Common Points of Characters in War-Themed Films of Vietnamese Cinema Before 1975

The portrait of the resilient collective of the engineer battalion that is building a secret road under the command of Ha, a daring commander who is always present in the most dangerous places. In particular, in the film, in addition to the storyline of the engineer soldiers on the diversionary battlefield, viewers can also see the beauty of the character of Mother Nui, played by Nhu Quynh, a simple, honest mother of the Central region. She lets her son Nui follow the army to fight the enemy, and she herself goes to great lengths to find ways to cook rice for the army, show the way to the army with the noble heart of a mother who loves all her children who are holding guns to fight to liberate the homeland. It can be seen that the main character, the soldiers in the film, have the strength from a group of courageous comrades, have the strength from the loving heart of a mother.

The mother in the movie Noi Gio is a rural mother in the Southern Delta, the mother in the movie Nguyen Van Troi is an urban mother in Saigon, the mother in Duong ve que me is an ethnic mother in the Central region, their appearance, costumes, and appearances in situations may be different, but they are all similar in the strength of maternal love, in the deep love for their homeland, in the convergence of common national ethics.

The feature film Parallel 17 Days and Nights , written by Hoang Tich Chi and directed by Hai Ninh, was produced in 1972. This is a film - which is considered by film history researchers to be the largest film of the Vietnamese revolutionary cinema during the war years ( History of Vietnamese revolutionary cinema , Department of Cinema, 2003 - p.262). The events of the film take place in the period from after the Geneva Agreement of 1954 to 1968 in the land filled with blood and tears, seething with revolutionary atmosphere on the southern bank of the Ben Hai River.

Maybe you are interested!

The film script was written over five years as a result of Hai Ninh and Hoang Tich Chi's arduous and courageous field trips, meeting many specific people who experienced the ups and downs of the life-and-death war on the banks of the Ben Hai River. This is no longer the love story of Hoai and Van, who were hindered by the plot to divide the country and the desire to fight for unification as in the film Chung mot dong song , but a story about a truly fierce and vital war. People see each historical stage of the war in the film. The main and negative characters are placed in increasingly fierce confrontations. Diu, played by Tra Giang, is attached to the war, has become confident, mature, and has developed compared to the character Hoai. Episode 1 of Parallel 17: Days and Nights is titled "Homeland" and the introduction: "The story takes place in the temporary military demarcation zone in a village on the southern bank of the Ben Hai River, after the Geneva Agreement". The film reflects the truth: The lives of people on the southern bank of the Ben Hai River were severely affected, and they suffered revenge… Most families had relatives living on the northern bank. The day Ms. Diu’s husband, Mr. Thach, gathered in the North was also the day she told her husband: “I’m going to have a child”… The enemy organized to denounce and destroy the Communists, and suppress the former resistance fighters.

The two main characters of the film are Dieu, played by Tra Giang, and Tran Sung, played by Lam Toi. When he was a child, Tran Sung was an orphan, he was raised by relatives, and grew up with the milk of his mother Duong. When he was young, Tran Sung was a friend of Thach and Dieu, and fell in love with Dieu. And he did not hide his love for Dieu. Dieu married Thach, a regrouped cadre, who was on duty on the northern bank of the Ben Hai River. It can be seen that a relationship, a triangle, was formed. But for the authors, this triangle was not intended to exploit the emotional conflicts between Dieu and Tran Sung, but only to reveal more of Tran Sung's viciousness and brutality. Can tam lam lam do la doc ...

Like the villain in previous movies, Tran Sung was not portrayed as a caricature. He was muscular, intelligent, and cunning. He used money and alcohol to bribe bad elements like Ve with many schemes and tricks. When Dieu was arrested, he blamed the soldiers for not being gentle with Dieu. He came to Dieu's house without wearing a uniform, expressing his desire to give Dieu a long dress as a gift. "My husband wears torn clothes, I love him, other people's husbands wear brocade clothes, burn incense, let others do it", keeping the national morality, Dieu firmly refused. For Dieu, being loyal to her husband was also being loyal to the revolutionary cause. It was no coincidence that Tran Sung's army always oppressed and forced those whose husbands had gathered and wanted to live peacefully on the South bank to marry another man.

The enemy increasingly brutally oppressed the people. In that context, the Cat village party cell with three party members still held meetings on a basket boat like many other people to blind the enemy and determine that they had to stick with the people and know how to choose the right time for the fight.

Tran Sung could not attract Diu, could not attract the people, he used brutal suppression, ordered soldiers to rob, burn houses, kill people, even the person who raised him. Uncle Ca Thuan (the Party cell secretary) was arrested. Tran Sung burned Uncle Ca Thuan to death to weaken the will of the people. The scene of burning the Party cell secretary was staged like an epic, a highlight that created strong emotions in the film. Responding to Tran Sung before he died, Uncle Ca Thuan said: “I have knelt for half my life. Once I stand up, I will not kneel anymore. I see your eyes, I see you trembling”. Then turning to the villagers, “The family and the village will reunite. The enemy can burn me, but cannot burn the whole Cat Village. Do not be divided by the enemy's plot…” The whole village grieved, but all found from Uncle's death the strength of their unity. Researcher Tran Luan Kim commented that "the scene where Uncle Thuan appeared like an angel, calmly accepting death when

"burned alive by the enemy, a death that meant never dying" (Tran Luan Kim, Creative Reality , Culture and Information Publishing House, 2013 - p. 247).

Sister Diu quietly did the work that Uncle Thuan left behind, carrying with her the following instructions: “As a Party member, power cannot be subdued. Money cannot be corrupted. Hardship comes first, happiness comes later… The Party cell still has one person, so we must stick with the people. The Party is us. The Party is with us”. Tran Sung was slashed by a citizen who participated in the revolutionary organization, and people suspected that he would not survive…

Episode 2 of the film Parallel 17: Day and Night is titled “Day and Night” with the introduction: “After several years in prison, Dieu returned to rebuild the base, taking the revolutionary movement to a new level. To carry out the plot to divide Vietnam and deal with the situation, the US and Diem sent Tran Sung back to the frontline area.”

Tran Sung cooperated with the village's henchmen to find a female leader with the alias Ho Thi Hanh. Diu was arrested and suspected of being Ho Thi Hanh. They brutally tortured her with all kinds of physical abuse, Tran Sung applied all kinds of psychological attacks... but she did not submit. Tran Sung started the film wearing a white suit like a nouveau riche. That white color shows the hypocrisy of this character. Throughout the length of the 2 episodes, Tran Sung said many moral words to others - his side and the opposing side, to the communists and those who supported the Revolution. He understood the pain of a woman like Diu. In the dark prison cell, Tran Sung walked back and forth. The performance of actor Lam Toi revealed Tran Sung's vicious nature. It seemed that every word Sung said was calculated… Sung’s soft voice was like a sympathy and consolation to Diu: “Being in prison alone, giving birth alone, and being happy and sad alone. The Party cell is completely destroyed. The day of reunification is still long and endless, but a woman’s life is too short. Even though Diu is a communist,

or a hero, Dieu is just a woman... Dieu think, don't answer me... No love, no happiness, no private life. I have given in to Dieu many times, Dieu please give in to me just once... I promise I will do everything Dieu wants. Dieu is the most beautiful woman in the world..." Showing sympathy like that, showing endless sweetness and pity... but when seeing Dieu tearing up the minutes as an answer to everything... the camera lens zooms in on Tran Sung's face, all darkness with a long scar. He grits his teeth like a beast that has failed to capture its prey: "How horrible! You are no longer a human!", then he storms away. Actor Lam Toi's performance makes the audience feel that Tran Sung is a wild beast roaring as it has just missed its prey. In the eyes of people like Sung, the criteria of a human being are completely different from Dieu. Tran Sung understood psychology, understood that humans indeed have limits, because humans have flesh and blood, and also feel pain… and Diu had just been brutally tortured. And humans with hearts will definitely know the depths of loneliness, especially the loneliness and weakness that often exists in the mind of a woman. Tran Sung was only that, so he could not know that when people have enough love, loyalty to an ideal… then they will have invincible strength, a spiritual strength that he did not believe could exist in such a person. His whole life, Tran Sung did not know that world, even until he died, rolling into a bomb crater… Next to Tran Sung was Colonel Jim, who had the appearance of a gentle person. He liked insects, went to church to pray, cut hair for Vietnamese children… but it was also from Jim that he said, “The root of a woman is her children. We must destroy communism by taking and raising their children.” He is the cause of all evil in this land.

At the end of the film, thanks to the devoted, brave, wise, and compassionate help of her relatives, Ms. Diu's son was brought safely to his father on the North bank.

The revolutionary movement grew strong, nothing could extinguish it, a new battle opened up in the area of success - Colonel Jim, Tran Sung, Ba Kinh... - the evil people were destroyed...

The filmmakers have elaborately staged the scene where Dieu is in the enemy's prison. In the dark dungeon, the garrison chief holds a whip and beats Dieu. He is like a wild animal driving its prey to the end. The camera lens is focused on the whip that is being swung down with inhuman brutality. Dieu has two empty hands, unable to fight back, curls up trying to protect the child in her womb. At times, they barbarically hang Dieu up, dripping drops of water on her head, causing the victim to be depressed, perhaps losing consciousness. But Dieu still finds a way to overcome it, not giving in. "I have never seen a creature as disgusting as this one...Kill her mother, I'm so scared", they said to each other.

In prison, Diu always maintained close relationships with everyone, turning the prison into a revolutionary school, not forgetting his role as a leading nucleus, encouraging Thuong, who was imprisoned and tortured, helping Thuong understand the enemy's plot to divide families, and kindly showing soldiers and prison guards the righteous path back to the people.

Diu was in labor, facing the enemy's plot to harm the child, the women in the prison with different ages, bruised by different tortures, joined together to support Diu's birth. They took off their shirts, took off their scarves, passed them around to spread out a sheet of shirts on the cold stone floor to welcome Diu's child into the world. They stood side by side to form a human barrier to protect the child. Each face, each gaze of the prisoners at this moment was captured in close-up with a miraculous power. The baby cried, the whole prison fell silent. Nothing could stop life, everyone burst into happiness.

Mother Duong told Dieu, “As long as we live, your child will live.” One mother affirmed that, but all the people tried to protect Dieu’s child. Not only was Dieu a party cell leader, he was also a guerrilla commander, leading the long-haired army in political struggle, creating a comprehensive battle that the enemy had to accept defeat. At the end of the film, the character Dieu was described and acted in major scenes. Facing the enemy’s fierce and brutal army were three spearheads: the military attack of the guerrillas, the political attack of the long-haired army, and the propaganda attack, a new development in the history of war.

The positive and negative characters in the fierce context of the war were clearly defined by the filmmakers like light and darkness. Those who were bribed by Tran Sung and willingly became lackeys like Ve, those who were blind like deputy station chief Hach, and those who had deep hatred for the revolution like landlord Kinh all had to pay in one way or another for their crimes.

In the book Vietnamese Cinema on the Paths of World Cinema by Hai Ninh (Culture and Information Publishing House, 2010), director Hai Ninh said that during the filmmaking process, the highest leader of the resistance war, First Secretary Le Duan, viewed the edited version and gave his opinion on the film. When watching the finished film, he assessed that the film "talks about the fate of a woman, a village, but the audience sees the image of a resilient, indomitable country, a heroic nation determined to fight to liberate and unify the country" (p. 127). It can be seen that this is the general trend in character building of Vietnamese feature films during the war.

2.1.2. Common points of characters in war-themed feature films of Vietnamese cinema before 1975

Through the characters of the feature films Chung mot dong song , Noi gio ,

Nguyen Van Troi , The Road to Motherland , Parallel 17 Days and Nights, it can be seen that the resistance war against America to save the country was a resistance war of all people, comprehensive in different regions and fronts. All classes of people participated in fighting the common enemy. All had the spirit of a soldier, the role of a soldier on the front line attacking the enemy. The conflicts, the dramas, the problems that the characters had to face that viewers saw in the films were all common problems, of important significance to the whole nation.

The movie Chung mot dong song is a story of the struggle for national unification. The peace and happiness of a couple cannot be separated from the peace and happiness of the whole nation.

The movie Noi Gio is a story of an invasion war that not only divided the country but also divided people, divided each Vietnamese family. To win, Vietnam must be resilient and united based on the traditional beauty of the Vietnamese people.

The film Nguyen Van Troi is a story about a new legend, about the immortality of a hero in a time of harsh challenges for the nation, a time when heroes are needed. This is also a film about the integrity and maturity of individuals and groups of people who unfortunately fell into the enemy's hands on the road to victory.

The film " The Road to Motherland" is a film about the intelligence, courage, invincible strength that have become legendary and the determination to win of the soldiers who directly held guns on the front lines against the enemy, the people who are considered the Thach Sanh of the 20th century.

Comment