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A tribute to Vietnamese women
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Cuong Ngo’s “Ngoc Vien Dong” (Oriental Pearls), a collection of seven unrelated short films, each about the life of various fictional women, will be released in Vietnam on International Women’s Day, March 8.

The 120-minute film won the best cinematography and music prizes at the California Independent Film Festival last month.

All seven films have titles beginning with the letter “T” - Thuc (Awake), Thoi gian (Time), Tho (Poem), Thuc va mong (The Real and Dream), Thuyen (Boat), Trang huyet (Bloody moon), and Tang pham (Gift).

They were adapted from award-winning short stories by writer and stage director Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc about the lives and love of the seven women who are of different ages and live in different circumstances.

Ngoc herself plays the protagonist in one of the films. The shorts also star famous actresses like Nhu Quynh, Hong Anh, Truong Ngoc Anh, and Ngo Thanh Van.

Cuong Ngo, who studied cinematography in Canada for five years and has been living there, said he was very lucky that these actresses agreed to act for free.

In 2009 Ngo shot to fame with another short film, “The Golden Pin,” about a swimmer who struggles between his true gender identity and his family’s expectations.

It won the Best Canadian Short prize at the Toronto Inside Out and Video Festival, and second prize in the 2009 National Film Board Best Canadian Short Award.

Ngo said “Oriental Pearls,” his “gift” to Vietnamese women, was born out of his appreciation for them.

“Vietnamese women can enchant any man with their inner beauty, which is too complicated and mysterious to be discovered” he said.

He made “Oriental Pearls” in 2010.

After being released in Vietnam, it will be entered in the Amerasia Film Festival in Montreal, Canada, in mid-March.

By Hien Nhi, Thanh Nien News