Late cai luong idol Thanh Nga

To mark the 30th death anniversary late last month of Thanh Nga, known as “The Queen of Cai Luong,” Thanh Nien Daily recounts her life, work, loves and tragic murder.

She appeared in more than 230 cai luong operas and many films and was one of southern Vietnam’s biggest stars.

Nga was put onstage by her mother at age seven but came to full prominence when she played her first leading role in a romantic tragedy, Nguoi vo khong bao gio cuoi (The wife who never married), at 15.

For her outstanding performance in this play, Nga was the first artist to win the prestigious Promising Artist Thanh Tam Award in 1958.

She also won the Excellent Artist Thanh Tam award in 1966 for her role as Giang Huong in the play San khau ve khuya (The stage at night).

Her other theater work includes Ben cau det lua (Weaving silk near the bridge), Thai hau Duong Van Nga (Queen Dowager Duong Van Nga), Tieng trong Me Linh (Me Linh war drum beats), Doi Co Luu (Ms. Luu’s life) and Nua doi huong phan (A prostitute’s life).

She played the lead in many films including Doi mat nguoi xua (Former lover’s eyes) and Hai chuyen xe hoa (Two marriages).

Doomed love affairs

As a figure in the public eye, Nga’s torrid love life was well documented.

Nga’s first real love was with Nguyen Van Tai, a war martyr in the Vietnam War, according to her younger sister Lu Anh Mai and sister-in-law Thanh Le and an article in the weekly Sai Gon Giai Phong’s magazine in 2000.

Nga greatly admired captain Tai, a French-educated, patriotic young man who was editor-in-chief of the Thuong Mai (Commerce) newspaper and they soon fell in love.

More than one year later, Tai said goodbye to Nga to leave for the resistance base, breaking Nga’s heart.

Nga’s mother heartily approved of the relationship and occasionally arranged secret meetings between Nga and Tai but they were separated and the resistance fighter married another girl and was captured and tortured to death in 1969.

After that, Nga had a very high-profile love affair with Thanh Duoc, a famed cai luong actor who was very popular among women.

Duoc had found work with the Thanh Minh troupe in the 1960s and played the lead alongside Nga in popular plays.

They made a perfect team onstage and love soon bloomed between them in real life and in the media, but Nga’s mother disapproved as Duoc was married with children.

Nga had no other choice but to obey her mother.

It was a very painful breakup for the beautiful opera star and Duoc recently said Nga was the true love of his life.

Later Nga decided to ignore her mother and marry Pham Duy Lan, who used to be the chief information officer of the then US-backed Saigon regime.

Nga’s mother disapproved of the marriage as Lan had been married twice and had children but they lived happily until the day they died.

Murdered

Nga and her husband were shot in front of their house in 1978.

The following account is based on the confessions of the murderers and the criminal report presented at a seminar held by the Ministry of the Interior in 1995.

Career kidnapper Nguyen Thanh Tan, spurred on by the large ransom paid for the son of famed cai luong and dramatic artist Kim Cuong in 1977, hatched a plan to kidnap Nga and Lan’s five-year-old son, Pham Duy Ha Linh, now a drama actor.

From September to November, Tan and his accomplice Nguyen Van Duc made several kidnap attempts forcing Nga and Lan to hire a bodyguard.

At 11 p.m. November 26 after a performance at the Thu Do (Capital) Theater Nga, Lan, their son Linh and a bodyguard named Nguyen Van Cac returned in a car to their house on then Ngo Tung Chau Street - now Le Thi Rieng Street in District 1.

Tan and Duc followed on a motorbike and when the family stopped on the street outside their house, Tan approached the car with a gun, hit the bodyguard against the steering wheel and tried to snatch Nga’s son from her arms.

A struggle ensued and Tan shot both parents in the chest.

They died on their way to hospital. Tens of thousands gathered to pay respect to her and accompanied her funeral procession to her final resting place, making hers the largest funeral among artists.

An investigation into the case began immediately.

According to major-general Trinh Thanh Thiep, who headed the investigation, the first suspects were Nga’s bodyguard Nguyen Van Cac and a photographer only identified as T.T.B.

B. had taken many pictures of Nga in her coffin - terrifying little Linh who insisted that he was the man that killed his parents.

Two female witnesses who lived opposite Nga backed Linh’s identification of B. but he provided an alibi.

After police had investigated Nga’s former lovers, including Thanh Duoc, Nguyen Minh Man and a female colleague, they focused on the kidnapping, pointing to the kidnappings of famed cai luong and dramatic artist Kim Cuong’s son in 1977 and doctor Nguyen La Hy’s son some months after Nga’s murder.

The three kidnappings in three consecutive years were later found out to be committed by the same men, Tan and Duc, who were put to death in August 1980.

Nga’s premonitions

In the month before the murder, Nga allegedly had strange premonitions about death. She sought solace in Buddhist prayer books.

Her family members remembered that Nga had mentioned death several times - telling her family not to cut her hair when she was dead, or dress her in a red performing costume after she died and entrusting her family members to take care of her son.

During dinner on November 26, Nga joked with Mai, her younger sister, telling Mai to apply make-up and perfume to her if she died.

Nga died at 36, at the peak of her career but her memory lives on.

There are altars paying respect to Nga in several theaters and artists’ homes.

Reported by Giao Huong - Quang Thi