1735 km [p.3]

NQT: I was forced! It was really stressful. In the film, there are dialects from all different parts of Viet Nam but my character was difficult to play because you’re not supposed to know exactly where he’s from, which helped because my Vietnamese is really horrible! One of the things we wanted to do was bring different characters to the screen that were not stereotypically Vietnamese. For some reason, my fellow producer Tung saw something of me in this crazy, freaked out character. It was my first and I think last acting role!

NHA: What has been the feedback from audiences in Viet Nam?

NQT: The film was a very different type of story for audiences here because it talks about what young people are going through, talks about this developing Viet Nam, talks about traveling, talks about the future.

We had some problems with the press like how certain roles were not “Vietnamese,” but for me as a creative person, I wanted to challenge what is Vietnamese, and show what can be Vietnamese. We expected only a certain amount of people were going to “get it.” On the surface, it’s a simple love story, but if you really listen to the dialogue and see what we are trying to do, there is a lot more to it. And it was the youth culture, the opinion leaders, the kids who want something different and don’t want to be told how they should be kids, they were the ones who “got it.”

NHA: What specific changes do you think young people are struggling with now?

NQT: As an Asian American, my father encouraged and hoped that I would be an engineer. In college, when I finally had the heart to tell him “Dad, I want to be in art,” he didn’t get it. So the movie reflects some of the things I went through with my family, cultural identity, and the challenges of figuring that out in my youth.

If you look around, Vietnamese in the last four years have completely changed, especially the youth culture. It’s actually what the two main characters share with one another—challenges of the old and the new, the conflicts and consequences of incorporating one at the expense of the other. What Kien represents is this spontaneous life filled with living moments in the “now.” Tram Anh represents just the opposite. She is constricted to what is right, what is safe and secure, but in the end it’s kind of both.

NHA: What other areas do you see having an impact on Vietnamese society?

NQT: I think television, like movies, will be another opportunity for change. And if you want to reach people on a massive scale, you go to TV because everyone has access to it for free. Right now the challenge is finding quality content—other than Korean soap operas, game shows, or really bad Vietnamese soap operas. The government is willing to rely on people like myself or others to be out-of-the-box thinkers. Because of this, creativity in Viet Nam is going to change and people are going to say “I want more, I want different.”

More specifically, I think you’ll see reality TV as the new wave of programs. It’s not so much of the Real World types of reality, but more like shows similar to the Apprentice just because it’s more reflective of an aspect of Vietnamese society which deals with competition, conflict, and being nosey.

NHA: You have a small comic role in the film. What was that like?