People’s Artist Tran Phuong is a famous film actor and director of Vietnamese films. With his role as A Phu in “A Phu and His Wife”, a classic movie of Vietnamese revolutionary cinema, he has fully carved his name among talented artists.
Fifty-six years have passed since the movie “A Phu and His Wife” was produced (in 1959). However memories of the days when Tran Phuong joined the film crew in making it, still seemed fresh in his mind. Though getting older, the artist said he still remembered clearly the role he played - a young ethnic Mong man with a staunch will.The actor said, the Mong villagers in Hong Ngai Commune, Bac Yen District of Son La Province cried out with joy, saying “he is a member of our hamlet!” when he brought the completed movie to screen in the hamlet.
 “A Phu and His Wife” is the most successful movie that People’s Artist Tran Phuong participated in. Photo: Tat Son/VNP  People’s Artist Tran Phuong in the movie “The Border”. Photo: Tat Son/VNP  In “The Mass”. Photo: Tat Son/VNP  In the “Call from the Front”. Photo: Tat Son/VNP |
Tran Phuong recalled difficulties that he and his colleagues had to overcome during the time they shot the film. He had to learn to ride a horse when he undertook the role of A Phu.
“I got an injury on the day when I learned to ride a horse,” said the artist, showing off a large scar on his head.
“A Phu is a young, strong ethnic Mong guy, and he can ride a horse over mountains and through forests. To play the role, I had to learn to ride a horse pretty well for a whole month,” said the actor.
The film crew bought a horse for him to train on, but unfortunately, it was a ferocious animal and would hardly let him climb on. Once when the actor jumped on its back, it threw him off and that fall left a large scar on his head.
The Mong people used to ride horses without a bridle, so riding it and crossing streams was a difficulty that Phuong had to overcome. However, he thought of a trick, he tied a rope around the animal’s mouth, which forced it to obey him when riding it.
The actor and his cohorts had to live in the same houses with villagers so that they could learn their habits and customs, and then could act exactly the same as the locals.
Thanks to his training, Tran Phuong played the role of A Phu so well, especially when he could ride the horse through forests and across mountains that later many film critics and commentators recognised his successful performance which they said, greatly contributed to the movie’s success.
“To me, the biggest success of the movie is that we had boundless love for the ethnic villagers. They considered us members of their hamlet, because we could ride horses and speak their native Mong language,” said the actor.
 People’s Artist Tran Phuong (Sept. 2014). Photo: Tat Son/VNP  People’s Artist Tran Phuong has won respect and love from his colleagues. Photo: Tat Son/VNP  People’s Artist Tran Phuong has greatly contributed his part to Vietnam’s revolutionary movie industry. Photo: Tat Son/VNP  Despite being older, People’s Artist Tran Phuong continues working on new movies. Photo: Tat Son/VNP |
After this notably successful role, Tran Phuong played many other roles, and among them many impressed the audiences, including Son in the movie “The Sea is Calling” (1967), Khiem in the “Call from the Front” (1969), Tiep in “The Mass”, and Luc in “Luc and his Wife”. Later, the actor worked as a film director where he also reaped much success.
In 2001, Tran Phuong was awarded the title “People’s Artist”, and in 2007 he received a State-level Award of Literature and Arts for the movies, “Last Hope”, “Last Crime”, and “A White-Flower River”./.
Story: ThaoVy - Photos: Tat Son
