Acclaimed writer Chau Tho is well known for several of her own scripts, many of which have been made into films and plays since 2001. She is one of only a few leading female scriptwriters in the Vietnamese film industry.

What pushed you to turn Tran Thuy Mai’s short story Trang Noi Day Gieng into a film script?

It was when director Le Duc Tien moved to HCM City to work for Giai Phong Film Studio in 2003. He brought with him the newspaper in which the short story was printed. He told me that it was his dowry, that he loved it very much and that he wanted to make a film from it. He asked me to write the script.

You were born Bich Thuy. Why did you take the penname Chau Tho when you started working in cinema?

Chau is the name of my son, and it reminds me of the Mekong Delta, of my mother’s native village. My mother is from Ben Tre Province, but she followed my father to central Viet Nam to live. She always longed for her home village and often told me stories of its immense coconut gardens and sprawling rice fields. Chau Tho is the love for my maternal homeland.

You studied journalism and were once named an outstanding journalist at the Dong Khoi newspaper. What made you become a script writer?

After graduation, I returned home with aspirations to contribute something great to the country. But most of my articles that criticised negative things were either cut or heavily criticised. I was bored, and then, quite by chance, I came across a script writing contest. I won first prize and then studied at the College of Theatre and Cinema, specialising in script writing. But it wasn’t until I met a French cinema expert that greatly influenced me that I began to write passionately, with more heart than ever before.

I heard that you’ve written three scripts about the lives of women, from which Nguoi Dan Ba Hoa Da (The Woman Turned into Stone) was made into a film. What about the other two?

In the past 100 years, Vietnamese women have seen many changes and upheavals. As a writer, I cannot help but think about the life of Vietnamese women. I need to write about it.

My two other scripts are Nguoi Dan Ba Khong Chung Thuy (The Unfaithful Woman) and Nguoi Dan Ba Hu Hong (The Spoiled Woman). Nguoi Dan Ba Hoa Da is about a woman longing for her husband, who is away at war. When she is about to marry another man, she hears about an injured soldier who has lost his memory. It’s her husband. So she decides to cancel the marriage and returns to live with her husband. The woman in Nguoi Dan Ba Khong Chung Thuy has a husband who is a businessman who risks going to prison. She looks for ways to save him. The woman in Nguoi Dan Ba Hu Hong has a successful husband who gets stressed and mistreats her. These last two have not yet been made into films.

Do you think that the job of a script writer is suitable for a woman? Why are female script writers rarer and rarer? Do you have any advice for the job?

This job requires passion. A script writer has to live with the characters they create and think of their destinies. I almost always eat and sleep with my characters. I even ride my motorbike with them. I can do this because I have no husband. My only son is 20 years old and is studying abroad. And my mother often helps me with housework, so I have a lot of time. A woman who is busy with her family will face many difficulties in this job. But it also requires life experience and good writing skills. You can master the techniques rather quickly, but only time and experience will give you the knowledge you need.

VietNamNet/VNS