Johnny Tri Nguyen | I Spit Hot Fire

Me at the Clash Red Carpet Premiere [Wannabe Moments] (Bay Rong)

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

(Thanks to Norey for the pictures, thanks to bigwig Jenny for the invite!)

Somehow, I got lucky enough to sneak my way in (ie Jenny) to the Clash (Bay Rong) Red Carpet Premiere last month. In the picture, I am neither the suave Vinh (left) or hilariously dapper Jimmy (right), but as usual the center of attention alongside Ngo Thanh Van. (btw, despite being very tired from the night, Van was very nice)

After hearing some stories of how not-so-red carpet the red carpet premiere of Johnny Tri Nguyen’s last movie, Nu Ho Than Chet was, I wasn’t expecting a ton, but this was a great event. (Yikes, what a sentence) Not that I would know, being a nobody, but I would be happy to cheat my way in to other events like this in the future.

There was an actual red carpet in front of the Paragon in Q7, people waiting outside (not USA levels, but respectable), pictures at the entrance, gift bags for the VIP attendees (not much inside, though), stars (models, singers, rich people) and wannabees (me), and free Johnny Walker (advertised as Blue Label, given out as Gold) for all with a special (again, thanks to Jenny) invite-only after party at Khai Silk’s Cham Charm (known for the $40 weekend buffet).

The movie itself? Good! It’s action heavy, plot-light, but that’s what you would want and hope for. The movie has good pacing and doesn’t try to do too much, ending when it should. A good mark for Vietnamese cinema, for sure. I gave it a 7/10 on IMDB.

Other pictures from the night: (gallery on Smugmug)

Ah, and trailer for Clash:

Tags: bay rong, Clash, johnny tri nguyen, Movies, ngo thanh van, Vietnam

23.01.2010 Movies, Vietnam View Comments

Attending The Star Trek Premiere at Megastar Hung Vuong

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

Last night I attended the unofficial Star Trek premiere here in Vietnam along with Bi and Jimmy (That’s me on the right, Bi’s on the left).

It was unofficial because it’s actually not supposed to be released here for another two weeks, but Megastar did a semi-secret premiere event last night that I was able to attend- one screen for paid customers like myself, and the other for VIPs of Vietnam. Ended up seeing people I know like [name dropping] Aryeh and Landon on that side, and then later saw Johnny Tri Nguyen, Ngo Thanh Van, Dustin Nguyen, and other stars/rich people whom I simply don’t recognize. [/name dropping]

I’ll talk more about that later, but first the movie.

The Movie:

Star Trek – It is fantastic! It is truly an adventure, a roller coaster ride, whatever superlatives you see on typical BS reviews of so-so movies, Star Trek earns them. I really felt at times, watching on the big screen, this is what the movie theater is all about, the presentation, the experience, the visceral thrill. It is non-stop action, not even taking the time to have cheesiness built in (Michael Bay). It’s always serious, and it’s always fun. The movie is smart without being over your head sci-fi. Visually it is amazing, and something you can’t appreciate on a small screen, one of the few movies I truly feel this way about.

Before you think I’m just going off on exaggeration, I wasn’t really into seeing this movie before seeing the early reviews. I like Star Trek, at least the Next Generation decently enough, and have seen all the movies except for Insurrection. Of all those movies, I really only like Wrath of Khan and First Contact. I like JJ Abrams, but am not really a huge fan. Then, as the reviews came in, the consensus was this was quite good. My sister loved it as well. And then I got excited.

That said, whatever you currently believe that Star Trek is, this is not it. The essence of the characters is still there, but everything, you will be surprised. You will be delighted. It is a hero movie, but everyone takes part. This is a team. Every main character has a moment where he keeps the mission alive by doing something extraordinary. Not something extraordinary because the characters tell you it is, you can see it for yourself. You can tell that person is just amazing, and that it’s not just the Spock and Kirk show. It’s that true Communistic sense of Star Trek that was always implied, but perhaps never really executed that well in the show.

Jimmy says that Star Trek is action movie for an Obama time, positivity in contrast to the dark depressing moods of The Dark Knight. I agree and ranked Star Trek 9/10 on IMDB. It’s going to sell Blu-Ray players this Christmas, guaranteed.

The Premiere Event:

As great as the movie was, the execution of the premiere was lacking. I didn’t know yesterday was going to be a VIP event. In fact, I didn’t even know of the event. I just happened to be in Hung Vuong on Friday seeing Slumdog Millionaire with Thuy, and then I saw a poster for the premiere. No one else knew about it either; I was the first person to buy tickets to the show, and yet this was just 24 hours before the event!

That night, I went on the website to see if there was an announcement for the show. None at all. What’s odd is that the Megastar now (today on Sunday) has an advertisement for the Sneak Preview, which was probably put up last night or this morning. It’s advertising another sneak preview, though, one for May 19th, though it does mention the one I went to as well.

These previews aren’t cheap by any means. They’re roughly double normal ticket prices (which have been going up lately), close to US prices at 150K VND ($8.50 USD). I am okay to pay it, and I am sure there’s enough of an audience who can afford to pay those prices as well, but Megastar makes it so hard to actually attend.

They don’t:

Advertise the premieres well. Or at all. Almost in the sense they don’t really want your business.
Let you buy in advance, even at the theater itself. In Hanoi, I wanted to go on Wednesdays to buy tickets for a movie on Friday. Most of the time, they refused and said they couldn’t book tickets 2 days early. Are you crazy? I am willing to give my money now, and you’re saying no? Sometimes, I would come in Friday morning, and they still wouldn’t let me buy tickets.

Plus, as well as Megastar is doing in Hanoi at Vincom, they’re doing as bad in Hung Vuong in TPHCM. I’ve been here a few times on Friday nights, typical peak times. In Hanoi, it’s absolutely packed. If you’re trying to get tickets to see a hot movie 15 minutes before showtime, no way, go get a neck brace, and sit in the trash seats. At Hung Vuong, no problem. The facilities are just as good, if not better, but there is no way Hung Vuong is doing well. Slumdog Millionaire is supposed to be their #2 most popular movie right now, and I bought the first tickets for an 8:30 PM showing on Friday just two hours before showtime.

I have absolutely no brand loyalty to Megastar, even though I would want to. I want to give them my money, I want them to treat me like I matter, but they just don’t care! I go to Megastar because they’re my best option for now, but as soon as someone else does it better (not difficult), I’m gone.

Anyway, back to the event itself. When we got there, we realized there were quite a lot of people. I started to think that maybe in fact they really had advertised the premiere really well. The press was here, they tried to do a red carpet sort of thing and talk to various supposed celebrities I did not recognize. Before you came in, you had to hand over your cell phone. The reason for this, they said, was they didn’t want anyone leaking footage from the movie since the premiere time was the same time as in the US . He even said the Vietnamese equivalent of “syncing” premiere times. While I’m guessing this was at Paramount’s request, it seemed silly because 1) there already was a CAM version you could download by last night 2) no one is going to hold up their cell phone for 2 hrs to record the movie, it is impractical for a number of very obvious reasons 3) the release was not at the exact same time as in the US. My sister saw it a few days before me.

When we gave our tickets, they said we had the wrong screen, even though it was obvious we did not. Then, they said, they had switched our screen, so then we realized that all these other people in line had not paid for tickets, had just been invited for some PR purposes. Landon and Aryeh are famous VIPs, I am not.

That’s when we saw how many regular people really knew about the premiere. 25.

Fail.

Right before the show started, Johnny Tri Nguyen (#1 male star in Vietnam, by income) came in with Ngo Thanh Van and his entourage and sat 3 rows in front of us, probably sitting with us because there weren’t any good seats left in the other screen. Ngo Thanh Van is not so pretty with short hair, and was actually unrecognizable to me. The only reason I assumed it was her was as far as I knew, Johnny and her were dating. I didn’t think to myself, hey, it’s a really pretty girl, that must be Ngo Thanh Van! (At the end of the movie, when we went back to the lobby, we saw Dustin Nguyen talking to Johnny and other pip- probably important people)

The staff then came in to give away a Star Trek t-shirt and mouse. The man to my left won the mouse, and Jimmy and I were going to ask him if he would sell it to us. Right as he went back to his seat, though, before I could ask, he gave it to the kids behind us! Poop!

These same kids talked noisily throughout the movie, providing incredibly wise insights (“It’s Leonard Nimoy!”) as you might expect, and the one behind me kept kicking my chair. I wanted to wheel around and say something to him and his mother, but decided to leave it. That type of stuff, I expect out of Vietnamese people, truly, but this was a European family. What is wrong with people these days?

When I watched Slumdog the night before, the Vietnamese man to my left had terrible breath (or it could have been his feet, I really don’t know), and gave his director’s commentary to his wife next to him.

See, Megastar? You don’t really expect me to be loyal do you? I am almost happy to pirate something and watch it at home because the way you run your business, you deserve it.

Typical Vietnamese.

Tags: dustin nguyen, hung vuong, johnny tri nguyen, megastar, Movies, ngo thanh van, Reviews, star trek, tphcm

10.05.2009 Movies, Vietnam View Comments

Johnny Tri Nguyen as Johnny [REVIEW]

Monday, April 6th, 2009

Johnny Tri Nguyen (above) is the number one movie star in Vietnam. Is that saying much?

Ah, maybe not. But he has been in two of the more notable local-Vietnamese productions, Nu Hon Than Chet (Death’s Kiss) in 2008, and The Rebel in 2006. NHTC broke all the local box office records here, even running a successful viral marketing campaign on Cyworld.

You might say Johnny is the Vietnam equivalent of Thailand’s Tony Jaa, the movie star best known for his breakthrough role in Ong Bak. Both Johnny and Tony are action specialists, and Johnny used to compete on the US Wushu team. But just as with most Thailand to Vietnam comparisons (football team, economy, travel, lady boys), Thailand wins. At least in action.

I recently saw Ong Bak 2, which is completely unrelated to Ong Bak aside from name, but does a good job of showing Jaa at his best, his frenetic action pace without any pretense that we need to care about the plot. I gave it a 7/10 on IMDB, and then noticed that both of Thailand and Vietnam’s best had faced off in Tom Yum Goong (translated as The Protector), released in 2005.

It’s gotten solid reviews on IMDB, averaging a 6.9 after more than 13,000 votes. Sounds good right?

Wrong.

This is an atrocious movie. Of the nearly 450 movies I have rated on IMDB, I gave this my worst rating ever, a 2/10. Awkwardly ridiculous with silly fight scenes, confusing itself between comedy, action movie, and tearjerker. Worst of all, it runs at nearly 2 hrs. Ong Bak 2, despite all its faults, focuses on the fighting, and stops at 1:30. Much more watchable, more more reasonable. Tom Yum Goong, on the other hand, was so bad even from the start that I had to start writing notes to remember this full retard.

Tom Yum Goong, My Movie Commentary Track:

(as live blogged while watching, chronological order from the start of the movie)

There’s a joke in this movie where a random passer by says something like, “You got a pirated movie movie? Don’t ever do that again!”. I wonder if somehow I got an intentionally bad pirated version of the movie, and there’s actually a much better version out there for legit owners. Unfortunately, even if there is, unlikely I can buy it.

Starting:

First 30 minutes:
- OK, got it. Tony Jaa loves his elephant.
- WTF is going on here? (movie introduces random character)
- WTF is going on here now? (another random character)
- WTF IS GOING ON HERE? Who is he? Who is she? (MORE random characters)
Ok more Tony Jaa. When is this guy going to actually do a non-totally fake seeming fight?
Define “Fake Fight”: you know, like when people somehow hit each other from five feet away. The kind of punches you see on Saturday Night Live, where the camera angles hide the fake action, and they add the oomph sound created by hitting watermelons.
Johnny Tri Nguyen’s character is named Johnny. I guess acting only goes so far.
An X-Games street gang is now after Tony Jaa; a gang with football jerseys, dirt bikes, BMX bikes, and ATVs. Hai ya, my ATV shall chop you!
The movie sets for the fighting scenes and situations seem obviously made for only Tony Jaa to use and escape from harm. Like these guys want to lose.
This movie isn’t purposely bad?
This is an action movie?
Johnny is as good an actor in English as he is in Vietnamese. FAIL.
His English sounds as good as his Vietnamese does. FAIL. (I’ve watched most of The Rebel as well)
Johnny speaks Vietnamese to his gang, who laugh with him. His gang is partly white.
Johnny Tri is not as good looking as some in VN claim him to be.
Tony has become the One. By wearing a bell around his wrist. He seems to change from being absolute crap, like Neo pre-Matrix, and the becoming The One. It’s a cycle he repeats over and over. He just needs motivation, apparently.
Tony Jaa is the Monica Seles of fighting- creating your own sound effects when doing anything. Ya! Uh! Hai ya!
Note to self. When attacking someone from behind with a butcher knife, do not karate-yell right before you unleash the attack, notifying the other person that you are behind him.
I’m hungry. It’s 2AM. There’s still 30 minutes in this movie left?
Why can’t anyone in this movie speak English? Even the English speakers can’t speak English!
Watching this movie makes me think I can handle watching Street Fighter, the Legend of Chun Li

Prachya Pinkaew- the director of this movie also directed Ong Bak? And Ong Bak was before this? I don’t think he got the performances he was hoping for, either out of himself or Tony or Johnny.
This is a temple that is on fire. At the same time it is flooded. At the same time, it is completely on fire?

I should write a post on FMyLife that I had to watch this movie. People on IMDB claim that the longer director’s cut is much better than the apparent US version I watched in terms of a fleshed out storyline. But those fans also thought the action was great, while I thought the action was sluggish and predictable. Poeple walk into Tony Jaa so they can be beaten up, it doesn’t seem like fighting. There’s a huge difference between the Ong Bak movies and Tom Yum Goong.

My rating: 2/10.

But here’s the trailer: