LÊ Bình Giang (1990, Vietnam) was educated in Film at the University of Ho Chi Minh, but he wasn’t allowed to graduate because the script for his film KFC was considered too violent by the Council of Examiners. Lê didn’t give up on his project and tried to find sponsors. He won the Film of the Future Award at the Vietnamese Autumn Meeting 2013, which helped him get started. After making several short films he finally made KFC (2016), his feature film debut, three years later. In 2023, he released two movies, “Rock-a-bye Baby” and “Jackpot Island”
Here are his 13 favorite Vietnamese films, in random order
1. Bi, Don’t Be Afraid (Dang Di Phan, 2010)
In an old house in Hanoi, Bi, a 6-year-old child lives with his parents, his aunt and their cook. His favorite playgrounds are an ice factory and the wild grass along the river. After being absent for years, his grandfather, seriously ill, reappears and settles at their house. While Bi gets closer to his grandfather, his father tries to avoid any contact with his family. Every night, he gets drunk and goes and see his masseuse, for whom he feels a quiet strong desire. Bi’s mother turns a blind eye on it. The aunt, still single, meets a 16-year-old young boy in the bus. Her attraction to him moves her deeply.
2. Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories (Dang Di Phan, 2015)
It is the late nineties, Vietnam is in economic turmoil and overpopulation has sparked political concern. Vu, a photography student, arrives in the sprawling metropolis of Saigon and moves into a slum neighborhood where he meets a mix of eccentric characters including Thang, a charismatic young man, who convinces Vu to get a vasectomy in order receive money from the government.
Check also this interview
3. The Rebel (Charlie Nguyen, 2007)
1920s. Vietnam under colonial French ruling. Anti-French rebellions emerge all over the country to disrupt the foreign occupiers. In response, the colonialist employed units of Vietnamese agents to track and destroy these rebels. Directed by Charlie Nguyen, Johnny Tri Nguyen stars as an elite double agent tasked with taking down his own country’s freedom fighters. However, when he meets a beautiful rebel he rethinks his loyalty.
4. Touch (Minh Duc Nguyen, 2011)
A mechanic looking to save his faltering marriage strikes up an unlikely friendship with a shy Vietnamese-American manicurist.
5. Living in Fear (Bui Thac Chuyen, 2005)
Tai has had a hard life. As a soldier he was on the losing side in the Vietnam War, which was also a civil war. Even after spending time in a re-education camp, he remained a pariah in the post-war Communist society. Excluded from ordinary work, he keeps himself alive by gathering scrap metal, usually old military material like shell fragments and barbed wire. It is barely enough to maintain his family and he also happens to have two families to maintain. The war separated him from his wife, so he started a new family with another woman. He stoically takes responsibility for both of them, even though he is tottering on the brink of starvation. From a man who fought on the other side during the war, he learns how to make bombs safe. This is a dangerous, almost suicidal job, but thanks to his disregard for death, from that moment on Tai is able to earn his living.
6. When the Tenth Month Comes (Dang Nhat Minh, 1984)
Duyen faces a daily struggle to care for her young son and her weakened father-in-law, while keeping secret the fact that her husband died in a battle during the war.
Check also this interview
7. Truong Ba’s Soul in Butcher’s Body (Quang Dung Nguyen, 2006)
Trương Ba is famous for not only being a very good chess player but also a good husband. He lives happily with his wife even though the couple does not have a single child. Unlike Trương Ba’s family, the butcher’s family is an unhappy family. One day, Đế Thích saw that Truong Ba was playing chess so well, so he went down to the earth to play with Trương Ba. He gave him some magical incense sticks, so that when Trương Ba wanted to play chess with him, he could burn one of those sticks to invite Đế Thích. But not long after that, Trương Ba died. On the anniversary of his death, Trương Ba’s wife was very sad and lit incense for him. Unknowingly she lit a magical incense stick and Đế Thích appeared before her.
