Who are you: Although attractive actress-singer Ngan Khanh(right), pictured with fashion model Thanh Thuc (left) has performed well in Galaxy Studio’s Khi Yeu Dung Quay Dau Lai, she is a long way away from becoming a movie star.

The coming Lunar New Year has seen five releases by leading film companies in HCM City, and all of them have attracted large numbers of people to the theatres in their first week.

Drawing particular interest are Viet kieu (overseas Vietnamese) director Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh’s Khi Yeu Dung Quay Dau Lai (Another Chance for Love, Another Chance for Life) and young talent Nguyen Quang Dung’s Nhung Nu Hon Ruc Ro (Beautiful Kisses).

Produced by Galaxy Studio together with its partners, Minh’s horror film is a love story featuring the hottest couple in the industry, fashion model Thanh Thuc and actress-singer Ngan Khanh, who are both 21.

Dung’s Nhung Nu Hon Ruc Ro, meanwhile, is a a musical produced by the BHD Company starring supermodel Thanh Hang and dozens of young pop singers including the popular Minh Hang.

Producers and directors are staying faithful to the recent trend, banking on young celebrities from the music and modelling industries to ensure the films’ financial success.

However, Galaxy and BHD maintain that they are also reposing faith in the talent and ability of their directors to woo audiences back to the big screen.

Minh and Dung have not proved them wrong as yet.

“My friend and I came because we’re curious to see what Minh and Dung have done this time. Both of them can take a story from zero to extraordinary levels,” said Nguyen Minh Tu, a fan from District 3.

He said he was “very impressed and interested in the beauty and acting of Thanh Hang, Ngan Khanh and Thanh Thuc,” but added a caveat: ” I do not admire them.”

“Like many young actors today, they’re good artists but not yet movie stars,” he explained.

Galaxy Studio’s exhibition division director Phan To Hong Hai, who has been in the field for more than seven years, concurred. “It’s very hard now to find a real movie star,” he said.

“The sky cannot shine without stars. The film industry is not complete without movie stars,” he added.

Judging by the preponderance of leading lights borrowed from other professions like singing and modelling, even for major films by famous directors, there certainly seems to be a shortage of star material in the Vietnamese film industry.

It was not always so.

In the 1970s, Tra Giang, a daughter of Quang Ngai Province, was one of the industry’s biggest stars who brought tears to the eyes of many movie fans, old and young.

She performed in classics like Chi Tu Hau (Ms Tu Hau), Vi Tuyen Muoi Bay Ngay Va Dem (The 17th Parallel Night and Day) and Moi Tinh Dau (First Love), which won top prizes at film festivals at home and abroad.

Later, Giang’s younger colleagues, like Hanoian Thanh Quy and Minh Chau had legions of fans crazy about them.

In the 1990s, three actresses, Viet Trinh, Diem Huong, Thu Ha, and actors Ly Hung and Le Cong Tuan Anh were icons who had fans flock to cinema houses nationwide.

Very, very few

With her first film in 1991, village girl Trinh became a movie star overnight with several thousand young fans when she was just 19. She went on to perform more than a hundred roles, and was recognised as a surefire money maker by producers.

Trinh received the then princely sum of 30 million dong (over US$2,000) for a role while directors got just VND10 million. Remuneration for other actors ranged from VND2 million to VND5 million per role.

Trinh and her peers are now mere silhouettes in their fans’ hearts, and successors have not come close to filling their shoes.

“Because fewer and fewer quality films are produced each year, movie stars have taken up other careers, although they would be willing to return to their movie world if things change,” explained Hai.

He said it’s very, very few people who are born a star; these days, a movie star also has to receive professional training.

Since the local film industry has failed to throw up stars in their own right, Vietnamese youth now admire Hollywood, Korean and Hong Kong movie stars. While adults enjoy Tom Cruise, Lucy Liu and Chow Yun-Fat, teenagers love Kristen Steward and Robert Pattison.

“I know I will never have the opportunity to meet Robert Pattison but I don’t mind. I love him so much. I go on buying sprees for DVDs and magazines which present his films and life,” said Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang, a high-school student in Ha Noi.

“I don’t pay attention to local actors. They are not attractive enough,” she added.

According to Hai, State-owned and private film makers and investors have worked hard to complete special projects aimed at drawing people back to Vietnamese movies. They have built new, beautifully done up cinema complexes and invested large sums of money to make quality movies.

“However, they’ve forgotten one main problem – that a film industry without movie stars will never attract the same numbers of people.”

He said that film makers, directors and movie critics cannot explain why young people go gaga over stars and idolise them.

“But we know very clearly how to make a star and we should do it,” he said, referring to the spectacular marketing successes of the fashion and music industries.

“We should make and shoot new stars into the movie sky,” he said, adding this would further catalyse the revival of the Vietnamese movie industry and help it hold his own against foreign competition.

VietNamNet/VNS