Quang Binh province - one of the filming locations (Photo: Instagram) Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam provided the “perfect aesthetic” for the film“Kong: Skull Island”, director Vogt-Roberts was quoted by Channel NewsAsia onits website www.channelnewsasia.com.
For the director, filming in Vietnam stood out.
“I scoured the world. I very specifically didn’t want (thefilm) to look like Jurassic Park ... I wanted it to look fresh,” he explained.“I think audiences go to cinemas to see new things. So I went to a lot ofplaces in Asia. People have shot in Thailand before and it seemed like an easyfit but I was like, ‘No!’ so we kept going around. And then I landed inVietnam, looked at these landscapes and just fell in love.”
“The look of Vietnam is gorgeous andotherworldly at the same time,” he said. “There’s such a raw, powerful andunspoiled beauty that general audiences hadn't experienced on screen before.There’s a ruggedness and a beauty to a place like Vietnam.”
Even though it has been chosen as a Hollywood film location before, this wasthe first time Vietnam has hosted a film production of this size, scale andmagnitude. The entire cast and 120 crew members of “Kong: Skull Island” was allon site in February last year, shooting in Quang Binh's colossal caves and thetranquil town of Phong Nha, as well as the world-renowned Ha Long Bay and thenorthern province of Ninh Binh.
Known for their untouched spectacular scenery and wondrous naturalstructures, these are some of the most remote and beautiful parts of Vietnamthat have not been seen much in a Hollywood film.
“That’s the reason why we shot there, because you’re trying to findsomething that is completely untouched and looks unlike anything you’ve seenbefore. And Vietnam is the answer to that,” said actress Brie Larson.
“You can see it in the film. People will have to go visit it. I cannot sayenough nice things about Vietnam. It was my first trip there and it willcertainly not be my last. Hanoi was absolutely incredible … and Ninh Binh wasalso beautiful. I tell everyone who wants to go there that (Hanoi) is such agreat place to start because there’s so much to do and so much to see.”
Larson, who had to fly directly from Vietnam to the Academy Awards toreceive her Best Actress Oscar and then back to resume filming of Kong themorning after, told Channel NewsAsia that the experience was all about “thelittle things”.
“They built our trailers from the ground up! They took what I think were oldschool buses, gutted them completely and put in plumbing and couches. It wasamazing!” she recalled. “The craftsmanship on those things was amazing. It wasjust little things. I think they even built roads for our trucks to get tothese locations because we were so remote.”
A scene of the film "Kong: Skull Island" (Photo: Warner Bros) Veteran actor John Goodman told Channel NewsAsia that it was a “pleasure” torun around the streets of Hanoi trying to get lost and finding his way back.
“They said we were the first western film to film there, and they were veryaccommodating to us,” he said. “And they wanted us to feel welcomed and theymost certainly did that.”
“In and out of the countryside, you see some rice farmers, some buffalos,things that I never thought I’d see. Water, caves, it was just beautiful.”
All that said, filming in Vietnam was not without its own challenges.
Because of its remoteness, actor Samuel L Jackson shared that travellingfrom where they were living to the actual location took up to two hours on somedays.
“Some days, we had to get in canoes with little ladies who rode us throughthe mountains and caves,” he said with a smile. “But that was kind of fun!”
For Tom Hiddleston, it was filming one particularly tough swamp sequence.
“There’s a swamp that we ran through every day for 10 days which wasincredibly cold! And for continuity, we had to get the same amount of 'wet' forevery one of the 10 days,” he recalled.
But overall, the Brit actor found working in Vietnam nothing short of“amazing” and a “privilege”. And that is because the people were so welcomingand warm, he said.
“The topography of where we were … I’ve never seen landscapes like thatbefore,” he continued. “It’s our job as actors to imagine we’re living in thisdesert island and undiscovered wilderness untouched by man. And the fact thatwe’re in these swamps, out of which arises these towers of rock, makes at leastthat part of the imagination easier.
Vogt-Roberts is hopeful that the film will encourage more people to visitVietnam, although he said he is mindful of both the advantages and pitfalls.
“But it’s such a beautiful part ofthe world. I find that people on that side of the world have that generalgraciousness that we lack here (in the US). And so I sincerely believe that ourfilm will have a positive impact on tourism, filming, and a generalunderstanding of how stunning and beautiful the country is.”
Which is why, for all the challenges that filming in Vietnam presented,Vogt-Roberts wanted both his actors and the audience to “feel the tactilenature of the environment”.
He hopes that people will walk out of Kong: Skull Island wanting to discoverVietnam for themselves. “I hope that people will look at this movie the sameway they looked at Lord Of The Rings, Middle Earth and New Zealand and ask‘Where did they shoot that?’” he said.
“I hope they go and explore Vietnam, fall in love with the landscapes, thepeople, the culture and the food. I hope they explore the rest of Asia as well,because I don’t think a lot of people think to go to these places as much. Iwant them to fall in love the way that I did.”-VNA
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