Paul Christiansen

in Music & Arts

Art Exhibition 'Ngẫu Biến' Invites Viewers to Find Their Own Meaning

“When you write, you go inside yourself, when you paint, you go outside,” said poet and painter ng. anhan.

in Film & TV

Filmmakers Trần Anh Hùng, Phạm Thiên Ân Win Awards at Cannes Film Festival

At the 76th Cannes International Film Festival, Phạm Thiên Ân's Bên trong vỏ kén vàng (Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell) was awarded the Camera D'or while Vietnamese-born French filmmaker Trần Anh Hùng won the best director prize for The Pot-au-Feu.

in In Plain Sight

In Hanoi, the Vietnam Museum of Nature Is an Inquisitive Child's Heaven

Amidst the dull, grey buildings of the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, a giant dinosaur model stands out. The T-Rex was guarding the entrance to the Vietnam National Museum of Nature (Bảo tàng Thiên nhiên Việt Nam), and as I approached it I felt a sense of childlike wonder wash over me. I thought I would learn much about Vietnam’s natural history; I was wrong.

Khôi Phạm

in Film & TV

Review: Wow! This Brochure for Vietnam Tourism Has a Plot and a Romance.

I was prepared to hate A Tourist’s Guide to Love on sight. As a movie setting, Vietnam has been burned by foreign productions one too many times, so I often find myself dry-heaving whenever any international project announces its intention of portraying Vietnam on screen.

Paul Christiansen

in In Plain Sight

An Ode to Saigon’s Chò Nâu Trees

It’s too cold for chò nâu to grow where I’m from, but we still gave it an English name: dipterocarp.

Paul Christiansen

in Loạt Soạt

A Memoir Ruminates on Saigon in the Now and via Childhood Memories

Born in Saigon in 1977, Tuan Phan and his parents left for America via boat in 1986. Remembering Water includes depictions of the voyage including lengthy stops in refugee camps followed by acclimation to a new country and culture. It articulates struggles of exile and assimilation similar to many other diaspora experiences, but his story is unique because Tuan returns to live in Saigon as an adult and encounters a place significantly different from his childhood recollections. The memoir concerns itself not just with the changing city and his relationship with it, but also with more illusive ideas regarding the fallibility of memory and if one can feel more at home in the past than the present.

Back Arts & Culture

Brian Letwin

in Music & Arts

Incredible Thai Version of the Iron Man 3 Trailer

Iron Man 3 hit theaters last week grossing a whopping $195.3 million internationally. With numbers like that, there’s no doubt that the film will be one of the most illegally copied of all time. But p...

in Culture

Another Step Forward for Gay Marriage in Vietnam

Vietnam is on the path to becoming the first Asian nation to legalize same-sex marriage. This week, in Hanoi, Deputy Health Minister, Nguyen Viet Tien, told the press: “[A]s human beings, homosexuals...

Brian Letwin

in Culture

H&P Unveils Low-Cost Bamboo Home Design

When it comes to construction in Vietnam - from one-story shops to luxury office towers - one will find bricks on every site. For more than a century, these unassuming orange squares have literally la...

Brian Letwin

in Film & TV

Sex Scenes Becoming More Frequent in Vietnamese Films

In a recent VietnamNet op-ed, Lao Dong takes a deeper look into the increasing eroticism of Vietnamese cinema.

Brian Letwin

in Film & TV

History of Vietnamese Cinema: 1898 - 1995

Long Van Cinema. Vietnam is producing high-quality films faster than ever before. While the country is not known for its cinematic pedigree, the film industry in Vietnam has been active for over 100 ...

Brian Letwin

in Music & Arts

Video: Đi uống - Always

Đi uống - Always. Check out this track from some of our brothers and sisters up north: Đi uống - Always. Frankly, we're always down to watch a video where the band performs on a motorcyle and sideca...

Brian Letwin

in Music & Arts

Video: Classic Vietnamese Rock

Hoang Oanh. We're not huge fans of Americanization but there are some rare exceptions. Concidering the current state of Vietnamese pop music, it's hard to believe there was a time when it was, to pu...