Films about revolutionary war: Sending faith to the young generation

The feature film "The Returner" of the People's Army Cinema immediately won the sympathy of the public and professionals after its release.

After three months of screening with 12 shows in the North and 22 shows in the South, “The Returner” left in the hearts of viewers not only a film full of soldier spirit and emotion but also left a special mark: the mark of young artistic talents making revolutionary war films.

The unprecedented...

“The Returned” is a large and important film project of the People’s Army Cinema (PAC), under the direction of the General Department of Politics (GDC), to serve the country’s major anniversaries in 2015. Up to now, PAC has never had a precedent of widely showing a film in theaters outside, but right after the premiere to experts and the press, “The Returned” attracted attention and received quite good reviews for a war film set in a post-war context. The subject matter is not new, but the film has reached an artistic value that even demanding predecessors are satisfied with.

To create a work of art, any creator has the desire to bring it to the public and be accepted by the public. That is also the desire of the creators of “The Returner”, including: Writer Suong Nguyet Minh (author of the short story “The Person at the Chau River Wharf”); scriptwriter Nguyen Thu Dung, co-author - director Dang Thai Huyen, who took the idea from the short story; cameraman Trinh Quang Tung... and a film crew of nearly 100 people. They overcame many difficulties and challenges during more than 3 months of filming on location, performing scenes of bombs falling, bullets exploding, and the cold rain of the last winter days of the year, some days down to 6 degrees Celsius; and also the same amount of time spent day and night editing the film in the studio of the People's Army, which still had many shortages.

Scene from the feature film “The Returnee”. Photo: QUANG QUYET

In response to that expectation, the leaders of TCCT agreed to allow the film of the People's Army to be shown in theaters; in particular, with the support of the leaders of the Kim Dong Cultural Center (19 Hang Bai, Hanoi), "The Returner" had 10 consecutive screenings without selling tickets. Immediately, the "The Returner" effect spread to most newspapers, radio and television channels..., attracting viewers to the theater. There were even screenings where the director and the main actress playing the role of May - the Returner (La Thanh Huyen) had to carry plastic chairs and line the aisles in the theater to serve the audience.

The representative of the Kim Dong Cultural Center said that this was unprecedented for a film produced by the State and also the first time a film about the revolutionary war of the army created such a strong effect, attracting audiences to line up to watch. More specifically, when the effects of audiences coming to the cinema in Hanoi had not stopped, in the South, Mr. Dong Won Kwak, General Director of CJ CGV Vietnam Company, personally sent an invitation to the People's Army to cooperate and screen "The Return" in the CGV Art House program - introducing outstanding works of art from Vietnam and Korea at one of the largest cinema systems in Ho Chi Minh City.

The opening speech of CGV General Director emphasized: "The Returner" is one of the films that we look forward to and highly appreciate in terms of content and image quality. The historical war film genre is always a topic that we want to focus on and convey to the audience, especially the younger generation, so that they can feel more deeply the tragedy and grandeur of war that no other language but cinema can do." Mr. Dong Won Kwak shared that this is the first time CGV has been honored to welcome and cooperate in promoting the works of art of Vietnamese people wearing the green uniform of the Vietnam People's Army. The General Director of CGV expressed his hope that in the future, similar works of art will continue to be welcomed.

Put your trust in young people

At the premiere of “The Returned” in Hanoi on November 5, in the presence of the leaders of the Central Propaganda Department, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen The Ky, Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, commented that the film “The Returned” clearly depicted the pain of human fate in the post-war period. War has loss and pain, but the feeling in “The Returned” is life, love, a war film but not tragic. The film contributes to the enthusiasm of young people, promotes the spirit of pride, especially upholds the humanity of the Vietnamese people.

Director, People's Artist Dang Nhat Minh expressed his confidence in young artists. He said that there was a time when he was worried about the young generation when they were busy looking for commercial film projects, superficial entertainment, forgetting their civic duty, the duty of the country's artists to contribute their talent and strength to the cinema industry in particular and the development and sustainability of national art. But through the film "The Legend Writers" (directed by Bui Tuan Dung) and now "The Returner" (directed by Dang Thai Huyen), People's Artist Dang Nhat Minh is temporarily reassured because there are young talents to continue their careers, following the "professional fire" that the previous generations had once devoted themselves to and paved the way for.

Particularly noteworthy in "The Returner", in addition to its humanistic values, is the heart and determination of a young female director (Dang Thai Huyen, born in 1980) and the enthusiasm for artistic dedication of an entire young crew, mostly from the "7X" and "8X" generations, and even "9X" members of the film crew.

Scene from the movie The Return.

Previously, Colonel Dinh Xuan Son, former Deputy Director of the People's Army, shared that when the Central Committee directed the production of the film "The Returned", there were many opinions that, after more than 10 years, the People's Army had a major feature film project (after "The sound of the gong of destiny"), it was necessary to be cautious and should invite experienced and prestigious directors of cinema to do it. However, the People's Army trusted and determined to hand over the project to young people, in cooperation with outside talents, sharing the same enthusiasm, and initial success came to "The Returned", with the trust placed in them.

On behalf of the leaders of the TCCT, General Ngo Xuan Lich, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Standing Member of the Central Military Commission, Director of the TCCT, praised the dedication of the director and the film crew. Through the film "The Returned", General Ngo Xuan Lich reminded the leaders and commanders of units, especially art units, to trust and assign work to the younger generation.

The most desired thing from “The Returned One”, perhaps in addition to trusting the young people with the creative work and implementation, is to boldly bring cinema and artistic works to theaters and stages outside the military; promote literary, artistic and journalistic works on mass media, so that the image of Uncle Ho’s soldiers is widely accepted by the public… And above all, the image of Uncle Ho’s soldiers in the new era will always be a beautiful image, beautiful stories and portraits in many more literary, artistic and journalistic works of our country.

According to QĐND