People's Artist Tra Giang: 'With cinema, saying I miss you very much is not enough'

Artist Tra Giang, 82, immerses herself in painting - Photo: TTD

The paintings of the sea, mountains, villages, rivers... are all memories of the youth when People's Artist Tra Giang used to travel everywhere with film crews.

Through those vivid memories, Tra Giang painted the sea of clouds on the high mountains during the days she went to the North to film.

She painted a quiet boat on the shore, with a lighthouse in the distance. Or a scene of fierce waves crashing against the rocky shore on a stormy day. A peach garden blooming during Tet, spring coming next to a simple house of ethnic people in the countryside. A scene of Ha Long Bay from a long time ago.

Her paintings have harmonious, gentle colors, bringing a sense of peace, expressing a "holy, kind soul, clearly appearing in each painting", according to Dr. Ma Thanh Cao, former director of the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts.

This year, the documentary River of Memories about her was screened, along with the painting exhibition "Homeland of hers". Tuoi Tre Xuan met Tra Giang again to better understand the memories of a time in which she was the main character.

Cinema, so much nostalgia

"Cinema, saying I miss it so much is not enough. Cinema is my life, my flesh and blood, always in my body and heart, so close that we can never be separated.

Even though I haven't acted in films for decades, I still miss the images of my days making films, the people who collaborated with me, including the janitors at the film studio, everyone," Tra Giang reflected.

In an old apartment on Pham Ngoc Thach Street, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, artist Tra Giang hung a photo of herself with Uncle Ho - the famous photo titled "The smile of a little Southern girl in Uncle Ho's arms" - in the center of the room, the most solemn place.

The photo was taken when she was 20 years old, the youngest delegate attending the 3rd National Congress of Literature and Arts in 1962. The occasions when she met Uncle Ho, as well as when she went to the North to study at the Southern Students' School in the North, were the most beautiful memories of her life.

Tra Giang in her house in Ho Chi Minh City, her "studio" overlooking the cool and inspiring green tree canopy - Photo: NVCC

In 2024, those memories came back to life because it was the 70th anniversary of Southern students in the North. At the beginning of the year, she and a group of outstanding former students visited Hai Phong , where there are many Southern schools. The trip was very happy and emotional, bringing her back to the place where she lived and studied as a teenager under the care of Hai Phong people.

"The people of Hai Phong at that time had difficulties, but they gave the best and most beautiful schools to students from the South.

Before regrouping to the North, my family in the South had a difficult life, but after going there, I was able to get a good education. So for me, the days living in Hai Phong were the happiest days of my childhood," Tra Giang said.

Then she went to Hanoi to study cinema, living on the tree-lined Tran Phu street near the city center. She met and worked with seniors, close friends and colleagues such as director Huy Vinh, director Pham Ky Nam, Hai Ninh, Bach Diep, Pham Van Khoa, Tran Phuong...

Director Tran Phuong was a classmate, originally an actor, known as "the most handsome actor in Hanoi cinema", he passed away in 2020.

Before that, every time she went to Hanoi, Tra Giang visited him, and when she left, she was always reluctant to leave.

Once mentioned, the names and familiar faces just come back in Tra Giang's memory, as if they had never left this temporary world.

She said: "All the directors I mentioned have passed away. The actors who often acted with me like Tran Phuong, Ha Van Trong, Lam Toi... have also passed away. When I tell the story, I don't remember sad things, I only remember happy things when we made films and worked together back then."

Previously, every time Tra Giang organized a painting exhibition, two close friends were present, People's Artist The Anh and People's Artist Doan Dung.

Every time she went to Hanoi to attend cultural and artistic events, she always went with these two friends. After they passed away, she had to go alone, feeling very lonely and "missing them immensely".

Our country's history is never ending.

Vietnamese cinema once had a generation of actors born during the war, lived and acted during the war, and had direct memories of the war.

Unfortunately, they and their generation of audiences are gradually passing away. Vietnamese revolutionary war films are also gradually becoming a legacy, shown only on commemorative occasions, instead of being a regular presence in the lives of audiences.

This is not necessarily a rule, because there are cinemas that still make very good works about the history and past of that country or nation.

The painting "Northwest Roof" with the image of peach blossoms blooming in spring - Photo: NVCC

Artist Tra Giang expressed: "Maybe I just haven't done it well. There are so many good things in our people's lives, but why haven't I been able to write good scripts? A good movie must have a good script, thanks to which the directors, cameramen, actors... will join in making it.

To make films from the past, the artist and the producer must be very brave. I think the history of our country is endless. Now people keep taking Korean stories and turning them into Vietnamese ones, I feel sad.

Tra Giang herself can also be considered a historical figure in Vietnamese cinema. Pieces of artist Tra Giang's life have been preserved in documentary films from the past to the present, of which Memory River - directed by People's Artist Nguyen Thuoc - is the latest work.

She participated in interviews and appeared in the film because the filmmaker said: "This is not just a film about you, but about the history of Vietnamese cinema."

Tra Giang modestly said that she only "contributed a little" and was never "the number 1 figure in Vietnamese cinema". Cinema is a comprehensive art, even the characters played by actors are successful thanks to the efforts of many people, from the screenwriter, director, cameraman, lighting workers...

She admits that she is not an actress of great beauty, but the cinematographers have taken great care in choosing camera angles to make her look beautiful on film, with a very clear image.

At the beginning of the film River of Memories , the director inserted aerial footage of Tra Khuc River (also commonly called Tra Giang), the largest river and famous scenic spot in Quang Ngai province, the hometown of Tra Giang.

The artist is proud that at the time her films were shown, if there were children named Tra Giang, it was most likely inspired by the Tra Khuc River or herself.

Actors who don't love their characters, the audience knows that.

Around 1990, People's Artist Tra Giang temporarily stopped acting at the age of 48 because she could not find suitable roles in the instant noodle film genre at that time.

She shared: "At first, I didn't think I would stop. I'm only 48 years old. It's not like I've completely stopped acting. I want to wait for roles that are right for me. There are movies that they offer, but I don't find them suitable. If I keep waiting for the right movies, I'll get old."

The painting "Dawn at Sea" by Tra Giang - Photo: NVCC

Until today, although she has never stopped loving cinema, she still cannot continue. When asked if the roles that reached the pinnacle of revolutionary cinema and were symbols of a time were a barrier for her to choose future roles, Tra Giang said:

"I don't think so, it's just because I haven't met the roles I love yet. Actors have to meet the roles they love, to live in the character, to read and research to discover and create. If I accept a role I don't love, the audience will know."

At the age of 82, Tra Giang no longer acts in movies, but she tries to participate in cultural and artistic events in Ho Chi Minh City.

In September 2024, the documentary River of Memories about her was also screened at the Vietnam - Europe Documentary Film Festival, giving the audience another perspective on Tra Giang and her iconic roles in Vietnamese revolutionary cinema.

And the Homeland exhibition at the end of October in Ho Chi Minh City is also a big milestone for Tra Giang, as this is likely to be her last painting exhibition due to health and age reasons.

Since 1999, after her husband, professor, Meritorious Artist Nguyen Bich Ngoc, passed away, she found new passion and happiness in painting. If cinema is the resonance of a collective to create a work, then painting is one’s own thinking and color. Both arts bring her joy, in two different ways.

Moved by Vietnamese women

Tra Giang's two most classic roles in Chi Tu Hau and Parallel 17 Days and Nights are both Vietnamese women carrying great pain.

Ms. Tu Hau and Ms. Diu, two beautiful images of Vietnamese women - Documentary photo

She reminisced: "Playing Ms. Tu Hau and Ms. Diu, they are two characters who lived through very special events in our country.

Ms. Tu Hau, in extreme pain after being raped, intended to run to the sea to commit suicide, but the cries of her child pulled her back. She gradually grew up and joined the revolution.

As for Diu, during the 17th Parallel, she had to give birth to her child in prison for days and nights , under the care of fellow prisoners. Then she had to take her child across the river to her husband and then return to continue her revolutionary activities.

When the film was shown, especially to foreign audiences, they could not imagine it. When artist Tra Giang attended the Moscow International Film Festival in 1973 and won a gold medal, an American female journalist was very moved and came to interview her. They wanted to know if Vietnamese women in real life were like in the movies.

In response, artist Tra Giang used her knowledge of life to tell the story of mothers who held guns like Ut Tich, a hero of the Vietnamese People's Armed Forces. The interview was conducted through two interpreters in Russian and English. The article was later published in an American women's magazine.

Missing her husband and enjoying life with her children

Professor Nguyen Bich Ngoc was the great love of actress Tra Giang's life, her first and last love. He was known as the number 1 violin teacher in Vietnam and was the deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music. In 1999, he suddenly passed away due to a serious illness. For 10 years after her husband passed away, Tra Giang visited him at the cemetery every week.

"I still miss him often. Before, every time I mentioned my husband, I would sob. Now I control myself. Bich Tra advised my mother to remember the joys when her father was alive, remember how he loved and cared for her and her child," she confided.

Tra Giang's daughter, Nguyen Bich Tra , is one of the leading pianists in the Vietnamese music industry. After a long time in England, she moved to Hong Kong to live and also to be closer to her mother, so she could fly back to Ho Chi Minh City quickly. Knowing that her mother often asked questions and shared old stories with everyone, her daughter told her mother not to cry.

Bich Tra told her mother that whenever she was sick, she only needed to make one phone call and she would immediately fly back to her side. "My whole life is for you, so you should never think that I'm not by your side," artist Tra Giang recounted her daughter's words.