Em Va Trinh: The Best Vietnamese Movie of 2022

Today, I would like to introduce a Vietnamese movie I consider one of last year’s best movies. Em va Trinh (in English means “Trinh Cong Son and His Muses.) Trinh Cong Son was one of the greatest musicians of Vietnam. His music was named for a genre under his name. Trinh music. His influence in music could not be denied and until right now, even though he passed away, his music was still sung by many artists in Vietnam and foreign countries. His music was also a topic for research by many students and experts who loved and were curious about them.

During the Vietnam War, Trinh Cong Son was compared to Bob Dylan of Vietnam because his music contained lyrics of anti-war movements. It was the reason that after the Vietnam War, his anti-war songs were still a big mystery because he never showed what side he was standing with. Talking about Trinh Cong Son, people always talk about his love songs and all the muses behind those songs. When Trinh Cong Son had a feeling inside him after observing something or someone, he could write a song immediately. Em va Trinh was a movie about his music and the muses in his life.

Source: IMDb

“Outside the veranda, the rain falls

Who's heart is like playing with

Oh man, tears are in my eyes"

(“Ngoài hiên mưa rơi rơi

Lòng ai như chơi vơi

Người ơi, nước mắt hoen mi rồi”)

Those are the lyrics in the song “Uot mi” (Wet eyes) by musician Trinh Cong Son, written in honor of Thanh Thuy, a famous singer of Saigon before 1975, 1958 after he saw and heard her sing "Autumn Raindrops" by Dang The Phong at My Canh Tea Room in Saigon. And this song is played at the beginning of the movie. Actually, when the movie released the trailer, I was very excited to go back to Vietnam to see it. Reading and watching reviews, people criticized the movie a lot, but I didn’t believe it, but I had to see it to know how the movie is. In the end, I have to say the movie is EXCELLENT. This is not a biopic about musician Trinh Cong Son, a musical, or a film that explores the musician's love affair. The film belongs to the historical fiction genre. For example, James Cameron’s Titanic has no Jack and Rose in real life. The director created those two characters to make the movie and create the romance for the movie to show the audience that this is not just a biopic about that ship. Or Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood features many real and two fictional characters. But many details go wrong with what happened in real life, creating the highlight for the movie.

For Em and Trinh, "romanticizing" the life of musician Trinh Cong Son to make the film more attractive is the right thing to do and necessary because musician Trinh Cong Son spent 21 years and the love in his life how his life turned out, who knows? Only he knew. Everyone heard and read about him, but no one could understand his thoughts and why. The film is inspired by the love affairs that cross the life of musician Trinh Cong Son, from youth with Thanh Thuy, Bich Diem, and Dao Anh (Perhaps, she was the only person that Trinh Cong Son actually loved, but they couldn’t end up together. Many love letters were being exchanged between them when Trinh Cong Son was teaching in Dalat and Dao Anh was in Hue. It can be said that the innocent love between Trinh Cong Son and Dao Anh was the main inspiration for him to write many famous love songs), and Khanh Ly (She is a very famous singer. I used “is” because she is still big. Khanh Ly is the only singer who can sing Trinh music successfully), to his later life with Michiko and Hong Nhung. Passing through Trinh Cong Son's life is not necessarily digging too much into a love affair. Just a few moments, but detailed and understood enough for the audience to feel or rather empathize with his life. The film’s context must be a very elaborate, meticulous, and beautiful investment to bring the audience back to the 60s of the 20th century to see the cruelty of war and why musician Trinh Cong Son must write anti-war music. Regarding the scenes in the movie, the movie has tried to create romance and loveliness for the movie because only the movie can draw the beautiful scenes as imagined.

As for the acting, Avin Lu and artist Tran Luc perform the role of musician Trinh Cong Son in two stages in their way, without limitation, to resemble the late musician. That is what should be done. The three characters I find the most impressive in the film are Bui Lan Huong as Khanh Ly, Hoang Ha as Dao Anh as a teenager, and Nakatani Araki as Michiko. The three actors acted very naturally, emotively, not forced. They make the plot of the film more attractive and romantic. The pink shadows of musician Trinh Cong Son moved the audience—finally, the soundtrack. With the harmony of each song featured in the movie, Trinh's music is revived stronger and newer, which partly helps young people love and respect Trinh's music more.

It is tough to find this movie in the U.S. It is impossible because no service is streaming it. But if I can find it, I will share it with you later. Or if you know where we can stream it, you can show us. Highly recommend!