An actress leaves Hanoi and her lost love behind for a new life and career in the south.

“I am no longer a girl but not yet a woman,” she says. “I do, however, have a keen awareness about love.”

The young talent is hot off shooting her first leading role in a TV series – she plays Kim in Chuyen tinh dao ngoc (Pearl Island Love Story) to be broadcast later this month – as well as her first major heartbreak.

The two developments prompted the young woman to grow up a little sooner than expected: she’s packed up her bags and left Hanoi, where she was born and raised, to cut out for Ho Chi Minh City on her own.

Southbound

Starting her new life, it’s not as though Duong has no experience to build on.

She was named the Elite Super Model at the Top Model Casting Contest in 2007, as well as Miss International Image Award in Miss International 2008 in Japan.

After playing Kim in Pearl Island, Duong was asked to play the leading role in a new series Nu canh sat (Policewoman). But she declined the role as she would have had to stay in Hanoi. After her recent breakup with her boyfriend, she was ready to leave the capital and start anew.

“I hope to start shooting some work in HCMC soon,” she says, adding that she hopes her performance as Kim can be a launching pad for a larger career in TV and movies.

“I’ll be acting in my future. Films are so inspirational and magnetic and I think film shoots are a good environment to mature in,” says Duong.

She says that while she’s still young, she wants to continue devoting herself to acting, her true “passion.”

But she says that aside from her artistic calling, her move to HCMC was also about starting a business career.

And she’s already on the way as the deputy marketing manager of a local modeling training agency. As a model with Elite Vietnam, one of the country’s premier modeling agencies, Duong has not given up her original craft either.

New love?

Profoundly disappointed by the love of her life who recently broke her heart by cheating on her, Duong says the agony of the affair has made her stronger.

Duong says that first love is the most beautiful but also the most painful and scarring, especially for the idealistic youth.

“The more you believe in love, the more wretched you feel when it fails,” she says. “I may be at fault for some of the problems in my relationships, because to err is human.”

Duong says it’s hard to find a faithful man.

“I shouldn’t have put my wholehearted trust in a man the way I did,” she says, adding that she’s no longer so innocent.

“A friend of mine said it’s best to sleep with one eye open.”

Reported by Thu Thuy