By LiAnn Ishizuka
The arrival of Dr. Ngo Phuong Lan's Modernity and Nationality in Vietnamese Cinema has come at a crossroads of Vietnamese cinema. Its films have entered the digital age of technological development and diasporic Vietnamese American filmmakers have made major cinematic contributions, all while the cinema is still bounded strictly by the state. The English translation of Modernity and Nationality in Vietnamese Cinema is the first book on Vietnamese film written in English and is a welcome addition to the scholarship on the subject.
At the beginning of the book, Dr. Lan states that "modernity" and "national identity" are the crucial pillars of Vietnamese cinema -- essentially the qualities that will help propel the quality of Vietnamese filmmaking forward. According to Dr. Lan, "nationality" refers to the feelings associated with being Vietnamese, while "modernity" is the interaction between individuals, their country, and the rest of the world. Her purpose is specific -- to encourage development within the Vietnamese film industry.
According to the book, one such articulation of national identity in Vietnamese cinema is the portrayal of women. Past films like The Wild Field and When the Tenth Month Comes celebrate women as nationalist heroes or revolutionary figures. According to Dr. Lan, women are seen as "faithful, carrying the burden -- not only of the family but of the entire village."
In Vietnam, film is still quite young considering its appearance there in 1953, and has historically been heavy with war themes and propagandistic fervor. Dr. Lan admits there is still much to be covered in terms of subject matter in Vietnamese film. She mentions addressing problems of youth, urbanization, and education. But most important of all, Dr. Lan emphasizes that Vietnam is developing.
There are restrictions to what filmmakers in Vietnam can express to their audiences. Because Dr. Lan also serves on the censorship board in Vietnam, she is familiar with the legal regulations and restrictions filmmakers in Vietnam are subjected to. The four main areas subject to censorship are: violence, criticism of government, interethnic conflict, and sexual activity.
There are also restrictions in terms of distribution and publicity. The burgeoning issue of public access (or lack thereof) is a problem that plagues much of Asian cinema, but specifically that of Vietnam. According to Philip Cheah, the co-editor of the English version of Modernity and Nationality in Vietnamese Cinema, "The big problem for Vietnamese film is that it doesn't go out very much. Even within Asia, there's a gap in seeing a Vietnamese film." Indeed, the most famous Vietnamese filmmaker internationally is Tran Anh Hung, who is actually based in France.
"One stereotype [confronting] Vietnamese cinema is that for the longest time ever, [non-Vietnamese] saw these people as 'the evil other,'" adds Cheah, who is also an influential film festival programmer. "That's one stereotype that we have taken decades to break out of."
Another obstacle is that Vietnamese cinema has a reputation around the world for being overly state-driven. Cheah adds, "But yet, when you actually watch the films, you notice something else is going on. The creative people are still doing other things. But sometimes it doesn't get out, and our job as programmers is to try to bring it out."
More successful in accessing international attention are films by the growing community of diasporic Vietnamese filmmakers. Stephane Gauger's recent festival hit Owl and the Sparrow is one such example. While it's set in Vietnam and deals with the familiar issues of modernity and national identity, it presents a different angle of Vietnam that has caught on with international film festival audiences.
According to Dr. Lan, the challenge for local Vietnamese filmmakers is finding the balance of appealing to foreign audiences, while also appealing to domestic Vietnamese sensibilities. What is most striking is that to do this, Vietnamese filmmakers have sometimes sought to imitate elements of overseas Vietnamese films, for instance by incorporating American-accented Vietnamese for narrative purposes. Dr. Lan comments on the popular marketing strategy of dubbing films with "bad Vietnamese of an overseas Vietnamese." The imperfect Vietnamese accent makes the film feel foreign and, by extension, better. This marketing technique is something that Dr. Lan states makes the character "sound cooler and more foreign."
However, despite this interest in the diasporic inflection of Vietnamese cinema, there are still raging political controversies, as with films like the award-winning Journey From the Fall, directed by Vietnamese American Ham Tran. Dr. Lam comments that people in Vietnam have only heard of such films, but have no opinion of them because of their limited distribution -- legal or illegal.