Seventy-one-year-old Doan Dung is worried the local stage and cinema scene has lost its passion

After 50 years in the industry, one of Vietnam’s greatest actors worries today’s artists aren’t inspired like the old days.

His classmates admired his sociability and dynamism. The young boy was always telling jokes, singing songs or doing impressions. Even during Hanoi’s roughest years, Dung was always entertaining in some way.

Still both a leader and entertainer, Dung is now one of the country’s most well known actors and acting teachers.

Dung says he’s just as passionate about teaching as he is about acting. But though several of his students have gone on to national fame, he’s not thrilled about the state of the acting culture in Vietnam, which he says has become hollow, money-oriented and dispassionate.

Losing the youth

Dung says young artists now have many more opportunities than his generation did. They can follow international artists easily, he says. But they are not taking advantage of this, he says.

“The young artists nowadays barely read, see or study any plays or films… it seems that money and fame have taken the place of passions, desires and dreams,” he says.

“Some think they’re big stars after only one or two successful films or plays.”

For someone like Dung, who spent 50 years in dozens upon dozens of hit leading roles, one or two successes simply isn’t enough. Dung says that when he moved to Ho Chi Minh City from his home in Hanoi 20 years ago, he had to work hard to support his wife and two sons. He had to act and teach at the same time just to earn a decent living. For a man of more than 50, it was a heavy load.

Even in his sixties, Dung remained so devoted to his craft that he insisted on doing his own stunts. Though this led him to a horseback riding accident in which he broke his arm, Dung does not regret the hard work.

Dung says young actors now don’t have the same work ethic.

Dung says he gets depressed when he grades students’ exams only to discover that many students don’t know a single poem by Nguyen Du, Ho Xuan Huong or Xuan Dieu.

“But in a few more years, these same students will probably become stars.”

For Dung, it took years of hard work to become a star.

Soldier to actor

Dung volunteered to be an artillery soldier in Vietnam Liberation Army after failing the entrance exam for the literature faculty of Hanoi University in 1958. After the army, he enrolled in the Hanoi’s Vietnam School of Stage and Cinematography where he studied with several actors who would soon become some of the biggest names in Vietnam: The Anh, Tra Giang, and Lam Toi.

Graduating as a top student, Dung then began his career at the Vietnam Drama Theater in the capital. Dung’s bulky body and fierce, weather-beaten appearance often helped him land cruel, mysterious and complicated parts.

In Vu an nguoi dot den (The Case of Herostratus), Dung’s megalomaniac and deranged depiction of Herostratus, a young man who burned the Temple of Artemis just for fame, won rave reviews and became one of the most memorable roles of the 1970s. Dung also starred in several plays about the war, notably Bai ca Dien Bien (Song of Dien Bien), and made a name for himself in several war films, such as Vi tuyen 17 ngay va dem (Days and Nights at the 17th Parallel).

Dung is currently shooting the upcoming historical epic Tay Son hao kiet (Heroes of Tay Son), which depicts the Tay Son Rebellion and the rise of the Tay Son dynasty (1778-1802), led by national hero Nguyen Hue city (1753-1792), also known as Emperor Quang Trung.

After eight years of teaching at the Ho Chi Minh City branch of Vietnam School of Cinematography, Dung was appointed as the dean of the newly-founded Ho Chi Minh City College of Stage and Cinematography in 1996.

The ‘modern’ era

Dung is now worried that despite more investment and modern technology, many Vietnamese films are still not very well made. He says young kids prefer watching foreign TV shows. He said that many young people know far more about the histories of China and South Korea than they do about Vietnam, thanks mostly to the TV shows they watch from those two countries.

“We have imported billions in equipment but Vietnamese filmmakers still fly to China or Thailand for post-production. That’s a sad irony.”

He says the government needs a firm policy to restore Vietnamese culture to the cinema, adding that the best way to do this would be by investing in an educational system that could inspire students to become better filmmakers.

Reported by Do Tuan