Contrary to the bustling atmosphere at the weekend, the streets of Ho Chi Minh City on May 30 were quieter after many Covid-19 cases in the community were announced. Many streets in the center of Ho Chi Minh City such as Dong Khoi, Le Duan, Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, Nguyen Du, Hai Ba Trung… were empty. Le Duan Street (District 1) The corners of the central streets of Ho Chi Minh City no longer have the vibrant rhythm of daily life Nguyen Hue pedestrian street (District 1) has been temporarily closed to prevent the Covid-19 epidemic. Nguyen Van Binh book street has also been closed, the entrances are all equipped with tables and chairs, flower beds, and barricades. The area in front of Notre Dame Cathedral on weekends is often crowded with people to visit, today also very few people. Turtle Lake is quiet, no longer the familiar image of students who come here every weekend. Many streets in the city are empty Nguyen Huu Canh Street, even at rush hour, is empty of traffic Cay Go overpass (District 6), an important intersection at the western gateway of Ho Chi Minh City, is no longer crowded as usual. Vo Van Kiet Boulevard is a lifeline of traffic, connecting the two ends of the Northeast – Southwest of the city, but there are few cars on weekends, a very rare image compared to weekdays. A restaurant on Nguyen Trai Street (District 1) only sells takeaways, and at the same time keeps a distance of 2 meters from customers according to the requirements of the authorities.

Nestled in the alley at 86 Nguyen Du Street (District 1, Ho Chi Minh City) near Notre Dame Cathedral, the crab soup shop of Mr. Tam and his wife has been a famous snack place in Saigon for nearly 28 years. Previously, the shop was opened by Mr. Tam’s mother in front of Hoa Binh Primary School to make a living for the family. However, for about 10 years now, she has passed on her skills and the restaurant to the shop’s husband and wife. 7-8 years ago, due to the increasing number of diners coming to the restaurant, Mr. Tam and his wife decided to move their business to Nguyen Du street as the present. Since then until now, Notre Dame’s crab soup shop is still packed with a cart, two rows of plastic chairs placed close to the two sides of the alley for customers to eat on the spot. Every day, the shop starts selling from 10:30 to 21:00 or until the stock is out. During that time, Mr. Tam’s wife and an employee were always in a state of chaos, from cleaning up, preparing ingredients, changing soup pots to serving customers to buy and use on the spot. “In the morning, my husband still has to deliver goods, drive more cars, so I can only go down the afternoon. So I have to handle a lot of things, very busy!”, The owner shared. Over the past two decades, Notre Dame Crab Soup has always been a favorite destination for many diners thanks to its delicious taste and unchanged quality after years of trading. A full cup of hot soup costs 20,000 VND, including ingredients such as soft shell crab, flour, shiitake mushrooms, snow mushrooms, quail eggs, herbal eggs and many spices. His wife Tam revealed that this soup recipe was kept by her mother-in-law since 1993, and now passed on to the couple doing business. Every day, the owner and his wife always get up at 5am, go to the market early to choose the freshest ingredients, then deliver the goods from their home in Phu Nhuan district to the point of sale. “Food business is not easy. Waking up early in the morning and at noon have to wait for customers to rest their hands and then keep busy until evening. When I took over the restaurant from my mother-in-law, my wife and I found it quite hard because we were not used to it. Now it is different, “said the owner. His wife Tam said that due to the business along the two alleys, not every place has a roof. Every time it rains, diners have to sit crouched inside, but it is hard to avoid being thrown. However, few people complain because most of them are “real customers” and curious young people. In addition, the shop also has many customers who buy it to take away, avoiding the situation of waiting too long. Around 5:00 pm, the crab soup shop of Mr. Tam and his wife started to get crowded. Mr. Tam (38 years old), in time to finish his morning job to help his wife trade. As soon as he arrived, the boss quickly welcomed the customers, listened to order and brought soup. “In the old days, I used to help my mother to do business and do some errands, but when I personally run this place, I find it difficult. Now that I get used to it, I am happy with the customers,” said this man. Thanks to its location in the central area, affordable price and long-standing reputation, Tam’s family crab soup shop has received a lot of love from the people of Saigon. Mr. Tai, an office specialist of 8X generation, is one of the customers who regularly visit the restaurant. “I find the crab soup here is quite delicious, the price is commensurate with the business location in the city center. Hungry afternoon, eating a cup like that is enough to work until evening,” he said. Ms. Le Vy (29 years old, living in Phu Nhuan district) identified herself as one of the “real customers” of Mr. Tam’s restaurant. Ten years ago, when I was in high school, she often came here to eat. Now, sometimes she still visits the restaurant to eat crab soup with her friends. “The point that I love most about this soup is the herbal egg. Many people may not eat it, but I really like the taste of it,” said the flight attendant.

Tu Ba took Thuy Kieu to meet Thuc Sinh.

The movie “Kieu” spent a year of tireless efforts, rescheduling back to rescheduling, finally coming to the public. The movie “Kieu” after its first screenings, has appeared many different praise and criticism. However, no one can deny the courage of director Mai Thu Huyen and the film crew who dare to face psychological pressure to have a movie “Kieu” adapted from Tale of Kiều.

In 1923, French filmmakers used to make the movie “Kim Van Kieu” based on “The Story of Kieu” and accepted the fact that it did not get the desired results. True, “The Tale of Kiều” is a poetic masterpiece with many characters and many situations, but it is not easy to transfer poems to the screen. Dare to take inspiration from “Truyet Kieu” to make the movie “Kieu” with the first direct test, has also been a commendable challenge for director Mai Thu Huyen at the age of 42.

In order to adapt “The Story of Kieu”, the most difficult character to find is Thuy Kieu. There is a rather daring idea that has been given at the Association of Vietnamese Writers and the Association of Kieu in Vietnam, that is to organize a contest to select Thuy Kieu to honor the legendary beauty. Unfortunately, no one is confident enough to host because the selection of Thuy Kieu meets two factors, “flowers of jealousy, inferior willow,” and “sharp to ask for one, talent to fight two”, it is even more difficult than a hundred times the trick. Miss grave. Therefore, a young face like actor Trinh My Duyen could not meet the expectation of the audience of the movie “Kieu”, which is also in the expectation of many people.

The movie “Kieu” with Kieu is different between the different tastes of the crowd, what should we cling to to survive? Background, costumes and music? The addition of all three is still not enough. Most important is the right slice. It is impossible to embrace the Tale of Kiều in a cinematographic work, but it is necessary to choose an angle to emphasize the fate and character of the character in order to hope to satisfy “the galaxy of the khanh To Nhu”.

Elite artist Phi Tien Son writes the script “Kieu” mainly revolves around three characters Thuy Kieu – Thuc Sinh and Hoan Thu. Such a grim and wicked love triangle, the main object, not Thuy Kieu or Thuc Sinh, but Hoạn Thu, “is fine to live and eat, to say things are bound to be old.” Hoan Thu’s lineage of mandarins, extra wise and also redundant fangs when jealous of blood. The most powerful impression that Hoạn Thu left in Tale of Kiều was his improvisation when facing the condemnation of Thuy Kieu with the help of the mighty hero Tu Hai. The movie “Kieu” does not mention that important part, but only revolves around the scope of Hoạn Thu and resolves resentment of being robbed of her husband by Thuy Kieu.

Cao Thai Ha plays the role of Hoan Thu.

Actor Cao Thai Ha is relatively round the role of Hoan Thu in the movie “Kieu”. If the expressiveness of the eyes and face of Hoan Thu improved a little, the aesthetic value of the movie “Kieu” will be greatly enhanced. The way of staging Hoan Thu to torture Thuy Kieu and Thuc Sinh is a bit rhetoric and cumbersome, but viewers still feel the jealous industry under the brand Hoan Thu “worry about that, ants in the mouth of the cup can crawl. No, it makes you look at each other, you make the damn head not up, make the money visible, let the people who participate in the boat sale know their hands ”.

With the conception of a professional profession, Merit Artist Phi Tien Son reasonably expressed as a screenwriter: “Filmmakers have many approaches to literary works. I do not want to narrate with honest images. I don’t want to tell a story everyone knows. If I tell the story as a description of the original, it is sometimes more critical. “Tale of Kiều” is a famous work, but most young people only know it through a few literary periods. In order to truly understand Kiều, to contemplate the essence of Tale of Kiều, there is not much. I want to make a movie Kieu to reach a young audience. So I need to find a new way of telling stories that engages people. That is the crew’s difficulty. Therefore, I only know how to do my best in thinking that I feel right and good ”.

People’s Artist Le Khanh played the role of Hoạn Bà.

The script “Kieu” is not bad, even the supporting roles like Hoan Ba ​​(played by People’s Artist Le Khanh) or the role of Hien Ba (played by actor Hieu Hien) are coherently strung. The only limitation of the script “Kieu” is the character language. Tu Ba’s lines (played by singer Phuong Thanh) Ma Giam Sinh (played by actor Long Dep Trai) are not enough to reveal the charisma and character character. If the “Tale of Kiều” is consulted more carefully, Elite Artist Phi Tien Son will surely find better lines for the roles.

Again, making a movie from “Story of Kieu” is an adventure that has enough room for any failure of any director. Why? Because “Tale of Kiều” is deeply embedded in the cultural life of the Vietnamese people. The public has set a set of individual values ​​for each character in “Tale of Kiều”. Wanting to break the habit of comparing original and adaptive is extremely difficult. Nguyen Du’s vague poems crept into the hearts of the crowd, flickering like smoke, so they always claim to themselves the right to refuse formats other than their imagination. However, the director also has the creative right to overcome that scary obstacle.

Mai Thu Huyen plays the role of Dam Tien.

The most notable creation in the movie “Kieu” is not the image of Thuc Sinh fighting the martial arts and reading poetry, but the cinematographers who pulled Dam Tien out of the “hanging out on the roadside, sullen with the grass.” half-green gold ”to take part in Thuy Kieu’s fateful commandment.

With the grief of Nguyen Du, Dam Tien is like a mirror reflecting the life of Thuy Kieu. In the middle of spring, the geranium branches will break quickly “and bear the bitterness” to live as a wife all over people, skillfully change the waterfall to become a ghost without husband, whoever worshipers together, whoever accumulates greed for roses “.

Thúy Kiều in “Tale of Kiều” believes that Dam Tien’s soul has not yet escaped: “Kieu that: Those who are talented, cascading, are still eloquent, easy to meet love, wait and see, they will see miracles. Now, a word was barely in time, the minute the wind blew the flag, rushed to shake the tree, there seemed to be more or less scent in the wind, watchful the wind followed, the shoe imprints step by step imprinted with moss. “. However, Nguyen Du instructed Dam Tien to come back to Thuy Kieu by telling her that: Causes and effects are unfinished, has tried to evade the debt of the scene, some people still have heavy debt to dig, the oil people want to avoid, goddamn it. gave”.

In the movie “Kieu”, director Mai Thu Huyen plays the role of Dam Tien by himself with many dramatic scenes. Every time Thuy Kieu was in danger, Dam Tien appeared to protect. Dam Tien became Thuy Kieu’s guardian god in the true way of similar disease, similar to hot air, “pain in women’s destiny, the word that fate is also a common word”. However, the meaning of Dam Tien does not stop there. Dam Tien became a knot for the director to express today’s attitudes about the love and treachery of the old people.

The humiliating climax of his love of a triangular left hand, Dam Tien instigated Thuy Kieu to resentment. Dam Tien handed a knife to Thuy Kieu to stab Hoan Thu to death in order to end the injustice. In grief and resentment, Thuy Kieu did not act as Dam Tien wanted. Thuy Kieu’s abandonment is the hallmark of the movie “Kieu” and is also a show full of confidence by director Mai Thu Huyen.

Vietnamese cinema industry is not used to making historical films. Without a set and without historical film making technology, having a product like “Kieu” is enough for director Mai Thu Huyen to be satisfied with his costly and drastic play.