Ngo Thanh Van’s new imaga - a black angel - as part of her new album artwork.

Movie star and pop singer Ngo Thanh Van’s new work delves deep into both dark and romantic places.

Her previous image as the innocent and fun-loving girl next door has given way to a complex chapter in her career, one in which more complicated themes are appearing in both her songs and screen work.

A beautiful but imperfect and ambiguous world looks both sardonic and sublime through the eyes of the young woman who says her life has had its fair share of failure and pain alongside her artistic successes.

A different aesthetic

Van’s much-anticipated fourth album, Nuoc mat thien than (The Angel’s tears) reveals an enigmatic and sensual side of Van. A mix of fast-paced dance-pop, alternative rock and hip-hop, the work has been alternately described as both dark and vivacious since its release last December.

Van says the theme album is about a naïve angel who becomes a fallen angel after falling in love with the devil.

Of course, the devil betrays her and the angel goes into mourning before emerging as a sarcastic and nihilistic femme fatale. Unable to return to heaven and indignant at being betrayed, the black angel unleashes her destructive powers on the world around her.

Several music videos directed by Charlie Nguyen – who directed Van in her breakthrough role in Dong mau anh hung (The Rebel) – have been released with the album. In the videos, Van’s character is both lovely and devious alongside Rebel co-star Johnny Tri Nguyen, Vietnam’s number one leading man.

“In this period, I want my style to be associated with darkness and rebellion, which sums up the ups and downs I’ve experienced lately,” says Van, adding that she’s been in love and heartbroken many times.

“After growing accustomed to loneliness and spending many lonely nights by myself, I come to accept my pain and find solace in dark songs.”

Van, 30, says she’s turned her grief into the dark themes of the album.

“I want to be continually revamping my style so I don t bore my fans. I want each album to be different from the last,” she said. The new trend is also apparent in the actress’ newest film.

Van is now working on director Dustin Nguyen’s Lua Phat (Monk on fire), produced by Charlie Nguyen and starring Johnny Tri Nguyen, perhaps the industry’s most anticipated film in production. Robert Towne has even signed on as executive producer, according to the Internet Movie Database at IMDB.com.

The three Nguyens, all related, have banded together with Van for several films recently with Dustin as a featured actor in “The Rebel.”

Lua Phat, an historical action film estimated to cost US$1 million and expected to hit local cinemas in late 2009, tells the story f a Buddhist monk, also a martial arts master, who leaves is pagoda to fight in defense of his country.

After the war, he no longer feels at peace and cannot eturn to his former life, haunted by traumatic memories of he war and disturbing images of the people he killed.

He embarks on a journey to find the inner peace he once had, but be becomes entangled in a love triangle involving another monk with whom he has had a long-running feud and a pretty girl, played by Van.

Clearly darker and more nuanced than most conventional love and war stories portrayed on the Vietnamese screen in recent years, the film looks set to break with most Vietnamese movie traditions. It’s expected to shake up the local film industry with the Nguyens and Van on the rise as the country’s hottest and most innovative team.

Thing called love

Romance has always played an ambiguous role in the star’s life and work.

Van, who keeps a low profile in her personal life, says she hasn’t been lucky in love, though she holds pure, true love as the ideal worth striving for and she has often been the one to end unhappy relationships with previous boyfriends.

But putting all of her heart and soul into her work has helped sooth the pain of failed romances, she says.

Rumors have been circulating for over a year that Van has been involved with Johnny Tri Nguyen both of whom have neither confirmed nor denied the rumors.

The two met on the set of 2007’s local blockbuster Dong mau anh hung (The Rebel), which took the Vietnamese film world by storm and thrust Van into the cinema spotlight as she took Best Actress at the Bong Sen Vang (Golden Lotus) film festival, Vietnam’s premier movie festival.

The action-packed martial arts film garnered blockbuster status and took several coveted national prizes including Vietnam’s most prestigious Golden Kite award at the Vietnam National Film Festival last year.

The film stars Johnny Tri Nguyen as a Vietnamese soldier in the French colonial army who changes sides once he meets Thuy, a beautiful young revolutionary, played by Van, assigned to assassinate the French official Nguyen is protecting.

Dong mau anh hung proved to be an enormous challenge

for Van, who had to master martial arts moves in a matter of weeks, but she took the challenge and performed many of her own dangerous stunts.

She says she learned a lot from the film, including how to face her own fears and it looks like such lessons have paid off.

As she moves forward with this new phase in her career, she appears unafraid to go to new places.

Reported by Hai Mien