"The fire of the middle line" witnesses the love between People's Artist Ngoc Lan and People's Artist Ngo Manh Lan

As one of the first films of Vietnamese cinema on the theme of war, which won the Silver Lotus Award at the 2nd Vietnam Film Festival and received a certificate of merit at the Moscow International Film Festival, more than 60 years have passed, "Fire of the Middle Line" has once again been revived in the hearts of the public through the program Cine7 - Memories of Vietnamese Films.

Character Nhan - a rare personality trait of Vietnamese Revolutionary cinema

The film is co-directed by Pham Van Khoa and Le Minh Hien, filmed by Nguyen Hong Sen, adapted from the short story of the same name by writer Van Dan.

The film tells the story of Dung, a platoon leader who completed his combat mission with excellence, but his superiors suddenly transferred him to assist civilians in transporting ammunition. Dung accepted the mission, but always wanted to go to the front line.

Here, Dung met Nhan (played by People's Artist Ngoc Lan), a passionate but also very humorous and playful female ammunition transporter. The work was hard, but on her lips always had an optimistic and life-loving smile. Once, while saving a burning ammunition depot, Nhan did not hesitate to rush into the sea of ​​fire, making Dung extremely admired and love blossomed from here.

Throughout the development of Vietnamese revolutionary cinema, female characters are often associated with the image of resilience and hard work.

But for Nhan, the movie "Fire in the Middle" brought a very different nuance: a female worker who is both innocent and playful, charming and sweet, but never loses her courage and bravery when facing danger.

Character Nhan in the movie "Middle Fire".

Present at the studio of Cine 7 - Vietnamese Film Memories: People's Artist Ngoc Lan recalls the memories surrounding the film "Fire in the Middle" and the role of Nhan that she played. That year she was only 18 years old, just entering school.

“There were several people auditioning for this role, not just me. The film crew brought my draft to Mr. To Huu to see. Mr. To Huu said this was the real Miss Nhan. I was so happy. From then on, I devoted myself to the role.” People’s Artist Ngoc Lan recalls the opportunity to play this special role.

To perform realistic scenes of carrying bullets, People's Artist Ngoc Lan revealed: At that time, the boxes of props were stacked with bricks inside, which was very heavy, so there were incidents that occurred during filming: The box of bullets she was carrying hit a member of the film crew and injured him. That was a profound memory that she could never forget.

Also present at Cine7 - Vietnamese Film Memories, Meritorious Artist Vu Xuan Hung - son of Mr. Vu Nang An, director of the film "Fire in the Middle" shared: The role of Nhan - a role that is both genuine and lively, with such innocent and mischievous colors - is extremely rare in Vietnamese cinema at that time. Art, according to him, the most important thing is authenticity and the ability to touch the hearts of viewers. And in the role of Nhan, People's Artist Ngoc Lan achieved both of those factors, both natural and expressive, making the audience feel like the character stepped out of real life and not just existed on the screen.

Movie scenes that challenged both actors and crew

To make the film, the crew had to face many difficulties. The setting was chosen in the northern mountainous provinces, in harsh winter weather conditions. There were scenes where actors had to carry heavy boxes and wade through icy water when the temperature was only about 4-5 degrees Celsius. The crew even had to use high-powered water jets to create artificial rain, turning the scene into a real challenge for human endurance.

Another seemingly romantic scene also made Nhan remember for life. That was the scene where Nhan stood in the field combing her hair, right under the field where People's Artist Ngoc Lan had to stand were countless leeches, which made her extremely scared. However, when the camera lights turned on, when the director shouted "start", she immediately got into character, smiling brightly, so that the audience only remembered the poetic image of the character and had no idea what was behind it.

The most challenging scene was the ammunition depot fire - the climax of the film. Sharing about this scene, People's Artist Ngoc Lan still remembers clearly: This was a scene that could only be filmed once, because after the fire broke out, the entire set would be destroyed.

In particular, the scene where Nhan climbs onto the roof to put out the fire and then falls to the ground is one of the most dangerous. Below, there are only four people holding a blanket waiting to “catch” the fire, and the actress must “fall precisely” right into the middle of that blanket. Just one mistake, and an accident can happen immediately.

People's Artist Ngoc Lan shares memories of participating in the film.

However, with absolute courage and concentration, the scene was completed in one take, leaving an indelible mark in the history of Vietnamese cinema.

In the early 1960s, special effects were still very unfamiliar in Vietnam. However, cinematographer Nguyen Hong Sen boldly applied special effects in “Fire in the Middle”, creating unique and new visual effects.

Although more than 60 years have passed, the film crew's memories cannot forget the extremely difficult scenes that required special effects such as writing on a smoke background, creating war effects, the general context of the film, or special effects using dynamic images of driving on the set; scenes of enemy planes bombing and attacking ammunition depots... which were successfully performed by cinematographer Nguyen Hong Sen.

A love story of more than half a century

The film "Fire in the Middle" won the Silver Lotus Award at the 2nd Vietnam Film Festival in 1973 and received a Certificate of Merit at the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival in 1961. It was this special International Award that brought People's Artist Ngoc Lan to Moscow to participate in the International Film Festival.

Here, she met People's Artist Ngo Manh Lan - who was then a student at VGIK Film University. By chance, he was assigned to be her interpreter during the trip.

They had never met before, but Ngo Manh Lan had a special affection for the character Nhan that Ngoc Lan portrayed on screen. The meeting in Moscow became the beginning of a beautiful love story, and later, they became husband and wife, closely attached for more than half a century.

More than 60 years have passed, "The Fire of the Middle" not only lives forever as a typical cinematic work, but also becomes a witness to a beautiful artistic love, originating from memories of war but crystallized in everyday happiness.

"Cine7 - Memories of Vietnamese Films" with guests People's Artist Ngoc Lan and Meritorious Artist Vu Xuan Hung in the movie "Fire in the Middle" will be broadcast at 9:30 p.m. on September 13, 2025 on VTV3 - Vietnam Television.

THANH THAO

Source: https://nhandan.vn/lua-trung-tuyen-chung-nhan-tinh-yeu-giua-nsnd-ngoc-lan-van-nsnd-ngo-manh-lan-post907752.html