Tran Anh Hung

Trần Anh Hùng (English: Anh Hung Tran, born December 23, 1962) is a Vietnamese-born French film director and screenwriter.[1]

In this Vietnamese name, the surname is Trần, but is often simplified to Tran in English-language text. In accordance with Vietnamese custom, this person should be referred to by the given name, Anh Hùng.
Trần Anh Hùng
Trần Anh Hùng at the 28th Tokyo International Film Festival in 2015
Born (1962-12-23) December 23, 1962
Mỹ Tho, South Vietnam
CitizenshipFrench
Occupation(s)Film director, screenwriter
Years active1989–present
SpouseTrần Nữ Yên Khê
Children2

Early life

Hung was born in Mỹ Tho, South Vietnam.[2] Following the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, he immigrated to France at age 12.

He majored in philosophy at a university in France. By chance, he saw Robert Bresson's film A Man Escaped and decided to study film instead. He went on to study photography at the Louis Lumiere Academy, which trains cinematographers.

Film career

Hung has been at the forefront of a wave of acclaimed overseas Vietnamese cinema over the past two decades. His films have received international fame and acclaim, and his first three features were varied meditations on life in his home country Vietnam.[3]

Hung's Oscar-nominated debut (for Best foreign film) was The Scent of Green Papaya (1993), which also won two top prizes at the Cannes Film Festival.[4] His follow-up Cyclo (1995, which featured Hong Kong movie star Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival. The Vertical Ray of the Sun, released in 2000, was the third film in his "Vietnam trilogy."[5]

After a sabbatical, Hung returned with the noir psychological thriller I Come with the Rain (2009), which featured a star-studded international cast including Josh Hartnett and Elias Koteas.[6]

Hung directed Norwegian Wood, an adaptation of Haruki Murakami's novel of the same name, which released in Japan in December 2010.[7]

Films on Vietnam

In France, Hung studied at the prestigious film school Louis Lumière College. For his graduation project in 1987 he wrote and directed a short film La femme mariée de Nam Xuong, inspired by an old Vietnamese folk tale (Truyền kỳ mạn lục).

Following this Hung made another short film, La pierre de l'attente (1989), before launching the feature film The Scent of Green Papaya (1993). The Scent of Green Papaya was acclaimed for its style and its beautiful images of Vietnamese life.[8][9] To date, the film is the only representative of Vietnamese cinema to be nominated for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

The success of Papaya helped Hung gain funding for the next film, Cyclo. The film tells stories of poor people living in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), and was filmed on location there. Cyclo won the Golden Lion at 52nd Venice International Film Festival, and at the age of 33, Hung was one of the youngest filmmakers to be thus honored there.

Having depicted life in Ho Chi Minh City, Hung turned his attention to Hanoi in The Vertical Ray of the Sun (2000). The main characters of the film are three sisters who idolize their parents' family life, before the truth is revealed after the mother's death.

Influences and style of film-making

Hung's films are made so as to rebuild the image of Vietnam that he has lost when immigrating into France and to provide audience with another point of view on Vietnam while this topic has been long dominated by French and American cinema. The stories are based on Hung's knowledge about Vietnamese culture and (in the second and third films) his first-hand experience gained from trips to the country.[10]

Hung is strongly influenced by French cinema and from some European and Japanese filmmakers, namely Bergman, Bresson, Kurosawa, Tarkovsky and Ozu.[6]

Hung's style of filmmaking is expressed through the claim: "Art is the truth wearing a mask".[11][12] He denies the conventional story-telling style and pursues making films with a new language: "to challenge the audiences' feelings, making them enjoy the films not with the critical reasoning but the language of the body".[11]

As a banner of Vietnamese films, Tran Anh Hung, a French-Vietnamese director, broke the image of poverty and backwardness in the past American and French films with his unique camera images, showing the audience a Vietnam where tenderness and cruelty coexist. In Vietnam, Hung's most famous "trilogy"—The Scent of Green Papaya (1993), Cyclo (1995), and The Vertical Ray of the Sun (2000)—expresses feelings for his country.[13]

Filmography
Feature Film
Year English Title Original Title
1993 The Scent of Green Papaya Mùi đu đủ xanh
1995 Cyclo Xích lô
2000 The Vertical Ray of the Sun Mùa hè chiếu thẳng đứng
2009 I Come with the Rain I Come with the Rain
2010 Norwegian Wood ノルウェイの森
2016 Eternity Eternité
2023 The Pot-au-Feu La Passion de Dodin Bouffant
Short Film
Year English Title Original Title
1989 La femme mariée de Nam Xuong Người thiếu phụ Nam Xương
1991 La pierre de l'attente La pierre de l'attente

Accolades
Awards and nominations received by Trần Anh Hùng
Organizations[lower-alpha 1] Year[lower-alpha 2] Category Work Result Ref.
Academy Awards 1994 Best Foreign Language Film The Scent of Green Papaya Nominated [14]
British Film Institute 1994 Sutherland Trophy Won [15]
Cannes Film Festival 1989 Critics' Week Grand Prize Short Film La femme mariée de Nam Xuong Nominated [16]
1993 Award of the Youth The Scent of Green Papaya Won [17]
Caméra d'Or Won [18]
2000 Un Certain Regard The Vertical Ray of the Sun Nominated [19]
2023 Best Director The Pot-au-Feu Won [20]
Palme d'Or Nominated [21]
César Awards 1994 Best Debut The Scent of Green Papaya Won [22]
CineLibri International Book & Film Festival 2016 Grand Prize for Best Literary Adaptation Eternity Nominated [23]
Deauville Asian Film Festival 2011 Best Film Norwegian Wood Nominated [24]
Film Fest Ghent 1995 Grand Prix for Best Film Cyclo Won [25]
International Istanbul Film Festival 2011 Fipresci Prize Norwegian Wood Won [26]
Lund International Fantastic Film Festival 2009 Siren Award - Best International Film I Come with the Rain Nominated [27]
Magritte Awards 2017 Best Foreign Film in Coproduction Eternity Nominated [28]
Miskolc International Film Festival 2023 Emeric Pressburger Prize The Pot-au-Feu Nominated [29]
San Sebastián International Film Festival 2023 Culinary Zinema Best Film Award Won [30]
Sydney Film Festival 2011 Sydney Film Prize Norwegian Wood Nominated [31]
Torino Film Festival 1989 Best Short Film La femme mariée de Nam Xuong Nominated [32]
Venice Film Festival 1995 Fipresci Award Cyclo Won [33]
Golden Lion Won [34]
2010 Norwegian Wood Nominated [35]

See also

Notes
  1. Awards, festivals, honors and other miscellaneous organizations are listed in alphabetical order.
  2. Indicates the year of ceremony. Each year is linked to the article about the awards held that year, wherever possible.

References
  1. "Tran Anh Hung: "For me, the most important thing about a movie is the language of cinema"". filmtalk.org. August 29, 2016. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  2. Blum-Reid, Sylvie (2003). East-West Encounters: Franco-Asian Cinema and Literature. New York City: Wallflower Press. p. 59. ISBN 9781903364673.
  3. Lee, Edmund (March 13, 2017). "Vietnamese filmmaker Tran Anh Hung on why language doesn't matter, and Terrence Malick's 'stupid' films". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  4. Ebert, Roger (March 11, 1994). "The Scent Of Green Papaya". Roger Ebert. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  5. Ebert, Roger (March 11, 1994). "The Vertical Ray Of The Sun". Roger Ebert. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  6. Shoji, Kaori (September 27, 2017). "The crafted sensuality of director Tran Anh Hung". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  7. Gray, Jason (July 31, 2008). "Tran to adapt Norwegian Wood for Asmik Ace, Fuji TV". Screen International. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  8. Hinson, Hal (February 18, 1994). "'The Scent of Green Papaya' (NR)". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  9. Maslin, Janet (October 11, 1993). "Review/Film; Vision of a Vietnam as Yet Unscarred". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  10. Tarr, Carrie (2004). Tran Anh Hung as diasporic filmmaker (Lexington Books). Marlyland, U.S.: In: Robson, Kathryn and Yee, Jennifer, (eds.) France and "Indochina": cultural representations. ISBN 0739108409. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023.
  11. Lâm Phố (May 19, 2004). "Nghệ thuật là sự thật được đeo mặt nạ". talawas.org (in Vietnamese). Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  12. "Đạo Diễn Trần Anh Hùng: "Nghệ Thuật Là Sự Thật Mang Chiếc Mặt Nạ"". viez.vn (in Vietnamese). April 20, 2023. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  13. Gary W. Tooze. "Anh Hung Tran". dvdbeaver.com. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  14. "The 66th Academy Awards | 1994". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on October 3, 2023. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
  15. Baughan, Nikki (October 9, 2018). "60 years of awards at the London Film Festival – A brief history of the competition". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on October 3, 2023. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
  16. "The selection". Critics' Week (in French). Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  17. "Le PRIX de la JEUNESSE - Au festival de Cannes" (PDF). Minister of Sports (in French). January 9, 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  18. Multiple sources:
  19. "Official Selection 2000: All the Selection". Cannes Film Festival. Archived from the original on February 10, 2017. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
  20. Chang, Justin (May 27, 2023). "Justine Triet's 'Anatomy of a Fall' wins Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 17, 2023. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  21. Roxborough, Scott. "Cannes Goes Back to the Future With Wes Anderson, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ken Loach, Todd Haynes in Competition". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on October 17, 2023. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  22. "L'odeur de la papaye verte". César Awards (in French). Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  23. "CineLibri 2016". CineLibri. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  24. Mundell, Ian (March 2, 2011). "Deauville Asia honors Korean duo". Variety. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  25. "Official Competition". Film Fest Ghent. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  26. "30th Istanbul Film Festival". International Istanbul Film Festival. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  27. "What happens at Lund International Fantastic Film Festival 2010?". Lund International Fantastic Film Festival. Archived from the original on September 6, 2009. Retrieved September 6, 2009.
  28. "Nominations 2017". Académie André Delvaux (in French). Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  29. FNE Staff (August 17, 2023). "FESTIVALS: CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival 2023 Announces Lineup". Film New Europe Association. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  30. "'O corno / The Rye Horn' lands the Golden Shell at San Sebastian Festival's 71st edition". San Sebastián International Film Festival. September 30, 2023. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  31. "Sydney Film Festival to kick off with Hanna premiere". The Sydney Morning Herald. May 11, 2011. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
    "2011 SFF Official Competition winner is..." Sydney Film Festival. June 19, 2011. Archived from the original on August 6, 2011. Retrieved August 6, 2011.
  32. "7° Festival Internazionale Cinema Giovani". Torino Film Festival (in Italian). Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  33. Rooney, David (September 18, 1995). "Venice Fest Goes 'Cyclo'". Variety. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  34. "Venice Film Festival - History 1932-2022". Venice Film Festival. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  35. Conway Morris, Roderick (August 31, 2010). "Venice Gears Up for 67th Film Festival". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 5, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
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