'Song of the South' soap hits the US


'Song of the South' is the English name of a soap opera named 'Dat Phuong Nam' (the Southern Land). The film was directed by Vinh Son, scripted by writer Nguyen Ho and produced by Ho Chi Minh City Television Film Company in 1997.

Mr Gerald Herman, director of Representative Office of Discovery Communications PTE who invested tens of thousands of US dollars to convert the film into a DVD said that he gave the film a new name because the film was actually a song of the south. He added that this was the time that Vietnam could bring its television and cinema films to the world. He also said that as a film maker and marketing expert working in Vietnam for ten years, he was impressed with many Vietnamese films which were still unknown to the world.

After having watched the film 'Dat Phuong Nam,' Mr Gerald Herman found the film very interesting and presented it to a Vietnamese friend living in Chicago. It was unexpected that his friend's family liked the film so much that they stayed up the whole night to watch the film until the end. This made Mr Herman think of how to present this film to other people. He then bought the copyright from the Ho Chi Minh City Television Company so as to be able to introduce the film to the world, first of all to the overseas Vietnamese.

During three years working on the disc in Singapore, he had to throw away thousands of completed discs just because he was not satisfied with the colour. And finally, he succeeded making the first 1,000 sets with 6,000 discs at a price of US $70 per set. And there is nothing more consoling for Mr Herman's hard work than a letter sent to him from a man named Vuong from Chicago dated March 2: "Today I came to a friend's to get back my disc 'Song of the South'. They watched the whole previous day and asked me to resell it to them."

After 'Song of the South,' the film 'Missing Countryside' by director Dang Nhat Minh which has been converted into DVD, will go to Singapore for multiplication this June.

By VO THI HAO
(Family and Society newspaper)