Dang Nhat Minh — Director | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Đặng Nhật Minh (b. Huế, Vietnam, 1938) is one of Vietnam's foremost film directors and a screenwriter. Đặng's first work in film was translating Russian films made in the USSR to Vietnamese. When his dad died during the Vietnam War in 1967, he was given party-related career favours which, combined with his own learnings, allowed him to become a director. His first film, made in 1965, was a documentary about geology. Other notable works after this time include: "Ha Bac My Hometown" (Hà Bắc quê hương, 1967), "May - Faces" (Tháng 5 - Những gương mặt, 1975), "Nguyen Trai" (Nguyễn Trãi, 1980). As a documentary filmmaker, he became the government’s observer and reporter of historical events. Đặng then started to adapt existing plays, generating works such as "Stars on the Sea" (Những ngôi sao biển, 1977), "A Year-end Rainy Day" (Ngày mưa cuối năm, 1980). Around 1980, he wrote a short story named "The Town Within Reach" (Thị xã trong tầm tay). It was published in the Văn Nghệ (Literature and Arts) magazine and won a prize, making him consider giving up filmmaking to become a writer. However, not long after that, he made "The Town Within Reach" in 1983 with the encouragement of a new friend, marking the beginning of his filmography. In his autobiography, he notes: "So I determined my direction: I only make films that I myself write the script, talk about issues that interest me, move me. Having found a way to exist in the world of cinema, I don't think about giving up on it anymore."

Đặng's works are poetic, dense with political arguments and regularly subject to controversy as well as censorship within the nation. Usually focusing on a woman whose perspective is marginalized within her world, his stories closely trace Vietnamese historical struggles through the Sino-Vietnamese War ("The Town Within Reach," 1983), the post-war period ("When The Tenth Month Comes," 1984; "The Girl on the River," 1987), the Đổi Mới economic reforms ("The Return," 1994), and post-independence Vietnam ("The Guava Season," 2000). Except for "Miss Nhung," "Don't Burn," and "Hanoi: Winter of 1946," there is often one unifying theme that runs through most of his films: Betrayal. Đặng Nhật Minh also served as the General Secretary of the Vietnam Film Association for more than 10 years (1989-2000), where he constantly received strong support from members. He eventually withdrew from his position out of disagreement with political changes within the association.