Cinema
Giọt lệ Hạ Long
Nguyễn Hữu Phần · 1994
Synopsis
A love story on the north-eastern coast, drawn from a text by Tô Ngọc Hiển set on the banks of the Ka Long, the river that separates Móng Cái from China. No published summary survives: the film has remained known for what it was, a co-production with Hong Kong shown as far as Berlin, rather than for what it recounts. The title also moves the action to a bay that the book did not name.
Context
The film was put into production in 1992 and was released two years later. It was the last title in the filmography of Trần Vũ, who co-signed it. Phi Tiến Sơn was behind the camera, and the cast brought together Quyền Linh, Thu Hà and Như Quỳnh. Co-production with a Hong Kong partner was then a novelty for a state studio emerging from forty years of public commissions.
Who it is for
In Vietnamese. It is worth knowing that the bay of the title and the river of the original text are two places in the North-East more than a hundred kilometres apart.
Prizes and reception
Prize of the film association in 1995, then image prize at the eleventh national rendezvous, in 1996; the first Vietnamese film invited to the Berlin Panorama.