Charlie Nguyen Talks MONK ON FIRE and THE REBEL!

I had a chance to talk with Mr. Charlie Truc Nguyen – director of the beloved Vietnamese action-flick The Rebel when Charlie came to Hanoi for teaching in a program by Ford Foundation. We talked about one of his upcoming projects called Lua Phat (Monk on Fire), reminisced about Dong Mau Anh Hung (The Rebel) and his past.

Interviewer: Hello Mr. Charlie Nguyen. It’s a pleasure to talk to you.

Charlie Nguyen: Hi! Thank you. 

Today I want to talk to you about your upcoming projects; one of them is Lua Phat (Monk on Fire) and your career because most of the people only know you after Dong Mau Anh Hung (The Rebel) last year.

With a great pleasure!

Let’s start! I want to begin with Lua Phat. How’s the project going? 

We are almost done with the last revision of the script. Actually, we started preparing for it at the same time when we were doing the script of Dong Mau Anh Hung. 

So what’s Lua Phat?

It’s a fantasy movie, a fable story in a tradition of a cowboy film crosses with martial arts genre in a Vietnamese content. Let’s think of a movie that contains elements from a movie about Chor Lau Heung and a Clint Eastwood movie.  Of course it’s an action movie but it doesn’t have a very fast pace comparing with Hollywood action movies or even Dong Mau Anh Hung. It will focus on the characters, their fates, and their relationships. 

How about the story? And how did you get the idea? 

Once upon an unknown time, in an unknown place, the country was being invaded. The King ordered everybody to go to the battle. There were many eminent monks living in the mountain that had to join the battle as well. In the war, they had killed so many enemies and their hands were soaked of blood. When peace comes again, these monks don’t have tranquil souls anymore. They are being haunted by the violence of the war and cannot go back to their monastery. And so begin their journey to find the inner peace they once had.  So the main character (Dustin Tri Nguyen) is one of these eminent monks. Once he encounters a village by the river and he doesn’t know that this is the place will change his fate.  He meets another eminent monk (Johnny Tri Nguyen) with whom he had many old scores in the past. Also, there is a mystery girl (Ngo Thanh Van) in the village. Love, hatred, fate, conflicts will lead these three people to an unexpected ending.  At this moment, I cannot reveal much about the girl character and her connection with the other two because it might spoil the surprise of the audience in the future. But there is one interesting thing I can tell. Although the movie is half wuxia half Western like I just said, these eminent monks don’t walk or ride horses. They ride motorbikes!!! (laugh) This is not my original idea. It’s actually from Dustin Nguyen and I don’t know how he ended up with such an idea. Please concern that I’m the executive producer of Lua Phat and the director is Dustin, not me. 

So how big is the project?

I cannot reveal about the budget too soon. You know, we will start shooting this October and plan to release the movie in Vietnam in late 2009 or early 2010. There are a number of CGI effects in the movie and this will make Lua Phat equal if not bigger than Dong Mau Anh Hung. And the total budget for Dong Mau Anh Hung is 1.6 million USD. I had seen many sources that flexed this number. But if we got paid for producing and directing, the number would be higher than that. 

Recently, there was a rumor that Tony Jaa will play a cameo in Lua Phat. Is it true?

No, it isn’t. In fact, we haven’t done the casting yet except for the three main characters. Dustin Tri Nguyen, Johnny Tri Nguyen and Ngo Thanh Van, they’re all familiar with the audiences after Dong Mau Anh Hung. I want them to become trademarks of Vietnamese cinema all over the world. One of the reason makes Chinese cinema famous is by people like Jet Li or Jackie Chan. I think Vietnamese cinema can approach the world this way. After two, three or four times, people will recognize Dustin, Johnny or Van.  There’re many rumors about our plans. Recently I read somewhere that Lua Phat has one-million-dollar budget.  It’s funny because we don’t really know the exact number yet.  What we do know is that we’ll never have enough to do everything Dustin wanted. 

At least, Lua Phat is an action movie. Dong Mau Anh Hung is purely action. Are you afraid that the name Charlie Truc Nguyen will be labeled with the genre action?

(laugh) No. In fact, I want to do as many genres as I can. However, if an action movie has a good script, I won’t deny them, either. 

Do you have any other plans at the moment besides Lua Phat?

We started writing Dong Mau Anh Hung 2, just some very basic concepts. I am also writing a script of a small drama. Honestly, I always love doing drama but haven’t got a chance yet.  And recently, The Weinstein Company has discussed with me about a potential film project. However, it’s still very vague to talk about it. 

So let’s go back to Dong Mau Anh Hung, the movie that launched you to fame. I have a question about the distribution of the movie. As far as I know, there’re many Asian action movies, even big one at home, can only release straight-to-DVD in North America. So what about Dong Mau Anh Hung? Is it gonna be the way for Dong Mau Anh Hung as well?

At the moment, The Weinstein Company acquired the rights to distribute Dong Mau Anh Hung in English-spoken countries like United Kingdom, Australia, United States, Canada etc. So releasing in cinemas or straight-to-DVD depends on Weinstein now. For non-English spoken countries, we have another distribution company in Los Angeles. At the moment, Dong Mau Anh Hung is sold to many countries such as China, India, Thailand, Germany, France, Netherlands etc. Next week, the movie is premiere in Italy. 

When Dong Mau Anh Hung was first screened in Vietnam, what did you expect?

I was very anxious, not only for myself but for the whole company involved with the movie. I wasn’t sure how the audience would react with Dong Mau Anh Hung. Looking back, I thought it was like gambling and I was too risky. I didn’t know much about the Vietnamese audience or Vietnamese market; I didn’t even know how to do the PR thing. And the most important thing was I couldn’t do as much as I had imagined in my head about Dong Mau Anh Hung. There were many things I intended to do but I can’t due to the lack of experience and unrealistic scheduling. 

Can you provide some examples?

Hmm, in some locations, we planned to shoot in only 4 or 5 days. But after 5 days, we didn’t finished what we set out to do. The budget must have been increased by that.  As of ideas, I had many ideas floating around my head all the time but I couldn’t do it, either. Do you remember the labor camp scene when Cuong and Thuy escaped from that with a motorbike? 

Yes?

Originally, it wasn’t so simple like that in my head. It intended to be a very fierce chase. Cuong and Thuy wouldn’t escape so easily like they did in the movie. There would be support characters in the chase: the guy gave Cuong water in the truck, the guy was told now his name Hung was not existed anymore and he would be called by only numbers, the couple whom Thuy gave the rice to. I intended that all of them would involve with the escape. But in fact, I had to compromise and it was very painful. 

So after Dong Mau Anh Hung screening is done in Vietnam, what have you received, not only about the business?

Unfortunately, we couldn’t have covered the budget yet in Vietnam market and I can only expect to do so when the movie is released worldwide. About other things, I can say I have learned many things. I gained a lot of experience from each of the process like shooting, editing, etc. When the movie was screened, I have many feedbacks from audiences about errors or mistakes but I have predicted almost all of them. Dong Mau Anh Hung is like my child and I know my child pretty well. Audience can judge but I think they can do that only from the surface. And now, after many experiences from Dong Mau Anh Hung, I can say that we will prepare very, very carefully for Lua Phat. I hope bad situations like I’ve mentioned above with Dong Mau Anh Hung won’t happen anymore. 

Have you followed with Vietnamese cinema recently?

Yeah, I still keep an eye on it and I’m really happy that Vietnamese cinema is growing faster and faster. Recently I heard that during the Tet holidays, Nu Hon Than Chet (The Hot Kiss) by director Quang Dung “khung” broke a new record of gross profit. I’m really happy seeing records in Vietnamese cinema are broken every year. That means the industry is growing, or growing to be an industry that is. 

Lastly, I want to go back with your past. When did you consider being a filmmaker?

I wanted to be a filmmaker since I was in Middle School. When I had free time, I used to take the camera out and shot whatever interesting to me. 

Do you have any particular favorite movie or director that has an impact on you now? 

Well, I don’t know, I watched many movies in the past… At the moment, I can only remember Paul Thomas Anderson, Sam Mendes, Tran Anh Hung, Darren Aronofsky, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone. 

Do you remember about your debut work? Can you tell me about that?

I can’t remember about that. I shot many short films, sometimes it’s just a feeling or experiment. 

Is there any short movie of yours that you can think about it right now? 

Hmm, maybe Qua Dem Den (Pass the Black Night), it was an action movie as well and influenced by Godfather. 

So will you release it in the future, in bonus DVD of Limited Edition of Dong Mau Anh Hung for example?

No, no. (laugh) I have never ever thought about that. I did it for fun. Sometimes, I watched these short films of mine again and I found them boring and laughable. I watched just only 3 shots and it even annoyed me. (laugh)

I heard that you finished some courses about cinema in UCLA. Is that true? 

Yes, it is. 

Let’s consider Dong Mau Anh Hung is your first big project. So how long did it take you from graduating in UCLA and start shooting Dong Mau Anh Hung? 

It was about 8 years. When I graduated at UCLA, I was still an unknown. You know the investor will never risk investing for an unknown director and unknown cast. 

Thanks for taking your time. Good luck with your new project Lua Phat! I am really looking forward to hearing more news about it.

Thank you, wish you all the best!

Done by Quang,
Hanoi, April 23rd 2008

Lua Phat (Monk on Fire)
Executive producer: Robert Town, Nghiem Pham, Charlie Truc Nguyen
Producer: Dustin Nguyen, Vincent Ngo, Tawny Nguyen
Director: Dustin Nguyen
Editor: Dustin Nguyen
Cinematography: Dominic Pereira
Music: Christopher Wong
Designer: La Qui Tung
Customs design: Bao Tran Chi
Main actor: Dustin Nguyen
Main actress: Ngo Thanh Van
Male supporter: Johnny Tri Nguyen