Saigon Eclipse (2006)

Director:

Othello Khanh

Writers:

John Board (writer)
Othello Khanh (writer)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The Curse of Beauty and the Cost of Loyalty

Plot:

Saigon Eclipse is inspired by the "Story of Kieu", the classic Vietnamese epic poem written by Nguyen Du in the early 19th century. Our story revisits and updates the poem's principal themes of filial devotion, redemption and woman's submission; themes structuring Asian feudal society. The principal characters were retained and reinterpreted. Kieu, a beautiful and talented actress, is making a film with Kim, a hot young director from L.A. who has come back to Vietnam to become a part of the new wave of Vietnamese film culture. The film is being produced by Kieu's Uncle Henry and her mother Ba Tu. It is a seemingly wonderful situation until the fragile family balance is disrupted when Kieu falls in love with her director Kim and Uncle Henry loses all at the gambling tables. To add to this, Vanessa, a foreign beauty, is hired to be Kieu's stand in and heads begin to turn in her direction more than they should. Vanessa becomes Kieu's best friend. Uncle Henry embraces dishonest ways to pay off his debts and the story plunges into the murky realm of human trafficking. Even Kieu's filial devotion and sacrifice cannot keep the family together. In the middle of a continually changing set of circumstances, where truth and lies are one and allies become enemies, people begin to disappear. Kim tries to find the secrets that are destroying his movie, and taken his new love from him. Vanessa, in her innocent way, becomes his ally, and they fall headlong into the center of the intrigue. After all seems lost, can strangers be expected to know how to deal with illusion and trickery? Is there any way that Kim and Vanessa can come to terms with the truth, once it is revealed? And most of all how can Kieu, who has fallen deep into the evil world of human trade, will come back and be a part of a world of light and happiness?

Plot Keywords:

Kieu | Sacrifice | Beauty | Vietnam | Saigon

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Dustin Nguyen	...	Kim
Truong Ngoc Anh	...	Kieu
Johnny Nguyen	...	Trong Hai
Marjolaine Bui-The	...	Vanessa
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Edmund Chen	...	Long
Nhu Quynh Nguyen	...	Ba Tu
Chang Tseng	...	Uncle Chen
Daniel You	...	Henry

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Vietnam

Language:

English | Vietnamese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Filming Locations:

Saigon, Vietnam

Company:

Saigon Eclipse Ltd.