Director Doan Si Nguyen: Making films for the audience to enjoy

At the premiere of his debut feature film The Last Wish, director Doan Si Nguyen shared that, unlike a short film - a place to express oneself more, a feature film always has to be carefully considered to create a good work for many people.

“As a young person entering the profession, taking on the role of director of a project with a large amount of money, I think I have to be responsible to the investors and the audience, while still balancing my personal views on artistic value. That is the invisible pressure throughout the filmmaking process,” Doan Si Nguyen began the story.

And in fact, Doan Si Nguyen's wishes have somewhat reached the audience after the first positive responses. Simple but humorous, silly but sophisticated, the film brings a pleasant story and an emotional ending to the audience.

Director Doan Si Nguyen at the premiere of the film The Last Wish

Si Nguyen said that this project came to him very randomly. The opportunity came from his first short film, Gentle Forest - one of the 5 best works of the CJ Short Film Project 2023. This was the basis for Mr. Lee Jin Sung - Director of Runup Vietnam, one of the 2 co-production units of The Last Wish to send an invitation.

At first, Si Nguyen was hesitant because his first film would not be a remake, and it was also a comedy. However, after watching the original, he felt that this story deserved to be retold in Vietnam and agreed to accept the offer.

Although he always thought he could do it, it was not until he held the complete script by screenwriter Tran Khanh Hoang in his hands that Si Nguyen felt completely confident to do it. Throughout the entire process of making the film, he only thought of trying his best, always thinking of making this film for as many people as possible, not just for himself. He also did not think much about the story of box office revenue.

However, Nguyen's move to directing his first feature film was the result of a process of nurturing, accumulating and experiencing. Nguyen humorously calls it a "time bomb". Graduated with a major in Film Theory from The University of Auckland (New Zealand), although passionate about directing, Nguyen chose to start with writing - the thing he was most afraid of when he was still in school.

The simple reason is that he had to face what he feared most and overcome it. He also believes that being a screenwriter is the easiest thing to start with. And, as a result, Nguyen has now written 3 commercial projects, including: Chi chi em em (2019), Nguoi mat troi (The Sun) , and Tren ban buu duoc ban muon (2023).

“Being a screenwriter gives me the opportunity to directly participate in film crews. From there, I learned a lot, especially about balancing personal creativity and real production conditions,” Nguyen said about his self-study journey.

When asked about his career goal as a director, Si Nguyen simply wants to make films that make people happy and excited. “I want to see my parents, friends, colleagues and audiences go to the cinema after a hard week or day of work and forget all the pressures out there. And when they leave the cinema, the film will bring them something that makes them miss them or feel better,” he confided. While he is not allowed to reveal his next project, Nguyen revealed that it will be a long film project and a completely different genre.

HAI DUY

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/dao-dien-doan-si-nguyen-lam-phim-de-khan-gia-tan-huong-post802634.html