crew bagged the first prize at Southeast Asia's Battle of the Year (BOTY) contest in Singapore on Sunday.

The 11-member crew, which belong to the top hip-hop dance group in Viet Nam, Big Toe, vied with five other hip-hop crews from Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Singapore, and Indonesia for the prize.

The crew will now have the chance to compete at the World BOTY, which will take place in Montpellier, France, next month.

"Although we have sent our members to compete at BOTY every year since 2005, this is the first time a Big Toe crew has won the contest," said Big Toe's leader, Nguyen Viet Thanh.

The nine-day contest in France will draw 19 crews from five continents, including representatives from South Korea, France, Brazil, and Taiwan, who are considered to be Big Toe's closest competitors.

Founded in 1992 with seven original members, Big Toe currently has 60 members, divided into four dance groups. They are widely recognised as Viet Nam's first hip hop dance troupe.

With a number of top prizes won at a variety of international competitions, Big Toe were awarded the Certificate of Merit on Tuesday by the Viet Nam Electronic Sport and Recreational Sport Association under the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism.

Big Toe are planning to tour around France and Germany next year to present their hip-hop theatre production, Cam Xuc Thay Doi (Change of Emotion). — VNS

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