'Rebel' with a cause

Published on July 26, 2007

Ateam of Vietnamese-American movie stars have returned to their ancestral homeland, bringing with them Hollywood's production values and dramatic storytelling techniques, and adding some high-kicking martial arts and patriotic fervour to jump-start a struggling film industry.

Starring Johnny Tri Nguyen and Dustin Nguyen, "The Rebel" is set in 1922 Vietnam at the time of a peasant uprising against the French colonialists. The film played on Saturday night to a sold-out audience at the Bangkok International Film Festival, and again on Monday night.

Making the film was a deeply personal journey for Johnny, who Thai film fans will know from his role as the villain in "Tom Yum Goong".

Johnny, co-wrote, produced and directed the martial-arts action for the film, while his brother, Truc "Charlie" Nguyen, directed.

Johnny portrays a French-schooled Vietnamese secret policeman who has a change of heart and sides with the rebellion.

"I based my character upon my real-life experience, since I, too, have lived overseas for 20-something years. When I came back to Vietnam, I had to adapt to the culture and the language," Johnny says.

"The character is very close. He's also a person who's been educated overseas… and then comes back to Vietnam. He has to relearn the culture and discover himself and discover his roots. I just based it on my life experience."

The martial-arts action in "The Rebel" is one of the striking features of the film. Not only does Johnny throw a few elbow thrusts that wouldn't have been out of place in "Tom Yum Goong", he performs some martial-arts moves that are specific to Vietnam called Viet Vo Dao. One move in particular, a scissors kick in which a fighter grabs an opponent's neck between their ankles and then twists, is a classic Viet Vo Dao attack. Other moves were from a special martial art developed by his grandfather, Johnny says.

It's this martial-arts background that has made Johnny a major player in Hollywood. His extensive roster of credits includes work as a stunt double, portraying both Spider-Man and the Green Goblin in the first "Spider-Man" film.

The cast of "The Rebel" also has another, unrelated, Nguyen - Dustin - whose youthful looks belie his status as an American film and television veteran. Fans remember him from the 1980s series, "21 Jump Street", where he made his debut alongside Johnny Depp. Dustin was also in Oliver Stone's "Heaven and Earth", filmed in Thailand.

In "The Rebel", Dustin portrays a scarred and scary, invincible martial artist who becomes an adversary for Johnny's character.

Along with getting to work with Johnny in Vietnam, playing the part of the bad guy clinched the deal for Dustin. "That was fun to get to play the villain," Dustin says.

Wearing a white suit and slicked-back hair, not unlike Tony Leung Chiu Wai in "Cyclo" or Tony Leung Ka Fai in "The Lover", Johnny portrays Cuong, a member of the elite secret police force in Vietnam, and a lieutenant of Dustin's character, Sy.

Cuong becomes the hero of the film after he witnesses an assassination of a French official and has to shoot a young peasant rebel - the boy's blood spattering his white linen suit. Cuong also suspects that his boss Sy has a mole planted in the rebel organisation.

A feisty young female fighter (Vietnamese pop singer "Veronica" Ngo Thanh Van), who turns out to be the daughter of the rebels' leader, is captured and tortured by Sy. Cuong warns the girl about the spy, helps her break out of prison, and goes on the run with her, making himself a fugitive. From there, "The Rebel" is a rip-roaring adventure yarn, with plenty of narrow escapes, some brutal French villains, heartfelt romance and plenty of martial-arts action.

"To do all those fight scenes was a very big challenge for me. I don't have a martial arts background, so I had to train with Johnny Nguyen, and he trained me very hard," Veronica says.

"He made me do more than 500 kicks a day. It took about five to six hours a day to get through all those fight scenes. I have bruises everywhere on my body," the Norwegian-schooled model-singer-actress says.

The film premiered in April at the Vietnamese International Film Festival in California, and opened later that month in Vietnam, where it went on to become the country's biggest box-office success.

Budgeted at US$1.5 million (Bt44.8 million), it is also the biggest Vietnamese film ever made - the sumptuous costuming, antique cars and steam locomotives giving the film an epic feel. The production filmed the length of the country, from south Vietnam up to the northern border with China, shooting in many remote locations and historical places. One set was a prison that was actually used by the French.

Distribution rights in English-speaking territories is being handled by the Weinstein Company and it is hoped that this film will put Vietnamese cinema - which has mainly been an arthouse fixture with such films as "Cyclo" and "Scent of the Green Papaya" - on the mainstream map.

"Vietnamese cinema still has a long way to go compared to Thai cinema," Dustin explains.

"Vietnam is just sort of waking up in terms of the government allowing private companies to produce films."

Johnny recently starred in a Vietnamese romantic comedy, while both Johnny and Dustin appeared in a recent drama, "Saigon Eclipse".

"The Rebel" was filmed with the full cooperation of the government - no surprise given its patriotic tone.

Still, difficulties remain for filmmakers. An Asean entry in last year's Bangkok International Film Festival, "Journey from the Fall", directed by Ham Tran, about the Vietnamese re-education camps and the experience of boat people, was actually filmed in Thailand because of its critical subject matter.

Another Vietnamese film in this year's festival, "Pao's Story", depicting the hardscrabble life of a Hmong girl, is in the Asean competition at the Bangkok International Film Festival. The film has already been critically acclaimed in Vietnam, winning several Golden Kite awards last year.

"Pao's Story" is showing tomorrow at 7.10pm.

Curtis Winston

The Nation