Le Thanh Son from rocker to billion-dollar director, the wizard behind "Em chua 18"

Known as one of the "hundred billion directors" of Vietnamese cinema, Le Thanh Son has left a strong impression on the audience through many unique and quality films he has made.

For a long time, the name Le Thanh Son has been familiar to those who love and learn about Vietnamese cinema. He is the "director" who has made great contributions to many outstanding film projects that have been loved by both the academic and artistic film industry and the audience. In particular, Le Thanh Son is also on the list of rare "hundred-billion directors" of Vietnamese cinema with the blockbuster Em chua 18 that once caused a stir at the box office.

Despite his fame and talent, few people know that Le Thanh Son started out as a rocker and did not pursue the 7th art professionally from the beginning. Later, the young director spent many years cultivating his passion for cinema, proving his talent and gift through each outstanding work that was well received by the public.

Director Le Thanh Son was born in 1974 in Ho Chi Minh City. He graduated as valedictorian from the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music, majoring in Vocal Music. He then began his career as a Rocker with a strong and individual style.

Having a passion for Rock and wanting to create his own Rock musical, Le Thanh Son decided to go to the University of Theatre and Cinema to study directing. This was also a big turning point that made him discover his true passion for the 7th art, continuing to attend professional training courses on cinema at the University of Southern California - USA.

After acquiring enough knowledge at school, Le Thanh Son began to accumulate practical experience through films. He continuously participated in major projects as assistant director of Ao lua Ha Dong, Dong mau anh hung and produced the films De mai tinh, Long Ruoi, Saigon Yo!, Lua Phat, Am mau giay hep sine, Cu va chim se sparrow. Among them, the short film Toi la ai helped him win the Best Short Film a.ward at the Golden Kite Awards in 2005.

In fact, at that time, Le Thanh Son was best known as the director of Dragon Trap. The action film was produced in 2009 with the participation of Ngo Thanh Van and Johnny Tri Nguyen. At the time of its release, Dragon Trap was highly appreciated in many aspects, creating a leap forward in Vietnamese cinema, igniting the trend of epic martial arts films that were very popular in the 90s. In addition, this was also the first film of Vietnamese cinema to be shown on the Star Movie channel.

His career has been developing continuously with many works that have achieved great resonance, but director Le Thanh Son has always been troubled by the fact that his "academic" works have not been warmly received by the audience. Therefore, director Le Thanh Son has spent many years researching and finding ways to bring his works closer to the author.

The truth proves that director Le Thanh Son has done that. In 2017, he returned with the movie Em chua 18 - a work without a big cast to guarantee the box office, with a budget of only 40 billion VND but it took the Vietnamese big screen by storm at that time.

Em chua 18 can be considered an interesting and adventurous "experiment" of director Le Thanh Son for the Vietnamese screen. The film does not have the audience-attracting factors like the formula of normal Vietnamese films, but possesses a humorous, novel script, a brand new cast that brings exciting juggling scenes to the audience when watching.

As a result, Em chua 18 won the box office with 175 billion VND in revenue, becoming the highest-grossing Vietnamese film of all time. This achievement continued until 2019, when Hai Phuong by Ngo Thanh Van was released and took the top spot. Em chua 18 helped Le Thanh Son assert himself in the artistic path after many years of absence, and also helped him join the rare "hundred-billion-dollar directors" club of Vietnamese cinema.

Not stopping there, Em chua 18 was also highly appreciated by experts when it won the Golden Lotus A.ward at the 20th Vietnam Film Festival. The female lead Kaity Nguyen, a brand new name, also excellently won the Best Actress a.ward at the event. In addition, many countries have offered to buy the copyright and remake the film, such as Korea, China, and India. It cannot be denied that Em chua 18 has contributed to blowing a new wind into the Vietnamese film market, also contributing to introducing Vietnamese films to international friends.

The name Le Thanh Son was once again affirmed through the success of Em chua 18. However, the talented director did not take advantage of his fame to rush into mass production of the next works but instead sought inspiration slowly and naturally. Le Thanh Son had an interesting journey as a director from short films, feature films, academic films, entertainment films, TVCs, to television game shows.

Most recently, director Le Thanh Son confirmed that he will be the "host" of the first season of the TV game show The Champion - Nha Vo Dich in 2021. This is a brand new program with elaborate investment, combining sports and entertainment elements, expected to be released to the audience in December this year.

The Champion is a program that helps the public better understand the lives of Vietnamese athletes through the real and genuine experiences of the artists. From there, the artists also have the opportunity to reveal their best qualities, transmitting positive energy to the community.

Under the direction of Le Thanh Son - a director who has "helmed" many action and cinema projects that are both academic and entertaining, The Champion promises to bring the most realistic, vivid and wonderful footage. This also promises to be a new breakthrough affirming Le Thanh Son's position as a television program director.

"Hundred billion" director Nhat Trung hints at first 3D animation project in Vietnam T.P10:01:49 16/09/2024Recently on his personal Facebook, director Nhat Trung made many people curious about his new project in which he is taking on the role of director for an animated film project. Notably, this film is produced in 3D, appearing for the first time in Vietnam.