Charlie Nguyen [p.2]

CN: Nothing ever made such a deep impression on me when I was a kid as film. My aunt took me to see my first film in Sai Gon when I was 7. It was an Indians and Cowboys movie. I was completely blown away by the experience. Watching movies was like the greatest thing in the world. I think my interest stemmed from that.

NHA: The Rebel is your third feature film. Can you tell us a little about the premise?

CN: Here is the title card for the movie. It pretty much sums up what The Rebel is all about without giving away too much:

1922. Colonial Viet Nam. The long-standing French occupation of the country has inflamed anti-French sentiments. At the height of the conflict, resistance forces emerge in many towns to stir up insurrections against the foreign occupiers. In response, the French employ elite units of Vietnamese agents to track and execute these rebels.

NHA: What inspired you to make an action/drama?

CN: My obsession has always been for drama more than any other genre. Though my experiences tell me that I don’t get to choose what to make. It’s like dreaming. You don’t choose it, it chooses you. For The Rebel, more or less, I’m discovering the story as we go along. It wasn’t something I knew everything about beforehand. Now we’re halfway through the filming, yet there are new developments and ideas that come to me every day. Sometimes in my sleep I’m still writing then scribbling things down in the morning. It’s very unsettling and stressful, but inspiring at the same time.

NHA: Who is in the cast of The Rebel? And how did you go about casting for the film?

CN: Casting The Rebel was quite difficult because we needed actors with a martial arts background. We want the actors to do most of their own stunts so the requirement was that they had to acquire certain skills. My brother Johnny (Trí Nguyen) plays the protagonist Cuong. He’s also the action choreographer on the film. Dustin Nguyen plays the villain Sy and Ngo Thanh Van (from Belgium) plays the female lead, Thuy. We also have singer Nguyen Thang playing Dustin’s henchman. Those are the “Viet Kieu” actors. The rest are Vietnamese talents of considerable name.

NHA: What about your crew?

CN: We selected the best possible crew in SG, some of whom I had already worked with in the past and have trust in them. The word is going around that we’ve the nicest film crew ever put together. My preference is that the drama takes place in front of the camera, not behind it. We were looking for people who have a good personality as well. It’s too long of a shoot! After 18 hours/day, people can get very abrasive if you’re not on their good side.

NHA: You’re currently shooting in Viet Nam. What do you hope to accomplish by using Viet Nam’s natural landscape as the setting for the film? What are some of the locations that you’re filming?

CN: With our limited budget, I don’t think we could shoot the film anywhere else. Locations include Sai Gon, Hoi An, Lang Son, Thai Nguyen.