Labour of Love: The Making of Pearls of the Far East

To coincide with Pearls of the Far East screening at the Los Angeles Women's International Film Festival, Trevor Hogg chats with filmmaker Cuong Ngo, his co-producing partners Igor Szczurko and Tom Yarith Ker, cinematographer Mikhail Petrenko, and music composers Alex Pauk and Alexina Louie...

Cuong Ngo

Transitioning from short films and documentaries to a feature length movie was not difficult for Cuong Ngo who served as a producer, director and editor while making Pearls of the Far East (2011). “Since it’s my debut film, one of the most difficult things is financing,” states the native of Saigon, Vietnam.  “It was so difficult to raise the funds for the project. I was so lucky to have my partners Igor Szczurko, Tom Yarith Ker and Matt Guerin on my side. They keep important roles in our project. It’s them who helped me to raise enough funds for the project.”  The worldwide response to a previous project served as a creative inspiration.  “At first, we planned to make another short film only after our success of a short film The Golden Pin [2009] that toured more than 40 International film Festivals and sold to HBO. During the time we attended the film festivals, so many international audiences were interested in Vietnamese culture and stories, I told my Producers [Igor, Tom and Matt], ‘Why don’t we make a collection of short stories about Vietnamese women?’ My Producers were so interested in the project, so the film was born.”  The idea evolved into an anthology based on a series of short stories and a novel, Between Two Mountains of Love, The Package of Cam le Tobacco, Blood Moon, Beauty, The Diary of an Abandoned Woman, Love is Out of Mind, and Beyond the Truth by Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc who also wrote the screenplay and stars in Pearls of the Far East.  “I worked with Ngoc when I was in theatre school in Vietnam; she got married and moved to live in North Dakota. I moved to Toronto for a film program at York University. Ngoc and I didn’t see each other for such a long time, but in 2005, I met Ngoc again in Los Angeles for a film festival. I told her how much I wanted to make a Vietnamese film for international audiences. Ngoc and I share the same passion for film and theatre. We always do it for the labour of love.”

“It’s about the human condition,” explains Cuong Ngo, “the inner lives of the characters, love from different angles, and how Asian culture and philosophies influenced their school of thoughts and lives.”  The first of seven chapters titled Childhood revolves around two children Lan (Huy Hoang) and Tho (Phuong Quynh) who explore the wonders of nature together only to have their friendship broken when the latter is taken back to Saigon for schooling by her parents.  The Message focuses on Thiet (Hong Anh) who is asked by a friend to deliver a parcel and to tell a mother (Diem My) that her son (Huy Khanh) has died; the situation becomes complicated when she is mistaken as his future bride.  Blood Moon takes place in desert coastal setting where an orphaned sister (Ngo Thanh Van) and brother (Kris Duangphung) must survive from the natural elements as well as resist a much more powerful force.  The Boat takes on a mysterious quality as Tan (Richie Kul) discovers the woman of his dreams (Truong Ngoc Anh) only to find himself wondering if she is a figment of his imagination.  Awakening is narrated by Mi (Minh Ngoc Nguyen), a spinster seamstress who has to confront her disappointment of never getting married.  The Gift chronicles the chance encounter at a train station between a neglected wife (Nhu Quynh) and a photographer (Thai-Hoa Le); while the concluding chapter Time centres upon an aging actress (Kieu Chinh) who is surrounded by photographs of her past glories and longs to star on the stage once again.  “I always imagine the characters and how they may look,” remarks Ngo.  “I did the casting and chose the actors that fit the roles the most. Even though most of the actors in my film are celebrities in Vietnam but it’s true that the actors fill the parts.”


“When I worked on the script in Toronto,” says Cuong Ngo.  “I relied heavily on my imagination and visual preparation, research and I edited it in my head. But, when we went on location scouts in Vietnam, things changed for me 360 degrees because the location inspired me more and when you worked with the actors on the locations, it even inspired me more. I always go on-set with a shot list but then I shot it in different ways.”  Research for the project involved reading books and historical magazines about the history and culture of Vietnam.  “I talked with my mom and also with my writer Minh Ngoc and my actors Kieu Chinh [Hamburger Hill] and Nhu Quynh [Vertical Ray of the Sun]. They have huge knowledge of Vietnam culture and history. They are women as well, so I can ask them about women’s point of view about life and psychology.”  The landscape features prominently in the picture.  “Vietnam has beautiful scenics that not so many filmmakers exploited before.  I thought, ‘I should make a film to introduce Vietnam to world audiences.’”  Dialogue is used sparingly throughout the romantic drama.  “I’d like to make something more universal that anyone around the world can relate to the stories and characters. I think using dialogue to tell a story is the easiest way. How audience connect the dots via visual cues interest me more in terms of film storytelling.”   The original vision for the film evolved.  “Pearls of the Far East is like a visual meditative trip, it takes you to one place and then pull you out and drive you to another place. Its slow rhythm and pacing allow you to take part in the stories and explore the inner worlds of the characters. The final cinematic version travelled so far away from the original vision of the stories. It’s the whole new world!”

Igor Szczurko

“I met Cuong about five years ago during the shooting of a York University film that his Professor was directing,” states Igor Szczurko who multi-tasked like his colleague by being a producer/editor/cameraman.  “Cuong was his personal assistant and I was a Production Assistant helping with lighting. We shared our goals of creating our own films and decided to collaborate on one together.  We co-wrote The Hitchhiker Project [2009]; Cuong directed and I produced it.  We had a great time working together and decided to collaborate on more projects. During this time Cuong was already talking about shooting a film in Vietnam based on his Professor’s Minh Ngoc’s writing and I was very interested.”  Szczurko read the scripts and saw the cast photographs.  “Cuong and I have worked so many times together that I have a sense of his style and know what he likes and doesn’t. Also when we scouted location with our creative team Producer/Production Designer Tom Yarith Ker and Cinematographer Mikhail Petrenko, Cuong would discuss his vision.”  Pearls of the Far East was not like previous cinematic efforts.  “This collaboration with Cuong was quite different from the others because it was seven chapters of one film and each chapter was shot in a different area. The first film Time we shot in Toronto, Canada which went well as we worked with a crew that we are comfortable with in our own city. When we wrapped Time I packed my bags and a week later flew to Vietnam, which was going to be my first trip to Asia, I did not know what to expect when shooting our next chapters. But once we landed Cuong worked on the scripts, Tom created the production design and I got to work breaking down the script and planning out our productions. Because we were all away from home, this was our first feature film and most of the actors are ‘Stars’ in Vietnam we were all quite nervous in the beginning and worked hard to get everything perfect. This project was also different from our previous ones because the budget for a feature film is quite large and we were raising money for the film between each shoot.”


“The experience of a producer influenced me as an editor because I know exactly how much it cost for everything in the film,” notes Igor Szczurko.  “A lot of the time an editor cuts out scenes and moments, whittling the film down the bare essentials of the story and performances. But it’s much harder cutting out a scene when you know that it cost a lot of money, took fourteen hours to shoot and everyone suffered for it and no one will ever get to see it.  Editing helps me as a Producer because it gives me a strong sense of what is essential to shoot, what coverage do we need and the timing of a scene. Knowing these things helps me create the budget and schedule because I can shift resources from a less essential scene to an important one in the film.”  A third editor Patricia Philipoloulos was involved with project. “We edited up to the fine cut point at which moment Cuong took over the last stage and with everyone’s input edited till we had a Picture Lock Edit that everyone was proud of.”  Szczurko remarks, “We added the Temp music at an early in the stage of editing.  It was great collaborating with Cuong because he chose about ten songs for each film that brought the emotion out of a scene; we placed the tracks and saw what worked and what didn’t.”  Monetary issues were a major concern.  “The biggest challenge was raising the financing; Cuong, Tom and I created a very solid business plan and budget. Armed with these and lots of passion we moved ahead and pitched the film to anyone we thought would be interested. Over the years we heard many many ‘No’s’ but the occasional ‘Yes’ pushed us forward.”  A particular cinematic moment stands out.  “I enjoy the dream sequence in Blood Moon.  Cuong and the composers did an amazing job of bringing out the emotional turmoil that the character was feeling.”

Tom Yarith Ker

“Cuong and I, we knew each other through friends,” states Tom Yarith Ker who produced as well was responsible for the production design for the cinematic adaptation.  “We had done two short films together in the past before arriving at an idea to start working on Pearls of the Far East. The story was introduced by Cuong one night at a pub; he narrated the story of the seven lovely women.  I fell in love with all those women in the story, and said, ‘Their voices have to be heard on the cinema screen.’ The rest is the history.”  Communicating with the director was not a problem.  “Working with Cuong during the making of Pearls of the Far East was inspiring, fun, and exuberating; our wavelength in understanding the story, the characters, and the dramas were the same. Thus, it is easy to design the spaces for the characters to breath to suit to their emotional landscapes. As you may see in the film, vast infinity of landscape such as mountain and dessert were selected to be the backdrop to release the emotion of the characters. Each chapter has its own colour tones from green to brown [circle of life]. These were very excellent coordination between Cuong Ngo and me as well with our costume designer and art directors in Vietnam.”  The distinctiveness of the individual stories stemmed from the protagonists within each of them.   “We focused on the emotion of each the seven characters. All embrace love, which is invisible thread that tied all the chapters together. Each chapters represents different level of loves of these seven characters: childhood love, fantasy love, forbidden love, and self-love. The colour of the design is unique as each one is in different colour. For example, in Childhood chapter, you will see that every touch from the costumes to décors is dominated in saturation of green colour, and natural tone. The composition itself stands for a new bud of green leave. Then, you will see in The Boat, where passion is heightened, the composition encompasses saturation of red and black, and so on. The colour is flown with the emotions of the characters.”


“My biggest challenge was doing my art work in collaboration with Vietnamese team,” remarks Tom Yarith Ker who is originally from Cambodia before settling in Canada.  “I don't speak the Vietnamese language; however, I started picking it up fast while working. Communication is the biggest challenge to interpret my thought and the concept. I did have English-Vietnamese interpreter to help me out.  Another challenge was preparing all of the concepts and getting everything ready to shoot at different provinces/locations, where we are running tight to our shooting schedule. It was all about planning ahead, and being flexible at the same time.”  Cinematic research was required in developing the look of the picture.  “I watched lot of films to understand how the light design impacts the use of colour in each drama and the design feeling. But the most visual research is when we decided on the location of where to shoot each of the chapters. Then the cultural living spaces were apart of my inspiration and emotion: the texture and its interior décor   I did lot of research on Vietnam provinces landscape, and its cultures and foods that different from one to another as you move from North of Vietnam to South of Vietnam.”  Sets needed to be built.  “In one of our chapters, Blood Moon, we had to build the hut by the ocean and all the décors and props pieces for the characters. It was basically transporting all of the items to an isolated place nearby the ocean. It was amazing to see it became alive; that is definitely harder then dressing the real locations since we have to recreate and bring all the props.”  Ker states, “I am proud of the design work in Blood Moon, from costume design to set design. It is so captivating to be by the ocean with the wave and a little balcony living isolating from the others. It was a challenging one, but the most rewarding one.”

Mikhail Petrenko

“Cuong and I collaborated on most of the projects since the day we met at York University and with every project it was just getting better,” states Mikhail Petrenko who is a Toronto based cinematographer.   “Right after we graduated Cuong told me he had an idea to make feature film that same year and asked me if I would be willing to collaborate. I said, ‘Yes’, but I felt the idea was too ambitious, since it’s nearly impossible to get feature film made right after school. Who would finance that? But, now, looking back I think Cuong, Igor and Tom made a miracle to produce a film of that scale and resonance.” The director posed a question to his colleague. “He asked, ‘Can you make it look Classical and Timeless?’”  The visuals had to be distinct and unified.  “It was one of the most challenging parts – creating a unique style for each story while keeping them connected. I had several ideas but none of them seemed to be working well at that time.  After an extensive pre-production and several conversations with Cuong, I realized that the desired effect will come from having every story taking place in different location, with a different cast and a different meaning.  I needed to adjust to that without imposing different visual approaches.”


“The biggest challenge was shooting in extreme hot weather conditions,” states Mikhail Petrenko.  “We tried to have fans running, and enormous amounts of cold water and cafe-sei-da [iced coffee in Vietnamese].”  The interior and exterior shots each had their advantages and disadvantages.  “Most of the interiors required elaborate lighting set up and it was not always easy considering that our biggest light was 2.5K HMI. On the other side our exteriors ranged from very cold and windy top of the mountains in Sapa, where we could not set up any lighting due to the extreme wind power, to burning hot sand dunes where we had to carry all our equipment by hands and had no shelter from the sun.”  The lack of dialogue did not add any additional pressure in capturing the images.  “The minimal dialogue did not make my job harder; in fact I believe that absence of dialogue is often more powerful in storytelling.”  Petrenko remarks, “Great cinematography is unnoticeable. It should not stand out [be better or worse] from the film over all.”

Alex Pauk

“Cuong had a particular idea about the sound he wanted,” recalls Alex Pauk, a conductor/composer who collaborates with composer Alexina Louie.  “It was only through speaking to his friend that he knew of Alexina’s music and went to the Canadian Music Centre where there is an archive of Canadian composers.  Cuong listened to her music first and immediately felt a resonance with it and got in touch with Alexina.”  Alexina Louie notes, “Which is a bit unusual because the archive music that was streaming is concert music and Cuong didn’t even realize that I write film music.”  Louie would only accept the project if Pauk was also involved and the filmmaker agreed to hire the both of them to compose the musical score.  “We were asked to write with a different intent for each short film,” states Pauk, “but had to create something that brought the whole thing together into a larger scope.”  The minimal dialogue in the 103 minute long production had a major impact.  “In this film we wrote about 70 minutes of music which is almost the most music we have written for a single film,” reveals Louie.  It was very intense.  We have a home studio here and get up early in the morning and start writing cues, start writing music cues.  We would stop at about three o'clock in the morning, get a few hours of sleep and then get started again.  This went on day after day because it was a lot of orchestral music.  Alex and I write every film cue together.  We discuss it musically.  We try things out together.”  Once satisfied with the end results the music was recorded by the Esprit Orchestra which was founded by Pauk in 1983.


“Cuong did not want it to become an ethnic film score,” states Alex Pauk.  “The main consideration here was to make it speak to people all around the world in a language which is more common.”  The director was not seeking to place the musical score strictly in the background. “The main thing was that the music was a strong element all the way through.  In many cases what you try to do with a film score is to support action or the mood or atmosphere but not necessarily make the audience aware that the music is even there.  Whereas in this case Cuong was not afraid to tell us, ‘Put the music right up front so that people are aware that they are being carried along by the music as well as by the images and the actions of the characters.’  It’s not usual for you to get a request to do that.”  The musical instruments were carefully chosen.  “There are certain associations with orchestral sound.  Childhood innocence for example is represented by flute playing.”  Full advantage was taken of the Esprit Orchestra which was able to offer a wide sonic pallet from rich resonance of string sections to virtuosic solo instruments.  “Big broad dramatic strokes in some of the films later on are represented by the adding of powerful percussion forces underneath the orchestra.”  Pauk remarks, “The film had to have a sense of unity in terms of the music but at the same time each film had to have its own themes, and those themes have to be distinct.”

Alexina Louie

“If it is not clear to you our resource person is always the director and there were a couple of moments that we weren’t quite sure how Cuong wanted us to go in the film,” states Alexina Louie when discussing the various themes in Pearls of the Far East.  “For example, in the opening sequence of Blood Moon there are some shots in there which are incredibly beautiful. There were broad scenes which called for a certain kind of music.  Eventually, Cuong told us that he wanted a feeling of forbidden love right at the beginning so that was something we had to work on because we didn’t realize that he wanted that musical clue right at the top.”  Pauk recalls working on the fourth chapter.  “There is a film called The Boat and it is the most mysterious story of them all.  Some ghostly aspects to it and almost intangible elements, and to create the air of mystery was an interesting thing to try to achieve and it works.”  Louie observes, “We were given the freedom to write these longer cues in which we had to capture these rather complex interior emotions of these characters.”  Pauk notes, “What’s interesting is that the visuals are matched with a sumptuous musical score.  That’s what we aimed to achieve because when we first saw the film the film we thought, ‘Wow.  It’s such visual beauty and it doesn’t stop.  The settings and people are beautiful and that was always on our minds.  We watched the film repeatedly to figure out what the scenes were going to be.  It was always easy to look at this film.  It was always sumptuous visuals and that stayed in our minds when we were writing all of the music.”


“Directing and editing are always linked,” believes Cuong Ngo.  “They are all about storytelling. To me, great directing is how you orchestrate the whole team so everyone can breathe life into the story. Great editing is how to cook a great meal with all the given spices and groceries.”  Cinematographer Mikhail Petrenko enjoyed the collaborative creative experience which saw him, and Alex Pauk and Alexina Louie win Slate Awards at the 2012 California Independent Film Festival.  “I am proud of what we have accomplished as a team.  I am proud of our film.”  The director of Pearls of the Far East states, “Art-house films have their own niche and audience.  It was very difficult fund-raising.  However, we were so lucky to have friends who truly love us unconditionally and extend their help financially.”  Producer/editor/cameraman Igor Szczurko advises, “For anyone aspiring to create something that at time seems too hard or too large to be possible, no matter what happens believe in yourself and work towards your goals. It might take one year or it might take five but if you keep moving forward it will happen. This advice worked for us.”  As for how audience members should approach viewing his feature debut, Ngo remarks, “In order to enjoy this film you need to have a Zen mind, set yourself free, and don’t expect anything. Just imagine it’s like a train that takes you to one city to another province and to another foreign land.”


Many thanks to Cuong Ngo, Igor Szczurko, Tom Yarith Ker, Mikhail Petrenko, Alex Pauk and Alexina Louie for taking the time to be interviewed.

Make sure to visit the official Facebook page for Pearls of the Far East.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.