Vietnamese made film to invade US theatres

Vietnamese made film to invade US theatres

It has been reported that the popular romantic comedy – How to Fight in Six Inch Heels – directed by Ham Tran and starring Kathy Uyen, who also produced and co-wrote the script will be widely aired in US movie theatres over coming weeks.

The film set in Vietnam and the streets of New York City had its US premiere last year at the CAAMFest in San Francisco.

It tells about a neurotic junior fashion designer from New York who discovers her fiancé, KIET, working overseas in Vietnam may be having an affair with a supermodel.

With jealousy burning and her wedding date on the horizon, she conjures up a scheme to achieve the ultimate makeover, investigate the supermodels and infiltrate the high-fashion world of Saigon in order to catch him in the act.

But her plan backfires when she really befriends the three supermodels and discovers that there is more to life than living through a series of checklists.

Swiss artists showcase their humour in exhibition

An exhibition and art installation by Plonk and Replonk group will open today at L’Espace in Ha Noi.

The exhibition will feature about 45 colour photos and ordinary objects that will surprise and make fun of everyone.

Plonk and Replonk was established in 1995 by artist brothers Hubert Froidevaux and Jacques Froidevaux. They are popular in Switzerland and known for their absurd humour and wicked wit, which borders on the sarcastic and mischievous.

By turning ordinary objects, habits and events upside down and inside out, Plonk and Replonk ask people to see reality in other ways.

The photos, measuring 420cm by 600cm, are created from those owned by the National Postal Museum of France, the Museum of Lyon History and private collections.

Under each photo, the artists write both critical and lighthearted captions that deal with globally relevant topics such as environment, globalisation, education and consumerism.

The highlight of the exhibition will be the installation of ordinary objects, including Vietnamese paper fans.

The artists printed photos on four paper fans, measuring 2m by 1m and 4m by 2m. They also used about 10 advertisement boxes and 20 street-name boards that have been displayed at the exhibition.

A six-minute video clip will be shown at the exhibition, featuring artworks by the artists.

As a subtle parallel, three oil and lacquer paintings of Vietnamese artist Nguyen Manh Hung will be displayed at the exhibition.

Hubert said, “It’s very interesting to have an exhibition with Hung. It’s a pity that only a few artworks by Hung are displayed.”

He said, “I saw Hung’s artworks on a website, but almost all of them were sold. We will meet each other at the exhibition’s opening this afternoon and I hope we will have time to talk.”

It is the second exhibition of the artists at the French Cultural Centre in Ha Noi, following the first one in 2012.

Hubert said, “I’m excited with this exhibition because we have time to prepare for the exhibition. The captions make our artworks unique.”

Almost of the photos are from their latest photo book, published last October.

Only Hubert, the older brother, has come to Ha Noi this time.

The exhibition will run till April 12 at 24, Trang Tien Street, Ha Noi.

Japanese cherry blossom festival to open in Ha Long

The 2015 Ha Long Japanese cherry blossom festival themed “Peace – prosperity – cooperation and development” will be held from April 2-5 in Ha Long city, northern Quang Ninh province.

The statement was released by Vice Chairman of the Ha Long People’s Committee Tran Trong Trung at a press briefing on March 24.

As many as 500 cherry blossom branches from Japan are expected to be showcased at the festival, along with a wide range of art performances

The event will also include exhibitions featuring culture, tourism and cuisine from Vietnam and Japan, film screenings and workshops on health care, education and the environment, among others.

The annual festival, organised by the Ha Long city People’s Committee in collaboration with Japan’s Wanokai International Culture Association, is expected to help promote cultural exchange and strengthen friendship between the province and Japanese localities as well as ties between the two countries.

Traditional arts programme to be held at IPU-32

A concert with Vietnamese traditional musical instruments is scheduled to be held on March 28 at the National Assembly House in Hanoi to welcome delegates attending the 132nd Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-132) Assembly.

The programme will feature artists from the Vietnam National Academy of Music including Nguyen Tien, Nghe The Dan, Bui Le chi, Nguyen Quang Hung and Hoang Anh Tu.

The musicians will perform duets and ensembles of traditional Vietnamese musical instruments such as ‘dan bau’ (traditional Vietnamese monochord), dan nhi (two-chord fiddle) and dan tranh (Vietnamese 16-chord zither) as well as gongs and t’rung (Central Highlands musical instruments).

The programme is expected to introduce delegates to the unique traditional music of all ethnic groups in Vietnam as well as help them to learn more about the land and people of Vietnam.

A wide range of other cultural and arts activities will also be held to celebrate the IPU-32, including an arts programmes entitled ‘Cultural Colours of Vietnam’s 54 Ethnic Groups’ on March 29 at the Vietnamese Ethnic Groups Culture-Tourism Village in Dong Mo, Son Tay town and ‘Citadel Night’ at the ancient Imperial Citadel of Thang Long in Hanoi.

Additionally, delegates will have a chance to discover the natural landscapes and environment, along with tangible and intangible cultural heritages and daily life of people in the Southern and Central Highlands regions in Vietnam through a photo exhibition and exchanges with ethnic communities at the Vietnamese Ethnic Groups Culture-Tourism Village.

The IPU-32, to be held in Hanoi for the first time from March 28 to April 1, is an important international political event and an opportunity for Vietnam to showcase its land and people for foreign friends.

Vietnam promotes cultural heritage education

Experts and educators gathered at a seminar in Hanoi on March 24 to discuss how to include intangible cultural heritage in education for sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region.

Organised by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and the UNESCO Office in Hanoi, event participants included over 60 experts from 13 countries in the region.

Addressing the event, MOET Deputy Minister Nguyen Vinh Hien underscored the significance of cultural heritage in educating younger generations.

The MOET launched a campaign in 2009 to foster the teaching of folk music and traditional sporting practices in schools as well as motivate students to protect local historical and cultural heritage.

The MOET also worked with the MCST to publish a guideline on engaging school lessons with intangible cultural heritages in 2013, Hien said.

The same year, Vietnam embarked as a pilot country for incorporating intangible cultural heritage into school curricula which has raised student awareness of and their sense of responsibility for such heritages, he added.

During the seminar, experts exchanged first-hand experience from the project in four pilot countries including Pakistan, Palau, Uzbekistan and Vietnam over the past 2 years.

Head of the UNESCO Office in Hanoi Katherine Muller-Marin noted that heritage education is a key driving factor for the formation of soft skills in a child, vital for sustainable development, including adaption, creativity, innovation, mutual respect and diversity.

Therefore, teachers need support to innovate teaching methods and inspire students to learn about and uphold the values of their unique cultural tradition, she stressed.

She also emphasised the importance of improving communication between schools, teachers, parents and the community towards effective heritage education.

Many provinces across the country have actively incorporated intangible cultural heritages into school lessons; BacNinh, Nghe An and PhuTho province have campaigns to promote folk singing in schools and students in Lang Son province are taught traditional instrument playing.

Spring Book Festival to open in Hanoi

The 2015 Spring Book Festival, presenting 5,000 book titles, will take place from March 25 to 29 at the Vietnam Women’s Museum, No.36 Ly Thuong Kiet Street, Hanoi.

The event, organised by the Tre (Youth) Publishing House, Phu Nu (Women) Publishing House, Kim Dong Publishing House and the Vietnam Women’s Museum, will open from 8am to 9:30 pm between March 25 and March 29.

According to the organising board, visitors to the event can get 10%-50% discounts on all print materials.

Additionally, book lovers can buy books at reduced prices of VND5,000 to VND15,000 per book at one-price book booths.

Most notably, the book festival provides readers the chance to meet with famous authors and artists.

The event aims to honour the cultural values and tradition of reading with a goal of showcasing meaningful and interesting material for book lovers and providing opportunities for publishers to introduce new books directly to readers.

Vietnam – 25 Years Documenting a Changing Country

A photo exhibition is set to open at the Vietnam Art Gallery in celebration of the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between America and Vietnam, and the 40th anniversary of the end of the war.

The exhibition in Hanoi will feature the photographs of Catherine Karnow, whose works have appeared in National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian and many other international publications.

It represents an accumulation of 25 years of Catherine Karnow’s travels in Vietnam.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, the daughter of an American journalist, San Francisco-based photographer Catherine Karnow is known for her vibrant, emotional, and sensitive style of photographing people.

She studied photography in high school and graduated from Brown University with honours in comparative literature and semiotics. After a brief stint as a filmmaker she turned her attention to photography full-time in 1986.

Karnow is best known for her work covering victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam.

In 1994, she was the only non-Vietnamese photojournalist to accompany General Giap on his historic first return to the forest encampment in the northern Vietnam highlands from which he plotted the battle of Dien Bien Phu.

The exhibition is sponsored by Suzanne Lecht, Art Director of Art Vietnam Gallery and resident of Hanoi for 21 years.

“The event pays tribute to all those people who have touched our lives and allowed Vietnam into their hearts,” Lecht said.

It will run April 10 to May 8 at the Art Vietnam Gallery in Hanoi.

K-pop bands to perform in Hanoi this week

Seven well-known K-pop bands will liven up Hanoi in a show to be held this weekend.

The seven popular K-pop boybands and girlbands, SHINee, Sistar, Teen Top, Block B, A Pink, EXO and GOT7, are expected to enthrall their fans in the “Music Bank Hanoi” show, which is slated to take place at My Dinh Stadium at 6:00 pm on Saturday, local media reported.

The three-hour event will see the bands “burning” the stage with several of their hits.

Each of them will also sing a song in Vietnamese as a way to say hello to their fans in the Southeast Asian country, Radio the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) cited the organizer as saying.

The show will also feature some Vietnamese celebrities.

Singers Bora, Onew and Chanyeol, who belong to Sistar, SHINee, and EXO respectively, will serve as the show’s hosts.

The concert is expected to air on KBS, a major South Korean broadcaster, on April 8, VOV said.

The seven bands have appeared in video clips in which they said hello and expressed love to their Vietnamese fans.

Vietnam is the ninth destination during this Music Bank crew’s performing tour, after such stops as Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City.

Tickets cost between VND300,000 (US$14) and VND1.9 million ($89) apiece.

During the warm-up event which took place last Saturday in Hanoi, to local fans’ amazement, the organizer announced that tickets to this Saturday’s show would be sold at a 50 percent discount, The Thao va Van Hoa (Sports and Tourism) newspaper reported.

The move delighted a number of youths, but outraged many others, who had earlier bought tickets at the original prices.

Music Bank is a popular Korean music television program which debuted in 1998 on KBS and has aired weekly since.

As of 2011, it was broadcast in 72 different countries through KBS World.

In recent years, Music Bank has sent its crew to major cities around the world to stage shows and record and broadcast them on KBS channels later.

VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT

Vietnamese made film to invade US theatres

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