Vietnam film industry comes of age with thriller ‘Furie’
HONG KONG: Veronica Van Ngo, who had a brief but memorable role as Paige Tico in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, is returning to her Vietnamese roots with the action-thriller Furie.
Ngo, who has credits dating back to 2005’s Saigon Love Story, produces, writes, and stars in Furie.
Arclight Films is selling the movie at the American Film Market, and Well Go USA has bought US rights.
“The appetite for more crosscultural and strong female empowerment stories is accelerating at a rapid pace,” said Arclight chairman Gary Hamilton.
“Now more than ever, it’s important for us at Arclight to bring hidden gems that would not ordinarily be accessible such as Furie to audiences around the world.
“We are thrilled to partner with Well Go USA to showcase Vietnamese filmmaking at its finest. Well Go’s expertise in distributing content for the global audience makes them the perfect partner to put this Asian, female-led thriller on the cinematic map.”
Furie is set in modern- day Vietnam and the actors speak Vietnamese in the film. It was shot south of the Mekong River and near Ho Chi Minh City.
In the vein of the Indonesian box office hit The Raid, Ngo plays an ex-gangster who retired from the life of crime after the birth of her daughter.
Despite lying low in the countryside, she can’t seem to escape her violent past when her daughter is kidnapped — forcing her back into the life she swore she would abandon.
“I just wanted to do a kidnap movie — something that’s very easy to relate to,” Ngo told Variety. “It’s told from the point of view of the mother, who blames herself.”
“We’re hoping for a premiere at Berlin,” Ngo said. “The Vietnamese market is not out in the world yet. What we wanted to portray was (that there’s) a dark world right in front of you, where you can’t tell who the villains are, so we made a deliberate decision to cast nonprofessionals as the villains.”