It took me 2 years to find baby An for 'Southern Forest Land'

Director Nguyen Quang Dung (Dung “Crazy”) is the son of writer Nguyen Quang Sang. The male director shared in the program When We Are 20 that, although his father is very famous, he never forces his children to follow his direction:

“My father never asked me what I did or how much money I made. The important thing he always told his children was to always stay healthy, stay happy, be sincere, and be kind.

When I was a kid, I could do whatever I wanted, as long as I didn't touch anything dangerous.

Director Nguyen Quang Dung shared in the program "When we are 20".

Regarding the reason for choosing cinema as the path to pursue his passion, Nguyen Quang Dung shared: “My schooling was only average. I also played table tennis but due to injury, I decided that I could not pursue it professionally.

My father asked me but I still didn’t know what I would pursue. I studied music, played music, and took the entrance exam to the Conservatory of Music. At that time, the movie Wild Field was being shown on TV. I saw it and blurted out, “Why don’t you study cinema in the future, become a director, and I’ll write the script.”

Later, when I took the exam, I was forced to pass two schools. I intended to study at both schools, but the school hours were too close so I had to choose. At that time, my father was very close to Uncle Trinh Cong Son. He took me to his house to visit. He advised me: "You should study cinema because you will be able to travel here and there. Later, if you still have the inspiration to compose music, you can study later. " At that time, Uncle Trinh Cong Son was very famous, so he advised me to listen and study cinema.

"Uncle Trinh Cong Son is so famous that I listen to his advice."

The male director admitted that he received preferential treatment when studying cinema: “I felt that I received preferential treatment when studying at school, because my father also contributed to the country's cinema. But my awareness was that I had to study properly so as not to embarrass my father.

Moreover, my father was familiar with the teachers, so I didn't dare to be rude and get scolded. And that major suited me, so I felt like I was studying while playing, very interesting."

The male director revealed that he and his biological father are “opposite personalities” so he often doesn’t receive compliments from his father: “Actually, my father and I are opposite personalities. When my father goes to the movies, there are movies he likes, and there are movies he doesn’t like. But he just says: “It’s okay.”

The male director shared the difficulties in implementing the project "Southern Forest Land".

Sharing about the film project Southern Forest Land, director Nguyen Quang Dung said his biggest difficulty was "compressing" the film into about 2 hours:

“My difficulty is how to choose a direction to tell the story in 2 hours from the novel and the 11-episode film. Besides arranging the script and choosing the characters, how to choose the character of An to be convincing.

It took me 2 years of casting to find someone to play the role of An so confidently. The third difficulty is how to do what I think with that amount of money.”

He affirmed: “An's change and the changes in the people An meets on his journey will be different from novels and TV dramas.”

An Nguyen

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