One of the biggest hits at the Bangkok International Film Festival is the action film, The Rebel. The film played a sold out show, and has a website in Vietnamese and English. The Rebel has been bought for distribution in English speaking countries by the Weinstein Company, which hopefully means we will see the film as intended by the filmmakers on DVD, if not theatrically.
Spiderman fans might want to make a point of seeing The Rebel as the star, Johnny Nguyen, was the costumed stunt performer in the first two films of that series. Johnny Nguyen also co-starred with Thailand’s Tony Jaa in Tom Yum Goong. Dustin Nguyen, who some may remember from the television series, “21 Jump Street”, co-stars.
The Rebel takes place in the 1920s, with Johnny Nguyen playing a French educated Vietnamese who is initially employed as an undercover agent on behalf of France. With a budget of one million US dollars, this is a big budget film by Vietnam standards.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Kumi said
October 20 2007 @ 10:38 pm
“The Rebel” stands neutral to politics, or even stands to support it (…Viet Minh to Viet Cong connection?). Thus, the film is easier to talk about between people of different political interests. And can be more publicised in Vietnam. But then again, the Viet Cong use and exaggerate the extent of the French’s evil to excuse its own diabolism.
The film’s dialogue is a bit poor. For some actors, dialogue is seemingly monotonous.
I found Dustin Nguyen’s acting very good compared to the others, even if his dialogue wasn’t superb. If only we had more experienced actors like Dustin, to act in such films.
A lot of the main characters look too modern/not Vietnamese enough; you could find an average Vietnamese American teenager who looked “more Vietnamese”.
Also, there are some inaccuracies in regards to history and what was socially acceptable at that time.
But overall, the directing is good. It’s funny how a Vietnamese American film is so much better than a widely-publicised film in Vietnam.