Filling the 581-seat theatre to the brim and requiring an extra dozen chairs, the audience at Saigon Performing Arts Center in Fountain Valley on Thursday gave the film Fool for Love (in Vietnamese: “Để Mai Tính”) a huge success of a U.S. premiere, providing its distributors with hope that the theatrical release this weekend will also be successful.

The romantic comedy, written and starring Dustin Nguyen (of 21 Jump Street fame) opens across the country today September 10.

Distributed in the U.S. by Wave Releasing, Fool For Love is directed by Charlie Nguyen, the director of The Rebel (Dòng Máu Anh Hùng), also starring Dustin Nguyen.

At the premiere: The film's star Kathy Uyen, and rap artist Antoneus Maximus who sang the film's theme song "Em so đẹp"

When The Rebel opened in Vietnam in 2007, it broke the country’s box office record. When Fool for Love came out earlier this year, it broke Vietnam’s box office record of its time too.

Fool for Love was shot in Saigon, Nha Trang and Ha Noi. The film follows the travails of earnest ballroom clerk Dung (Dustin Nguyen) as he falls in love and quits his job at a five-star hotel to pursue the affections of a beautiful lounge singer, Mai (Kathy Uyen). In his quest to track down the girl at a beach resort, comedy ensues as the penniless clerk is forced to shack up with a very rich businessman (Thai Hoa) looking for male companionship.

The film’s media kit promises that it will “leave() you laughing out loud while tugging your heart strings in one man’s pursuit of true love.”

Kathy Uyen, a Vietnamese-American from OC, previously starred in a string of Victor Vu-helmed movies, one of which (Passport to Love – Chuyện Tình Xa Xứ) won her the equivalent of a Vietnamese Oscar.

Writer and star Dustin Nguyen

Wave Releasing is a distribution company dedicated to promoting works by Vietnamese-American filmmakers. Among its founders is Timothy Linh Bui, the director of the refugee film Green Dragon, and also of a cool little human-rights-for-Myanmar PSA spot starring Tila Tequila.

Fool for Love is shown at these theaters starting September 10:

Orange County (California): Edwards Westminster 10; Regal Garden Grove 16.
Dallas (Texas- Garland) : AMC Firewheel 18.
Dallas (Texas-Grand Prairie): Cinemark Movies 16.
Houston (Texas): AMC Loews Fountains 18.
San Jose (California): Camera 12 Downtown.
Atlanta (Georgia): Regal Hollywood 24 @ 1-85.
Virginia, Washington DC: Regal Ballston Commons in Falls Church.

The film can be rented at Blockbuster or online on Netflix, and other places where movies are rented.

Timothy is, of course, the older of the Bui brothers that brought us Three Seasons and Green Dragon. It was on Green Dragon that Timothy first directed Whitaker and Swayze.

The film’s story, based on the oft-observed presmise that life is full of strange coincidences and serendipitous intersections, is co-written by Timothy and another Viet filmmaker, Stephane Gauger the director of Owl and the Sparrow. (Read more about Owl here and here.)

The four principal characters lead their separate, and desperate, lives — except for one guy, a mortician named after the typewriter keyboard (Qwerty), who’s strange but not desperate. These lives then intersect in the most extraordinary ways. If the Bolsavik were glib, he’d say this film is something like “Boulevard of Broken Dreams meets Crash.”

In Powder Blue, Forest Whitaker (first photo above; The Crying Game; Panic Room; Oscar winner for The Last King of Scotland) plays an ex-priest with a death wish. Unable to commit suicide as against Catholic teaching, he goes around with a loaded gun and a suitcase of cash seeking someone willing to off him.

Ray Liotta (second photo; Goodfellas; Smokin Aces) plays an ex-con, a former hit man just out of a long 25-year sentence. Facing a world totally transformed, he’s seeking redemption with one big good deed.

Jessica Biel (third photo; TV’s 7th Heaven; Blade: Trinity; Stealth) is a single mother with a son in a coma, and she does odd jobs an dancing in a bar to meet the mounting medical bills. Patrick Swayze (right) plays the slick guy in the bar, but he’s not her consolation – that one comes in the form of her pet dog. She becomes truly desperate when the dog went missing.

But the ex-priest does not meet the other two – yet. The one he meets is a young eccentric mortician who’s named after the typing keyboard – Qwerty Doolittle, played by Eddie Redmayne, a star of British television. In danger of losing his business, and with the ex-priest’s proposal, Qwerty faces a decision that could change his life.

Other big names appearing in the film include Kris Kristofferson (A Start Is Born; Country Music Hall of Fame) and Lisa Kudrow (TV’s Friends; Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion; The Opposite of Sex).

The Bolsavik previously published Timothy’s casting call here. Don’t say Bolsavik never helps you with women problems.

The series of web commercials was the brainchild of Jack Healy, former executive director of Amnesty International. Its purpose is to raise awareness of the massive and deadly human rights abuses currently happening in Myanmar.

“Myanmar” is the official name of the former Burma, that country where the River Kwai of the bridge fame is located. Because Myanmar is the name given by the right-wing military dictatorship, however, all human rights groups (and the U.S. government) stick to “Burma.”

Want to know more about human rights abuses in Myanmar/Burma? Tila will teach you. Watch the commercial at the end of this posting.

Timothy Linh Bui is best known as the director of Green Dragon, starring Forrest Whitaker and Patrick Swayze, telling the painful story of the birth of the Vietnamese-American community after the Vietnam War ended. He’s also the producer of Three Seasons, the critically acclaimed and multiple-award winning film directed by his brother Tony Bui, starring Harvey Keitel and Zoe Bui.

Born Tila Nguyen, Tequila is probably the most famous Vietnamese TV star in the world. She’s currently hosting the reality dating competition show A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila on MTV, now in its second season. In Shot at Love II, a group of men and women compete for a chance to be Tila’s lover. The first season ended with Tila hooking up with one Bobby Banhart; a few months later, they broke up.

This year, the second season started with 15 straight males and 15 lesbian females. Unlike the first season, in this season the competitors already knew about Tila’s bisexuality as disclosed after the first episode, first season. The first season ended as MTV’s most watched series telecast ever.

Ever wondered “How come there aren’t more films about boat people?” - ”How come there aren’t more films about the Vietnamese community?” - ”How come there aren’t more films about April 30, the fall of Saigon?”  – “How come there aren’t more films about young Vietnamese-Americans?”

There won’t be more films about anything unless Vietnamse-Americans as a community show support for the people who bleed sweat and tears creating such films.

Some of them are coming to UCLA this Sunday for a Cinema Symposium. This is the fourth time this biennial event has been held. This year features some well-known names such as Timothy Linh Bui (Green Dragon) and Ham Tran (Journey from the Fall), as well as some lesser known people such as Elyse Dinh. You may have seen her in Spider-Man 2, standing in the street, singing “Spider-Man, Spider-Man” offkey and screeching a violin.

Cinema Symposium is presented by Vietnamese Language and Culture (VNLC) in cooperation with VAALA (Vietnamese-American Arts & Letters Association), that organization that’s practically the only bridge between young artists and the rest of the Vietnamese-American community. It is a sad state of affairs in Bolsavikland that there isn’t another group doing the same thing. Come on! Somebody start something!

Here’s the press release on Cinema Symposium 4:

Cinema Symposium 4

“Filmmaking: the good, the bad, the Ugly”

Sunday April 13, 2008 at 2:30p.m.

Northwest DE NEVE Auditorium, UCLA (Park in Lot 8 )

www.vnlc.org   www.vaala.org   www.VietFilmFest.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                 

Los Angeles, Calif. – UCLA’s Vietnamese Language and Culture (VNLC) and the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association (VAALA) partner up to present the fourth biennial Cinema Symposium titled “Filmmaking: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly,” featuring nine distinguished guest panelists who have contributed in raising the recent Viet Film Wave.  Cinema Symposium 4 will be held on Sunday, April 13, 2008 at Northwest Auditorium on the UCLA campus.  Admission is free and open to the public.

The distinguished guest panelists include: Timothy Linh Bui (Writer/Director/Producer, “Powder Blue”, “Green Dragon”), Elyse Dinh (Actress, “Green Dragon”, “Running in Tall Grasses”), Abraham Ferrer (Exhibitions Director, Visual Communications), Stephane Gauger (Writer/Director/Producer, “Owl and the Sparrow”), Elisabeth Huynh (Fox Film Acquisitions), David Ngo (Director, “The Queen from Virginia: The Jackie Bong Wright Story”), Ham Tran (Writer/Director/Producer, “Journey from the Fall”), Bao Tranchi (Costume Designer, “Journey from the Fall”, “America’s Next Top Model” Cycle 7, “Charlie’s Angels”), and Christopher Wong (Composer, “Journey from the Fall”, “The Rebel”).

This multi-dimensional panel will offer different angles on both artistic as well as business aspects of filmmaking.  Cinema Symposium 4 sets on the theme “Filmmaking: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” to focus on the conflicts that artists encounter and eventually resolve them creating valuable contents for the cinema industry and Vietnamese American community. Each panelist will share with the audience his/her own challenges as well as achievements through his/her career pathway.  The panel discussion will open up for audience members to dialogue with the panelists.  Clips from some of the newest works will be shown at the event.

Union of Vietnamese Student Associations of Southern California

Just coming in the trough:

Filmmaker Timothy Linh Bui (director, Green Dragon; co-producer, Three Seasons; pictured above with Kathy Nguyen at the LAAPFF, photo by the Bolsavik) announces that he’s directing several spots to be aired on TV and is looking for actors.

The series of spots seeks to raise public awareness about the massive human rights abuses currently happening in Myanmar/Burma, and is headed by Jack Healy, former executive director of Amnesty International.

The spots will feature a number of celebrities. The one Timothy is currently casting for will star the oh-so-HOT-HOT-HOT MySpace online star and MTV host Tila Tequila, born Tequila Nguyen (photo, right).

Below is the text of Timothy’s casting call. Your chance of a lifetime to be on TV with Tila!!

Friends I Need your help:

i will be directing several spots titled : BURMA – IT CAN’T WAIT over the next couple weeks… The project is being headed by Jack Healy, former executive director of Amnesty International.

The mission of what we are doing is to produce a revolutionary human rights media advocacy campaign where, over the course of 30 days, we will release 30 spots online, between April 15 and May 15, 2008.  The spots, using relevant celebrities, will reveal a glimpse into the massive human rights abuses currently occurring in Burma .  They will educate and inspire viewers to learn more about the situation.  They will be a call to action, sparking the growth of the movement to support human rights and democracy in Burma and to free Aung San Suu Kyi. 

We are currently casting males and females age 25 or younger to play high school students in a spot starring Tila Tequila – Hot For Teacher.  Open to all types.  SAG AND NON-UNION welcome… There is some pay…  So, if you’re an actor and this call to action interests you or know of someone that is, please have them send headshot and resume.

Types: Open to all types.

Union: Sag, Aftra and non-union welcome

Date: shoot date approximately March 23rd. One day shoot. – Los Angeles ..

Pay:  Yes

Please do not send headshots to my email address… send to Tilaforburma@gmail.com

thanks.