How "purely Vietnamese" is 'The Road to Thang Long Citadel'?

The Road to Thang Long Citadel was shown on VTV5, sparking discussions about historical dramas and the "pure Vietnamese" nature of the work.

"History left behind" from a thousand years of Thang Long

The Road to Thang Long Citadel was finally aired on VTV5 from October 20. This film was produced in 2009, on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long, but could not be aired on that occasion. The film did not pass the assessment of the Central Film Assessment Council.

In 2010, the film was not approved partly because of the "purely Vietnamese" elements in the film. Information at that time said that the work had many scenes filmed at Hoanh Diem studio (China), and used foreign extras... Mr. Le Ngoc Minh, then Deputy Director of the Cinema Department, Chairman of the Central Film Appraisal Council, said that the council requested to limit as much as possible the large scenes such as palaces, temples... filmed in China.

Artist Phan Cam Thuong writes calligraphy works to be used as movie props

PHOTO: FB ROAD TO THANG LONG Citadel

Mr. Minh himself also had concerns about the "pure Vietnamese" desire of the public and experts at that time. He said: "Not only me, but certainly all Vietnamese filmmakers when making films on historical and historical themes, all wanted to make 100% pure Vietnamese films. But what we call "pure Vietnamese" from centuries ago, thousands of years ago, is still being groped for and is still being debated. Therefore, filmmakers must not only research to find the true "pure Vietnamese" but also use their intuition to create props and costumes that are at least different from foreign historical films."

At that time, the costumes and architecture caused a lot of reactions when they were judged to be too similar to Chinese historical films. Not to mention, some major battles were described briefly, so they were also judged to not match history. The description of historical figures also did not satisfy historian Le Van Lan because it was not similar to the description in history books...

Regarding this broadcast, Mr. Dang Tran Cuong, Director of the Department of Cinema (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), said that the Department did not receive any request to distribute this film. However, according to current law, the film does not need permission from the Department of Cinema to be distributed. "According to the provisions of the Press Law and the Cinema Law, any film broadcast on television is under the authority of the station's General Director. The authority to approve broadcasting belongs to the station's General Director for broadcasting on the station's channels," Mr. Cuong said.

The "pilot" historical drama

After The Road to Thang Long was broadcast, Mr. Tran Viet Phuong, 3D Company, shared about this film on his personal page. He said that 10 years ago, he was assigned to edit the film Ly Cong Uan's Road to Thang Long (which is the film The Road to Thang Long ) to make the setting closer to Dai Viet. "The work was difficult because we were only the unit involved in post-production and did not have any pre-production elements," Mr. Phuong recalled, adding that he had to edit several hundred frames. "At that time, we worked for about 4 months, with a workforce of about 20 people," he said.

Historically incorrect 4-tassel crown

PHOTO: SCREENSHOT

Scene filmed at Hengdian studio (China)

The scene after the architecture was replaced with a knife to give it a purely Vietnamese look.

According to Mr. Phuong, the renovation includes changing the architecture and wall patterns, and also changing the color of the clothes. "We renovated some of the house architecture that was originally set in Hengdian, and changed the color of the clothes. The owners requested to change the color of the clothes to a darker color, to reduce the feeling of China," Mr. Phuong said.

Mr. Phuong said that when renovating the architecture, his technical team received a request to replace the roof architecture with roof ridges that are not too typical of the periods. "The patterns cannot be clear because if they are too clear, it will be recognized as the Le Dynasty or some other period... It just needs to have a Vietnamese feel. We avoid patterns that indicate the period. Like it is still the Ly Dynasty but only clouds and water, not the typical patterns of the Ly Dynasty," Mr. Phuong said.

Regarding the interior objects, Mr. Phuong said: "The objects on the table, for example, in theory, the Ly Dynasty still used Dong Son objects, or Chinese objects, that's normal. But especially the architecture of Hoang Diem, it had to be completely erased." In fact, the interior designs were also carefully designed beforehand. For example, many patterns were taken from King Dinh's temple, or on Dong Son jars. The calligraphy works were all done by artist - researcher Phan Cam Thuong.

On the Dai Viet Co Phong page, a heritage-loving forum, the costumes in the film were also analyzed, and it was considered that the costumes in the film were acceptable. It must also be said that ancient costume practices flourished after the book Ngan Nam Ao Mu by author Tran Quang Duc. The work analyzed many historical evidences, as well as specimens to show the characteristics of costumes of different periods.

Interestingly, many heritage lovers, although seeing the errors in the film's costumes, also accept it because the period in which the film was made did not have as much in-depth research as in A Thousand Years of Clothing and Hats . The crown with 4 tassels as in the film is incorrect, but it is also accepted as a period when awareness of historical costumes is breaking down.

Account Nguyen Tran Khanh said that the film is different from history, but according to him, "the film said it was a historical story." This audience commented: "... The film is really good, the fighting is also great. I made 4 episodes in a row, then Googled the period to compare. So the film was successful." Meanwhile, Mr. Tran Viet Phuong said: "Up to now, the film has been aired, and to be fair, this film is also a good film compared to that time period, everyone is free to criticize the historical elements."

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/duong-toi-thanh-thang-long-thuan-viet-den-dau-185251027230859893.htm