Vietnamese-born American filmmaker Timothy Linh Bui flew in from Vietnam to the States for special premiere events in Orange County and San Jose for his vampire thriller Daydreamers, ahead of its wide theatrical release on May 9. Regularly traveling between Saigon and Los Angeles, Bui leverages his time in California to recharge and find inspiration, which he then brings back to Vietnam for his filmmaking. Asia Blooming sat down with director Bui to discuss his process for creating Daydreamers, working with the cast, and exploring storytelling with vampires in Vietnamese cinema.
Everything for Daydreamers began in 2013, at least that’s when pieces of inspiration started coming to Bui. One day in Saigon, he called a motorcycle taxi to see the city. As he was heading over the bridge to District 4, he asked to make a stop to take some photos of the sun setting over the bridge and river. “Later that evening when I reviewed my photos, I noticed that there was a community of people living on boats by the river bank,” he began. “When the sun set, the boats kind of looked like coffins. I started wondering about these people who live on the fringe of society.”
Imagining a story around a hidden community, family, and identity, Bui, as an American, naturally thought about vampires. However, the concept of vampires is not all that common in Vietnam. “It’s a huge risk [to tell a story about vampires in Vietnam] because no one’s done it before, and it’s not part of the cultural zeitgeist,” he shared. “It wasn’t easy to get the film off the ground, but everyone who was with me was willing to take the risk to tell a story about two brothers and what happens when the vampire curse divides the family.”
On introducing a vampire story to a new audience in Vietnam, Bui decided the best way was to go with the classic representation of a vampire. These creatures of the night also happened to be a huge part of his childhood. “I remember as a child watching Prince of Darkness and being scared out of my mind,” he said. “My idea of a vampire is the old school one with the cape, long fangs, and sleeping in a coffin.” He drew inspiration from numerous vampire films including, Dracula, A Girl Who Walks Home Alone at Night, and Lost Boys.
Casting wasn’t easy for a Vietnamese vampire film either. Bui spent between three and four months searching for his ensemble, and he was looking at everyone from amateurs to pop stars and established actors. For Bui, he felt like the whole film was dependent on casting the right person for Marco, the older brother who does not want to deny his vampire nature. “I had the hardest time finding Marco. Because Marco had to fit a certain bill,” he started. “He had to be extremely good looking, he had to be mysterious, he had to be powerful yet vulnerable. He had to be all of these different elements that we come to know what elite vampires should be like.” By chance, he came across Thuan Nguyen at a press conference. Bui was immediately struck by how the actor carried himself, and he knew he found Marco. Opposite Marco was Trieu, the alluring vampire queen and Marco’s lover, played by pop star and actress Chi Pu. “To get Chi Pu in the film, she wanted to also have a say in who played Marco,” he revealed. “I was happy to hear that because she also understood how important his role is. Before we even did camera tests, the moment they met in the lobby, their chemistry was intense. I knew they were it.”
From there, he cast Tran Ngoc Vang as Nhat, the younger brother who strives to fight against his vampire instincts to live in harmony with humans, and Trinh Thao as Ha, the teenage human girl who finds herself caught up in the world of vampires when she learns of Nhat’s vampire identity. To get the vampire brothers acclimated to their roles, Bui sent them out to live in a boat community, 40 minutes from Saigon, for three days. “I told them, ‘You go out there and feel what it’s like to live like a boat person,’” he started. “On the last day, I came out to visit them, and I saw they were covered up from head to toe in a hoodie and a mask, even though it was hot out. They were sitting on the boat fishing like that, and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s probably what a vampire would look like hanging out here,’” he said with a chuckle. Living out on the boat together doubled as an opportunity for the actors to get acquainted and develop their complicated dynamic, two brothers with opposing ideas on the vampire’s place in the modern world.
In a vampire film with two clashing factions, there’s got to be a little bit of action. While Bui was tight on budget and time, he got creative with the tools around him. “I wanted to show Marco’s extraordinary power and speed. We ended up using this machine called motion control, and at the time in Vietnam, no one’s ever used it in a feature film. It’s commonly used in commercials,” he explained. “Motion control repeats every action exactly the same. Once it’s programmed, it’ll track the actor’s every move. The visual effects house can play with different elements to change the visual effects like speeding up or slowing down movement and adding trails.” This enabled Bui to create some stylized fight scenes in the film.
At the end of the day, Bui hopes that his vampire thriller introduces new viewers to Vietnamese cinema. “Not a lot of people outside of Vietnam watch Vietnamese films. In the US, Vietnamese films mainly play for the Vietnamese community,” he shared. “I hope this movie has a chance to cross over with the community who enjoy vampire films, show Vietnamese faces in film, and bring Vietnamese cinema to a global market.”
