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dweemeister · 4 years

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“Sương Chiều” from Song Lang (2018, Vietnam) – music and lyrics by Leon Le performed by Isaac and Tú Quyên

Song Lang is a drama with LGBTQ elements that takes place in 1990s Saigon amid the city’s cải lương scene. Cải lương (Cai LOONG) is Vietnamese folk opera incorporating influences from southern Vietnamese folk songs, Western classical music, and classical Vietnamese opera (itself influenced by Chinese opera). This is one of the first performances seen in Song Lang, directed by Leon Le. The film has won various awards at international film festivals, but has had limited financial success in Vietnam.

Today, cải lương is considered a dying art form in Vietnam for reasons of thematic and artistic accessibility (similar to the status of Western opera). The above number - one of the first in Song Lang - recounts the love of Trọng Thủy (played by V-Pop star Isaac) and Mỵ Châu (Tú Quyên), star-crossed lovers whose fathers represented warring kingdoms in Vietnam in the third century BCE. As is characteristic of cải lương, note how few breaths the performers are taking – though this song does not contain such extremes, musical phrases in cải lương often require continuous singing without breathing, demanding the singer to modulate their tones mid-lyric.

A rough English translation from Vietnamese is provided below, taken from an English subtitled version:

[TRỌNG THỦY:] Tiết cuối xuân trời quang gió nhẹ (What a beautiful last day of spring) Khói hoàng hôn huyền ảo chốn non cao (The dreamlike mountain is bathing in the twilight.) Bâng khuâng muốn hỏi vì sao hỡi ánh dương tà (The afternoon clouds are hiding behind the treetops as a mood of melancholy descends on us. I want to ask the setting sun…) Có giận hờn ai không? (… if perhaps she’s in a sulk?)

Mà sao gương mặt ửng hồng (Is that why she’s blushing?) Làm Cổ Loa thành pha sắc đỏ (Causing Cổ Loa Citadel to glow red) Ta đã quên rồi Phiên Ngung (I’ve completely forgotten about my motherland.) Tiếng trống trận oai hùng thay bằng khúc tình ca. (The sound of the formidable drums has been replaced by a love song.)

[MỴ CHÂU:] Dập dìu thiết tha Vũ điệu chiêng cồng bổng trầm ngân nga? (Can you hear the melodious music in the air?)

[TRỌNG THỦY:] Bạt ngàn hương hoa (The flower’s fragrance fills the air.) Quyện hai tâm hồn giữa đất trời bao la (All things are in perfect harmony between heaven and earth.)

[MỴ CHÂU:] Không còn phong ba; (No more stormy weather;) Thôi lửa loạn can qua – (No more war –)

[TRỌNG THỦY:] – Cho lữ khách phương xa được cùng ai chung bóng (– Allowing this traveller from a faraway land to be with you in this joyful union.) Bên giếng ngọc đôi lòng, (By this jade well,) Say giấc mơ hồng mặn nồng uyên ương. (The younger lovers are lost in love.)

[MỴ CHÂU:] Khơi suối nguồn yêu thương, (Digging out a stream of love,) Chảy nhẹ giữa tim mình, (Let it gently flow from the hearts,) Ươm hạt giống thanh bình, (Planting a seed of peace,) Phủ xanh đường biên giới. (Letting it grow to cover the border between the two countries.)

[TRỌNG THỦY/MỴ CHÂU:] Chứng minh có đất trời Ta nguyện trọn đời không nghĩa cạn tình vơi. (With god as our witness, nothing can come between us until the end of time.)

#Song Lang #Leon Le #Isaac #Tú Quyên #OST #nightcap

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baohouse · 7 years

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There’s a part of me that still yearns to revive the fires that forged my passion to Vietnamese culture that began in late 2000, when I had attended UCLA and was seeking for a place to call home away from home (San Jose). I watched a theatrical production of Vietnamese Culture Night: In Pursuit, which tells the story of Zhong Shi and Mỵ Châu, the Vietnamese semi-legendary tale of star-crossed lovers caught in the political and military intrigues of their fathers—An Dương Vương, the military king who overthrew the 2500-year long Hồng Bàng dynasty and united the Âu and Lạc tribes to form the chiefdom of Âu Lạc—and Zhao Tuo, a viceroy of the Nanhai Commandery, formerly serving the Qin dynasty (the first dynasty of China) up until the death of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, with the ambition to form his own independent kingdom out of the remains of Âu Lạc.

The screenplay for In Pursuit was written by Jenni Trang Le in a poetic prose inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. As there’s no need for spoiler alert, since the story itself is already legend, the marriage between Zhong Shi and Mỵ Châu was a gambit by Zhao Tuo to put an end to a military stalemate in which Zhao Tuo was unable to subjugate Âu Lạc after years of fighting. Zhong Shi was given the mission to infiltrate and secure the secrets to the crossbow technology that has helped kill the 100,000 Qin soldiers that have so far died in attempting to pacify the southern frontier (though I suspect disease played a larger role, as these northerners were not accustomed to subtropical climates). Since Mỵ Châu was in love with Zhong Shi, she led him to the armory, where he was able to secure the crossbow and make the trek back across the mountains to visit his father. Unknown to Zhong Shi was what his father was planning to do with the crossbow: Zhao Tuo would restart the original conquest campaigns. An Dương Vương would have met the invaders head on again, only to be caught off guard by the fact that all the defensive advantages he had in place have been beaten. Eventually Zhao Tuo sacks Cổ Loa Citadel, the heart of Âu Lạc, forcing An Dương Vương to flee along with Mỵ Châu. Zhong Shi frantically chases down Mỵ Châu, fearing that he’ll never see her again, and Mỵ Châu, fearing the same, leaves a trail of goose feathers for him to find her. Eventually An Dương Vương uncovers the betrayal by his own daughter, and summarily executes her. Zhong Shi, overcome with grief that her death was caused by his own involvement in helping continue the war, would commit suicide by drowning.

I had wanted to write my own screenplay, focusing on crafting the psyche of the 4 main characters based on historical accounts and evidence. Did Mỵ Châu, being the daughter of a man who overthrew the previous dynasty, grow up in an environment of resentful people? Was Zhao Tuo motivated by hatred, admiration, or fear towards Qin Shi Huang? And how did the events during this story shape his attitude for when he would eventually become king? What was it like for Zhong Shi to grow up moving from city to city (throughout Southern China) during his whole life? Why did An Dương Vương agree to a marriage between his daughter and the son of his enemy? And most importantly, what did Zhong Shi and Mỵ Châu love about each other?

As such, I am always ever half-dreaming, thinking about these characters as both likable and unlikable people. When I listened to this song, Vector to the Heavens by Yoko Shimomura, I had envisioned a fan dance that illustrates Mỵ Châu’s final moments. I actually am thinking of a flower (made of fans) as the symbol of her heart in full bloom, as she absolutely loves Zhong Shi. But as her life is draining from her body, each petal falls one-by-one into the ocean. Each petal of her bleeding heart, as it were, would be consumed by an oyster and give rise to pink pearls. Supposedly if you wash these pearls in the lake (or water well?) in which Zhong Shi drowned himself, it would produce the most lustrous pearl you will have ever seen.

#yoko shimomura #kingdom hearts #classical #video games #music #vietnamese #history

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