LookAtVietnam – Four leading entertainment companies in HCM City are working with an acclaimed independent filmmaker on a love story between a beautiful girl and a ghost,

Star power: Young actress Ngan Khanh plays the role of a dancer in the film Khi Yeu Dung Quay Dau Lai.

The film, Khi Yeu Dung Quay Dau Lai (Love Means You Never Have to Say You’re Sorry), is a Vietnamese take-off on the popular American film Twilight, loved by many local young people.

The key figure behind the film is Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh, an overseas Vietnamese director who completed his cinematography studies at University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1998.

The producers said they believed Minh’s involvement would guarantee artistic and financial success.

After reading the screenplay, Minh said he was so impressed he decided to return to Viet Nam and prepare for the challenges of making his second film in his homeland.

The work portrays a young dancer, Xuan, who is hired to work for a rich married couple, who is hunted by ghosts.

Every night Xuan works as a dancer in a castle located in an isolated area.

When Xuan tries to run away, she meets a saxophonist, Bach Du, who, with his music, helps her to dance as freely as bird.

They fall in love, and one day Xuan discovers that her lover is a ghost.

“If I’m not interested in a film’s screenplay, I won’t sign a contract with the film producers,” said Minh, in a recent interview with the magazine Mot&Cuoc Song (Mode&Life).

He spent four months working with his film staff on casting the roles.

They selected two new faces among 60 candidates for the leading roles, singer-film actress Ngan Khanh (who plays Xuan) and fashion model Thanh Thuc (Bach Du).

Minh, who specialises in independent films, said this was his first commercial release.

In 2003, Minh and his foreign staff made waves in the local industry with their film, Mua Len Trau (Buffalo Boy), shot in Dong Thap Province.

Two European production companies, France’s 3B Productions and Belgium’s NOVAK, worked with the HCM City-based film company Giai Phong (Liberation) to make the film.

The film is based on a short story collection Huong Rung Ca Mau (Forest Fragrance in Ca Mau) by the late author Son Nam, first published in 1962.

It focuses on the lives of local farmers living in Dong Thap.

The central characters, Kim, a young farmer, and Dinh, his father, are compassionate individuals who help the needy, but face a string of bad luck.

Minh said foreign companies had agreed to produce his film because it represented the character of the Vietnamese people who live in the Cuu Long (Mekong) River Delta.

The film features haunting folk songs and the delta region’s beauty, with picturesque scenes of rivers, forests, boats and buffaloes.

Mua Len Trau

later won top prizes at international festivals in France and the US, including the Best Foreign Language Film at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in California in 2006.

Filming of Khi Yeu Dung Quay Dau Lai should end later this year, with release during the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday next year.

“We hope our film will surprise Minh’s fans,” said a representative from Thien Ngan, one of the film’s producers.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News