If some of you have a secret dream to be a movie star just wait, your time might come one day. But more than 50 Vietnamese students at AIT, the moment their dream came true was the moment it stopped being a dream. It happened last term-break when more those 50 Vietnamese students took part in a Hollywood movie called "Heaven and Earth".
"Heaven and Earth", in AIT language, is a 25 million bucks project funded by Warner Bros, based on the bestseller book "When Heaven and Earth Changed Places" and is directed by multi-Oscar winner Oliver Stone. The new movie is a continuation of Oliver's philosophy that one can see in "Platoon", "Born on the 4th of July", and, in some aspects, "JFK". Shooting started last September in Phang Nga bay, Phuket and I was one of the two lucky Vietnamese-Vietnamese who had small parts in the scenes at Phuket. I say Vietnamese-Vietnamese because when I arrived at the location, there were already hundreds of Vietnamese-Thais, Vietnamese-Americans, Vietnamese-Canadians and Vietnamese-Australians there.
A Vietnamese village was built and it looked exactly like the Kyla village in which the author of the book lived. The work of Hollywood and Thai masters can be appreciated by a remark of a US Vietnam vet: "I feel the fear each time I see the village. It seems that at any corner a booby trap is waiting for the victim". It was how his friend was killed before his eyes in a patrol, more than 20 years ago. This time people from all sides of the war came to that replica to make a movie which would give one more explanation to the conflict. Each scene reminded us of some bitter experience of the past though we tried not to talk or think about the war.
Some stars, including Oliver, were too tired to travel back to Pearl Village Hotel to enjoy luxury and comfort and had to choose Phang Nga Bay Resort Hotel instead. Fortunately, there was only one restaurant outside the only hotel, so I had chances to dine with Dr. Hangs Ngor from "The Killing Fields" and we talked about Oscars and Khmer Rouge! At first he was very surprised to hear that I am a VN-Vietnamese. Sometimes Oliver dropped in, saying "Hello" to everyone and asked Dr. Ngor to help him order Thai food.
All the crew, actors, and extras worked on the edge of human capacity. Some shooting days lasted until 4 a.m.. Later, I was told that it was Oliver's style. If one has seen hid movies he might notice the seemingly chaos in almost every scene and no bright colors. He loves worn-out costumes, grey backstage, dirty props, exhausted people, smoky air, and deep thoughts in each scene.
The urban scenes were shot in Bangkok. In my list I had 60 AITians just to make sure that 45 would show up. It was really hard work even in AITians' eyes: wake up at 3.30 a.m., be home not earlier than 9 p.m., change your (very artificially dirty, worn-out) costumes three times a day, and stand by at the set all day. The food was typically Thai (very spicy) because most of the extras were Thais. Some of us were luckier, we were selected for speaking parts and with this the food and salary status changed instantly. Hollywood doesn't care about your labor, but it cares for your face, size, voice and talent. Some AITians dropped their California dreams and quit after the first day, seeing Beverly Hills as too hilly. The biggest day with tanks and other vehicles was at the Royal Plaza that you probably read in the newspaper last December. After Oliver said "Cut OK, Thank you", all the people cheered and came over to Oliver to have snapshots with him, Hiep (key star), Joan Chen from "The Last Emperor", and all the crew.
"See you in the movie" was the way to say goodbye at the "Heaven and Earth" wrap-up party in Regent Bangkok. The crew left for USA to shoot the US scenes. The release was planned for the end of this year. However, now I have learned that having been shot in the movie does not ensure that your face (or your back) will be on the silver screen. Let's hope for the best and if you do see "Heaven and Earth" please do not wink, you might miss our hard earned moments.
Published on AIT's "The Voice" on Thursday 4th of March, 1993.
