Revealing the 'huge' budget of the movie 'Father and Son'

A simple film, without a star cast, without lavish scenes with super cars, billion-dollar yachts, but "Father and Son" has a budget of nearly 18 billion VND. This is a strange thing not only for the audience but also for those in the profession.

Explaining this, the producer representative shared that the film had an actual filming time of 62 days, including additional filming days. The total filming time was nearly 80 days. Most movies are filmed in a month.

The reason why the filming time for "Father and Son" was doubled was because director Luong Dinh Dung, with his meticulousness and strict requirements, required the production crew, from actors to cameramen, to do it over and over again until they were satisfied. The cast was mostly amateurs, and most of them were children, but the director did not allow any scene that he felt was too immature.

"Father and Son" officially hits theaters from April 5.

In particular, to get the scene of the boy running on the grassy slope as beautiful as a painting, amidst the golden light on the green grass, the flowers in the wind, in addition to hiring someone to look after and take care of the grass, there was only 15 minutes of the best light each day to film. This scene alone had to be filmed for several days before the director was satisfied.

In particular, every time a scene is finished, director Luong Dinh Dung often asks the crew members for their opinions as a way to check. If the answer is "okay", he will ask them to redo it until it is "good" before stopping. The director's saying "If I discover any small flaw, I will continue until it is good..." is why the crew can only film one scene a day.

Regarding costumes, the director also required the costume designer to choose each fabric, material, and sewing pattern, from the belt of the blind man in the film that had to be brought back many versions, to the raincoats painted according to the director's wishes.

"Father and Son" doesn't have too many characters, but to make the film, there were about 100 people working continuously.

The crew continuously moved from Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang, Hanoi, and Saigon. When the film finished filming and returned to the editing room, the director reviewed the natural scenery and found that he was still not satisfied, so he ordered the crew to go back from Hanoi to Ha Giang to film three more times. People's Artist Ly Thai Dung - a famous cinematographer - sometimes had to shake his head at the strictness of the director of the same name.

According to director Luong Dinh Dung, the rain and flood scenes were filmed 90% real. At Minh Ngoc hill, Bac Me, the scene is at an altitude of nearly 200m for nearly a month. Every day, the crew had to climb to the top of the hill with an average travel time of 30-45 minutes from the foot of the hill. Going down the hill was quite dangerous because they had to cross a stream, which could be knee-high in the morning but by night the water was up to their necks.

The post-production process also took quite a long time - 1 year and 13 days. Being a meticulous person, director Luong Dinh Dung brought the film to Korea to do the sound post-production. Through a friend, Luong Dinh Dung was introduced to work with Lee Dong-jun (also known as Lee Dong-june). At that time, he did not know that he was collaborating with a famous Korean musician, the person behind the soundtrack of many Korean blockbusters such as: Shiri (1999), 2009 Lost Memories (2001), Taegukgi - Fluttering Flags (2004), Miracle on Cell No. 7 - Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2013), Operation Chromite (2016)...

It took Lee Dong-jun two months to complete the soundtrack for "Father and Son". He revealed: "I cried while watching the movie and that was the inspiration for my music writing". Not only that, the 49-year-old musician also shared: "I like "The Scent of Green Papaya" by Tran Anh Hung and now "Father and Son" by Luong Dinh Dung".

After more than 10 years of incubation (since 2007), more than two months of filming (from July 17 to September 25, 2015), and more than 1 year of post-production, director Luong Dinh Dung's child was born and introduced to the audience.

The film was officially released in theaters on April 5, after participating and being selected to be screened at many international film festivals such as: The 26th Arizona International Film Festival in the US; The 17th DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival; The 6th Julien Dubuque International Film Festival; The 33rd Los Angeles Asia Pacific Film Festival; The 50th Houston International Film Festival and the 15th Boston International Film Festival./.

According to VOV