The Truong Tien bridge in the movie “Em và Trịnh”
Hue in the movie is so poetic and romantic
After 3 weeks, the movie “Em và Trịnh” brought back a turnover of VND100 billion, which showed the welcome of people across the country. After the first week, over 1 million tickets had been sold. The movie led the chart for a whole week, accounting for nearly 70% of all the turnover of the movie theaters.
Scenery in the movie is the most impressive of all. Every picture frame is perfect to the detail. To the talented musician Trinh Cong Son, Hue is a special city which had cherished his soul. Though he rarely mentioned the city name directly in his songs, the Hue spirit pervades in his lyrics.
“Em và Trịnh” reproduces Trinh Cong Son’s slices of life which spanned the three decades from 1960-1990. In the movie, Hue is depicted in various scenes.
Every scene in the movie is an effort to depict Hue in a lively and realistic manner. Such places as Gac Trinh (Trinh Pavilion,) Phu Cam Cathedral, Truong Tien Bridge, Nguyen Truong To Street, Perfume River, the Citadel, etc., look so ancient, beautiful, and poetic.
The scene at Gac Trinh
The Nguyen Truong To street on which Diem went to school in the canopy of camphor trees is depicted in a poetic way. “At that time, there was a very fragile girl who walked between the two rows of camphor trees with tiny green leaves to Hue Faculty of Letters.”
The scenes shot at Gac Trinh are also very poetic and romantic. The film crew did think about finding another place with more space to reproduce Gac Trinh. But in the end, they took risk to shoot right at Gac Trinh for its real familial atmosphere.
The scene at Dr. Khanh’s house was shot at Dr. Thai Kim Lan’s Lan Vien Co Tich on Nguyen Phuc Nguyen St., Hue City. Khanh was Bich Diem’s and Dao Anh’s father. Many spectators were overwhelmed with the ancient interior designing of the house. “The movie helps introduce the atmosphere of ancient Hue with garden houses which is never outdated,” said Thai Kim Lan.
Well-prepared setting
One of the criteria of the movie is opening up the world of Trinh’s music with his romantic love. It was really a huge challenge for the filmmakers since it required careful and realistic setting and lighting representing the space in which the musician lived and his lifestyle in 1960-1990.
The shooting of the movie began in November, 2020 in Hue, right after the historic storm in October and in the midst of the hurricane No 13. Those were hard days for the filmmakers when they had to work in so harsh weather.
According to the film director Phan Gia Nhat Linh, preparing the setting dating back to 1960s is both easy and difficult. It is hard because the city has changed quite a lot. The easy thing is that there are some corners that come intact. Moreover they were well supported by the local authorities.
In order to have beautiful and realistic scenes the film crew had to work in the rain for many days in a row. Especially it rained heavily when they were filming Trinh Cong Son and Dao Anh biking on Truong Tien bridge.
The actors and actresses had to expose themselves to the cold rain. The scenes at the Hue railway station were filmed very late at night. During a storm, now and then they had to stop to wait for the train to arrive and to leave.
The whole Nguyen Truong To street was closed to traffic and redecorated to shoot the scene of Diem walking on the street in the rain. At Gac Trinh, Trinh Cong Son’s old house, the interior had to be rearranged to make it look cozy.
The scenes shot in Hue were well liked by many spectators. Many people travel to Hue so that they can check in those places in person.
According to many spectators, their best-liked scenes were the ones shot at Gac Trinh. Dao Hang and her friends traveled to Hue just to visit the house where Trinh Cong Son lived in his childhood and to enjoy coffee there watching the Nguyen Truong To street.
Story: Minh Hien - Photos supplied by the film crew