B: I think this weather is much better than it will be next month. From December to February, it will be colder with more rainy days. Gray will color the skies, streets, leafless trees, and houses. It’s interesting to hear about weather changes in other parts of the world right now. Satoshi Nishioto in Fuchu city, Tokyo, says cool days have come to Tokyo because it’s already the middle of autumn. Pak Ning Tjang told us that in North Sumatra, Indonesia, it’s always raining and cloudy.

A: Stephen Hogan is enjoying the beautiful spring weather taking over the state of New South Wales, Australia. He wrote: “We received a good rain on Monday. The trees, grass, and gardens are bursting back into life with the spring season and pink and white blossoms adorn many trees. August and September bring the beautiful yellow wattle trees into flower, Australia’s floral emblem.”

The scene of Hoan Kien lake in the center of Hanoi in winter

B: No matter whether it’s spring, summer, autumn, or winter, we are going to celebrate another Christmas next month. The joy of Christmas will surely drive away the cold and brighten the atmosphere with colored lights, pine trees, red poinsettias, and music. This week we got some early Christmas and New Year greetings from listeners. Thank you very much for your hearty wishes. We’ll surely continue to deliver to our devoted listeners interesting programs about Vietnam.

A: Gerry Neumann of England reported on our transmission quality. “Now that the change of frequency to Europe has been in place for 3 weeks, it’s time for me to send another reception report. Reception at 18 UTC on 5955 khz has SINPO of all 4s most of the time, although there was co-channel interference from Radio Romania on November 9, which has not recurred since.”

B: Thank you for your detailed remarks. We’re very glad to know that the winter transmission is good in Fareham, Hampshire. Gerry continued: “It’s difficult for me to single out VOV programmes for special mention, as I continue to enjoy the whole broadcast on a regular basis. However, I found the ‘Saturday Report’ on 15th November of particular interest as it was about the vegetarian food and restaurants of Hue, which I’ve found excellent during my visits to that city.  The Sunday Show on 16th November, described the Mong traditional house amongst others at the Museum of Ethnology’s outdoor display in Hanoi, and the different styles of architecture to be found around Hanoi, and ended with details of the ‘green tourism’ being developed by electric tourist buses, that show visitors the Old Quarter, villages, pagodas and temples and areas along the Red river.”

Vegetarian spring rolls and porridge

A: S.B Sharma of India also liked the Saturday feature about vegetarianism. He wrote: “It was not surprising to me to hear there are vegetarians in Vietnam also. Followers of Buddha around the world are still trying to be vegetarian. It’s the same for Vietnamese Buddhist to eat vegetarian. Your Saturday report was fantastic and I liked it.” Sharma noted that reception of the program from 1600 UTC to 1630 UTC on 7220KHZ was good as usual.

B: Thank you all for your feedback. We’ll send QSL cards to confirm your reports right away. In answer to a question from Mr. Sharma about Vietnam’s film making industry, Vietnam’s film industry is not very developed and we don’t have a film city. In some of our previous programs, we talked about the history of Vietnam’s, state and private film companies. In this program, we’ll talk about current trends in Vietnamese films and overseas Vietnamese film directors who have brought a western influences to their productions.

A: Some famous overseas Vietnamese directors are Victor Vu, Charles Nguyen, Tran Anh Hung, and Luu Huynh. They breathed new life into the Vietnamese film industry. Vietnamese-American director Victor Vu returned to Vietnam in 2009 and since then has produced 7 films, which have done very well at the box offices.

Director Tran Anh Hung and his latest movie from the novel Norwegian Wood

B: Vietnamese-French director Tran Anh Hung became famous with The Scent of Green Papaya in 1993. He won the Gold Camera prize at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, a Cesar Award for best debut at the French annual film award ceremony, and was nominated for the 1993 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Another film called Cyclo was awarded the pretigious prize Lion Golden at the Venice Film Festival 1995. Most recently he has transcribed the novel Norwegian Wood by Japanese writer Murakami into a movie.

A: Director Charlie Nguyen has been called the “King of the box office” with blockbusters every year.

Charles Nguyen is involved in martial arts direction for Hinese film Hidden dragon, crouching tiger 2

He is one of the best directors of action and martial arts movies in Vietnam. Luu Huynh has not directed many films but his products are distinguished. His most famous film is “The White Silk Dress” which won the Audience Award at South Korea's Busan International Film Festival in 2006. The film “Immortal Legend” won 6 prizes at Vietnam’s Golden Kite Awards in 2009, including the Best Film award. The film “In the name of love” was selected for screening at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2012.

B: That’s a brief introduction to overseas Vietnamese film directors. Now let’s continue reading listeners’ letters. Satoshi Nishioto of Japan wrote that he listened on November 18 to a story about a workshop on East Sea issues and another about wedding rituals of the Bana. “I’m delighted to listen to your news and study English. There is a different atmosphere in the Japanese and English broadcasts. VOV delights me every day.” Masaru Sekimoto of Japan also expressed his pleasure in listening to VOV’s English program. He is fond of features about the unique cultures of Vietnam’s ethnic groups and about music. He said reception was good on November 4 on the frequency of 12020 khz.
A: Now our time is up. There are many letters we were unable to read on the air due to our limited time. But we will definitely send out QSL cards to verify all your reports. If you want to hear this program again, please go to our website at www.vovworld.vn. Goodbye. We’ll see you next Wednesday.