The unfulfilled love story between musician Trịnh Công Sơn and a Japanese girl is made into a film.

In the early 1970s, Trinh Cong Son's music was not only famous in Vietnam but also spread to the global community. In Japan, many of his songs were released, and in 1972, Trinh Cong Son won the Gold Disc Award (an award for albums with sales exceeding 2 million copies).

In 1979, Nippon Records (Japan) invited singer Khanh Ly to record songs by Trinh Cong Son. Among them was the song...Go to sleep, my child.The song performed by Khánh Ly became a hit that year in this market. This shows that Trinh Công Sơn's music is loved by many people in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Michiko Yoshii in her youth

In the late 1980s, a Japanese female student studying at a university in Paris (France) also fell in love with Trinh Cong Son's songs. Her name was Michiko Yoshii. From loving the music, Michiko Yoshii studied Vietnamese to better understand the beauty and richness of Trinh Cong Son's music. And Michiko Yoshii decided to pursue her master's thesis researching Trinh Cong Son's anti-war music.

To gather material for her research, Michiko Yoshii met with the talented musician many times, and gradually, their love for music blossomed into love for each other. Music became the bridge connecting their relationship.

According to Ms. Trinh Vinh Trinh (Trinh Cong Son's sister): "I met Michiko once before. She was a slender, graceful Japanese girl. She played the guitar and sang many of Trinh Cong Son's songs with passion and emotion, moving everyone. From my perspective, I think Son was very touched that a foreign girl understood and loved his music so well. He was very impressed that Michiko knew hundreds of his songs. Perhaps that's what brought the two of them together."

Musician Trinh Cong Son

According to Trinh Vinh Trinh, their love had deepened to the point where they were planning a wedding. At the time, the entire Trinh family was abroad, but they were very excited to hear that their brother was about to get married. The whole family planned to return to Vietnam to have wedding attire made and buy wedding rings for both the bride and groom. On the bride's side, because Michiko Yoshii's parents were too old to travel to Vietnam for the wedding, Michiko Yoshii asked the Japanese ambassadors in Vietnam to represent her family.

All the wedding preparations were complete, however, for some unknown reason, the wedding was canceled at the last minute. “I don’t know exactly what happened or why, because I was in Canada at the time. But when we heard from the journalists that the wedding was canceled, everyone was very sad. Many people wanted to ask, but Sơn is a discreet, thoughtful, and sensitive person, so the matter wasn’t discussed much,” Trịnh Vĩnh Trinh recounted.

Michiko Yoshii in 2018

Their real-life romance ended prematurely before marriage, but music remained the thread that bound their kindred spirits together. In July 1991, in Paris, Michiko Yoshii successfully defended her master's thesis on the influence of Trinh Cong Son's anti-war music on Vietnamese society during the war. The thesis received an excellent rating from the examiners at the University of Paris VII.

In 1993, Michiko Yoshii returned to Vietnam for work. They met a few times before Michiko Yoshii married another Vietnamese man. Because of her love for Vietnam, Michiko Yoshii contacted the Street Children's Organization in Japan to expand its activities in Vietnam. Through Michiko Yoshii, many Japanese people donated money to build dozens of bridges, and hundreds of poor children received financial assistance to attend school.

After Trinh Cong Son's death, Michiko Yoshii often returned to light incense for him. According to the Trinh family, with his reserved and secretive nature, Trinh Cong Son could only express his feelings through his music. Trinh Cong Son composed a song specifically for Michiko, but this piece was never publicly released.

Besides the film project, in 2019, Trinh Cong Son's family will organize a week named after him to commemorate the 18th anniversary of his death. Three nights of Trinh Cong Son music will take place. One night at the Military Zone 7 stadium will be on March 30th, featuring singers and musicians such as Bang Kieu, Quang Dung, Duc Tuan, Hong Nhung, Le Quyen, Tran Manh Tuan, etc. Another program will take place on the afternoon of April 1st at Nguyen Van Binh book street (District 1).