“My Father, the One Who Stayed”: Success Thanks to Vietnamese Identity

“My Father, the One Who Stays” by director, Meritorious Artist Vu Truong Khoa, is the opening film for the new film time slot on VTV3 in February. The film is copyrighted from the original Chinese film “In the Name of the Family”.

The film tells the story of a family with 2 fathers raising 3 children who are not related by blood but are full of love and warmth. On the contrary, the children's blood relatives use the name of family to hurt and cause suffering to them. A family is made up of unfortunate pieces, and constantly suffers from external storms, but the thing that holds and connects the members of that family most closely and sustainably is still love, sincere feelings coming from the heart.

Three young actors in the movie.

From the first episodes, the film has received positive feedback from the audience with the performances of the young cast. The three young faces Tran Nghia, Ngoc Huyen and Thai Vu have shown the true spirit of the film: Expressing a film with a strong Vietnamese color, with the values ​​of Vietnamese families, life and people.

For Thai Vu, this is the first time this young actor has had a leading role in the Vietnam Television Film Production Center VFC. With his handsome “baby boy” face, Thai Vu leaves a deep impression of a guy who is full of emotions and carries with him a bit of an inferiority complex about his identity and circumstances. Thai Vu’s Viet is emotional, sincere and very close to real life. Although he does not have as much experience as his two co-stars, Thai Vu’s efforts are commendable as his role is loved and accepted by the audience.

Tran Nghia, in the role of the eldest brother Nguyen, portrayed the image of a very typical eldest brother in Vietnamese society: warm, tolerant, although introverted, always ready to be an open "umbrella" to protect his younger siblings. Tran Nghia is a familiar face to Vietnamese audiences through both television series and movies such as "Mat Biec", "Chung Ta Cua 8 Nam Sau"... His acting skills through many genres of films have helped Tran Nghia perform very well in scenes that require psychological depth, winning the sympathy of the audience.

The most notable of the three is Ngoc Huyen. With her petite figure, big round eyes, and innocent face, Ngoc Huyen is quite suitable for the roles of high school students. Ngoc Huyen once made an impression in the role of Van, a shy girl who was abused and suffered permanent mental trauma in “Ga-ra Hanh Phuc”.

In “My Father, the One Who Stays”, Ngoc Huyen showed a transformation when playing the role of An. In this role, the original Chinese version was played by famous actress Dam Tung Van, which was a great pressure for Ngoc Huyen.

When the film was released, she confessed that she did not watch the original to let her mind be completely "blank", from there expressing the character with her own feelings, not influenced by the original.

In An, Ngoc Huyen is no longer a shy girl like her appearance, but has "talked back" and defended herself against malicious attacks from the outside. An also has the youthfulness, mischief and humor commonly found in the current Gen Z girls in Vietnam, which makes "My Father, the One Who Stays" closer to Vietnamese audiences than a remake of a foreign version.

Artists Thai Son, Bui Nhu Lai and Minh Tiep in the film.

Not only did the young cast perform their roles very well, the famous cast also continued to assert themselves by making the film more “Vietnamese” with very familiar characters, both good and bad. The fathers are calm and composed in the face of dark plots, but still confused and bewildered when receiving attention from someone of the opposite sex. The clumsiness, awkwardness but sincerity and affection of typical Vietnamese fathers were portrayed very “sweetly” by two veteran actors Thai Son and Bui Nhu Lai.

The film has scenes, dialogues, situations... very close to Vietnamese social life.

The most prominent of the supporting characters are Nguyen’s mother and grandmother. Thu Quynh and Huong “tuoi”, one is a diverse “chameleon”, the other specializes in comedy roles, but they have breathed life into these two roles, as if they came from real life into the film. To the point, both Thu Quynh and Huong “tuoi” have received negative reactions from the audience. When the character of Lien’s mother showed signs of returning in recent episodes, many viewers expressed their wish that “Lien would disappear” from the film. This is another success for actress Thu Quynh when she returns to the small screen after taking maternity leave.

The film’s success also lies in the setting and atmosphere that are imbued with Vietnamese culture. The small house with a garden, the singing and playing of the moon lute, etc., give the film the most characteristic colors of Vietnamese culture.

Exploiting traditional cultural elements in artistic creation is a direction that helps many artists and artistic products succeed. “My Father, the One Who Stays” became a television phenomenon this year thanks to the efforts of the crew and actors to bring authenticity and closeness to Vietnamese culture and society. This is a new direction for producers and filmmakers to be more confident in exploiting copyrights of foreign stories and scripts while still being able to create products that are close to Vietnamese audiences.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/cha-toi-nguoi-o-lai-thanh-cong-nho-ban-sac-viet-post878105.html