L'histoire de Pao

The life of Pao

Chuyen Cua Pao (Pao's Story), finally hit the screens of the National Cinema last week as well as cinemas throughout country, to satisfy hungry cinema-goers desperate to see the film after it received a Golden Kite Award (Vietnam's very own Oscars) for the best movie this year.

Director, Ngo Quang Hai, was inspired by a simple but emotional story called Tieng Dan Moi Sau Bo Rao Da (Jew's harp sound behind a rocky fence) by Do Bich Thuy three years ago, which led him to adapt it for the screen. Pao's Story depicts the lives of remote ethnic Mong villagers and a young girl named Pao, who has two mothers – a real mother and a stepmother. Her real mother leaves Pao and her brother when they are young babies to be raised by their stepmother. But after a family incident, Pao leaves home to track down her real mother. Her journey leads us on a journey of discovery where we see the secrets of love and the strength of relationships between people in the countryside. The film contains some breath-taking primitive scenes in the mountainous provinces of Vietnam. We can see the complicated moods of Pao in her quest, demonstrated simply and slowly without much use of dialog. Pao's Story is Hai's first award-winning film and places him at the fore of original directors in Vietnam today. While other filmmakers are lured by commercial films about gangsters, bar girls or robberies, Hai is clearly forging his own path. "I've actually experienced many difficulties to earn a living and I am not the kind of man who fears a challenge," he says. Hai's wife, Do Thi Hai Yen, was chosen to be Pao. Yen has been famous since the international hit The Quiet American, directed by Australian Philip Noyce. Yen won the best actress award at the Golden Kite ceremony for her role in Pao's Story and Nhu Quynh also picked up best supporting actress. Hai first met Yen when he acted in the film Mua He Chieu Thang Dung (Vertical Ray of the Sun) by screen-writer director Tran Anh Hung in 2001. Yen, at the time, was a attending the Vietnam Dancing College and appeared briefly as a maid, while Hai played a brother in a large family of sisters in Hanoi. Yen's fragile and pure beauty was perfect for the role of Phuong (in The Quiet American), a beautiful, exotic and mysterious mistress who becomes caught up in a love triangle with an American aid worker and an English London Times correspondent in Saigon. Before filming Pao's Story, Hai and Yen had to come up to mountainous provinces Ha Giang, Lai Chau and Lao Cai to select scenes in every season on nearly 20 occasions. The couple even lived with ethnic people and learned some of the H'Hmong language. To develop the character of Pao, Hai befriended a Hmong girl for one month, visiting her house and following her to markets. Yen has successfully portrayed Pao with a spontaneous and soulful authenticity. Hai has been involved in a number of international film productions and asked The Quiet American director Philip Noyce to recommend courses in movie direction in the US. Hai's international film making experiences, reputation as a true gentleman, added with his recent success means he is in god position in terms of cast selection or general job offers. However, Hai is not one to let success influence his decisions and he has turned down invitations to act in domestic productions this year. Pao's Story received VND2 billion from the government, as well as sponsorship from VIDO-TOUR for post-production work. Hai is now preparing to make a film called Kien with filming expected to begin in Jan 2007. The film is an independent production and is privately sponsored. In an ever-commercializing industry, a director like Quang Hai is a breath of fresh air. (Time out)

"......'Pao's Story' is a contemplative....coming-of-age tale set among the Hmong people, an ethnic minority indigenous to the mountains of North Vietnam.... told through the eyes of ( Pao, played by) serenely beautiful Do Thi Hai Yen, star of "The Quiet American" and writer/director Ngo's wife....magnificent scenery, colorful costumes and authentically exotic players.....a universal story about letting go of resentments based on childhood memories, as multiple revelations alter her perception of the past..... widescreen vistas and graceful rhythms of a timeless rural existence, shepherded by an especially beautiful woman.....(Ronnie Sheib, Variety.com)

The story floating Chuyen cua Pao (2006)

"Gone with the Wind's Tale" (Story of PAO/Pao 's Story), the protagonist is a girl called drifting. by the time the young mothers abandoned. After drifting grow up and starts a journey in search of his mother, in the process, found floating in her family who were little known secret. As soon as I saw this film, that this is a modern Vietnamese women to explore the social troubles main love film. But in fact, this adaptation of a story based on the true story is depicted more find themselves drifting life in the process. This is a story not so much of the breeze, it is better to say that this is a story about what he wants breeze. Drifting in the family relations are very complex. Stepmother and her brother were released into the custody, because of his father's extramarital affair, drifting blood mother ran away from home. Stepmother suicide after drifting decided to find my natural mother. The announcement followed the cruel truth, the floating home after she wrote a story. Drifting in the eyes of her mother and stepmother were living in suppressing pain and misery of life. Finally they have been released in their own ways. This film's attention to the breeze started shooting the breeze innovative approach with the director's autobiography, totally different from the traditional narrative technique. Vietnamese film "Gone with the Wind story," competition will represent Vietnam in 2007 Oscar for best foreign-language film competition. Vietnamese director of this film directed by Ngo Quang Hai, Vietnam has been awarded the 2005 Golden Kite Film Society Award, the prize for best film. Cannes Film Festival in 2006 and the first appearance on the international scene. "Floating the story of" the beauty and the Vietnamese wilderness ...

Vietnam Nominates Film for Oscar Awards

09/27/2006 - News Vietnam has nominated Chuyen Cua Pao (Pao's Story) for this year's Oscar Awards. Its Cinematography Department is completing formalities to send the film to the American Academy for Best Foreign Language Film after it is screened in some venues in the US. Vietnam is one of the 83 countries invited to send films for the five nominations for Best Foreign Language Film at the 79th Annual Academy Awards to be held in September next year. Pao's Story, adapted from the short story Tieng Dan Moi Sau Bo Rao Da (The Panpipe's Sound Behind the Stone Fence) by Do Bich Thuy, tells a story of remote ethnic Mong villagers and a young girl named Pao. It features her journey to find the real value of happiness and explores the inner emotions of other ethnic women who live under the pressure of traditional customs. Pao is played by renowned actress Hai Yen, 24, who featured in the international hit The Quiet American based on the book by Graham Greene. Pao's Story won the Vietnam Cinematography Association's Golden Kite Award for the Best Feature Film in 2006. It also won three other awards including Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Cameraman. Source: Voice of Vietnam, Thanh Nien News

Vietnamese film screened in US 31/10/2006 -- 11:08 AM New York (VNA) -

The Vietnamese film "Chuyen Cua Pao" (Pao's Story), directed by Ngo Quang Hai, is on a two-week tour in the US. The film made its debut to a full house at the Columbia University's 300-seat Learner Hall. Hundreds of US and Vietnamese viewers stayed after the show to talk with director Ngo Quang Hai and main actress Hai Yen, expressing their hope to enjoy more Vietnamese films in the US. The film will continue its tour to famous universities such as the Yale, Harvard and Stanford before going to a film festival in Japan.-Enditem