Revealing the Vietnamese film masterpiece 'The Wild Fields'
46 years after its premiere, "The Wild Fields" - a classic Vietnamese film still moves people not only because of its tragic wartime story, but also because of a little-known detail: The film was made with a budget of less than 300,000 VND.
Wild fieldsis a typical work of the late director - People's Artist Nguyen Hong Sen, based on the script of writer Nguyen Quang Sang and music by the late musician Trinh Cong Son. The film won the Golden Lotus at the 1980 Vietnam Film Festival and the Gold Medal at the 1981 Moscow International Film Festival - a rare mark of Vietnamese cinema at that time in the international arena.
The movie with an incredibly modest budget
But what makes the profession and the public admire even more today is the extremely difficult backstage. In the programCine 7 - Memories of Vietnamese cinemaJust aired on VTV3, the characters who directly participated in the film crew revealed for the first time: the budget to makeWild fieldsonly about 300,000 VND, an incredibly modest number.
At that time, there were no studios, no expensive equipment to rent, no high salaries for actors. However, from that very limitation, a burning spirit of filmmaking arose: maximum savings, maximum creativity and wholehearted dedication.
The film is set in the Dong Thap Muoi region during the flood season - where the three main characters Ba Do, Sau Xoa and their young child live among the cajuput forests, swamps, rivers, and are threatened by American bombs. The entire setting is made from nature: real cajuput forests, real rivers, real watchtowers. The props are all supported by local people, from small boats to handfuls of rice, pieces of clothing...
"We stayed together for 3 months in the middle of the flood season, taking shelter when it rained, filming when it cleared. There was no hotel, no logistics convoy. The film crew slept in an abandoned house, spread out a temporary tarp, ate mixed rice and dried fish cooked by the catering staff. But everyone was happy, everyone was passionate about their work," said Mr. Duong Minh Hoang - Deputy Director of the film crew.
The small budget did not discourage director Nguyen Hong Sen. On the contrary, he made the most of all available resources to create a work imbued with Vietnamese identity, imbued with the atmosphere of nature and the lives of the people in the West during the war.
One of the most haunting scenes ofWild fieldsIt was the detail of Ba Do and his wife putting their child in a plastic bag and dropping him into the water to avoid the bomb. It was not only the pinnacle of artistic emotion, but also an extremely difficult technical problem under the conditions at that time.
Meritorious Artist Bang Phong - assistant cameraman shared: "We practiced on the shore many times. When we actually went into the water to film, we had to be precise, because we could only film once. The baby in the scene was director Hong Sen's niece, only a few months old, and could not stay in the water for long. There was no chance of making a mistake."
And a single scene, a single shot, but it became a cinematic moment that lived forever. It was those strict conditions that forced the film crew to achieve almost absolute precision and creativity.
Can see the movieWild fieldssuccess because of the authenticity and intense love for the Fatherland. Director Nguyen Hong Sen once said: "We make films not only to tell stories, but to preserve the memory of the nation, to tell the world that the Vietnamese people lived like that, fought like that".
The film ends with the image of Sau Xoa - a wife who lost her husband, holding a gun and continuing to fight alone. That scene became a symbol of the strength of Vietnamese women, and more broadly, the indomitable will of the nation in the midst of war.
46 years later, every time it is shown again,Wild fieldsstill makes the audience speechless. Not only because of the touching story, but also because of the irreplaceable true artistic spirit. Faces like People's Artist Lam Toi, Thuy An... do not need gorgeous makeup, do not need philosophical dialogue, still touch the hearts of millions of people.
With a budget of less than 300,000 VND, the film crewWild fieldsleft the cinema a masterpiece. In the poverty of material things, the richness of soul, talent and national spirit shone forth.
