Check out this cool, quick teaser trailer for Saigon Electric, the latest project from Stephane Gauger, award-winning director of Owl and the Sparrow. The feature just started shooting last week, but they've already edited together this nice-looking rough-cut teaser:
I think it's already looking pretty good. If you couldn't tell, it's a hip hop movie set in Saigon. I'm just disappointed they didn't include "Boogaloo" somewhere in the title. Here's the brief official blurb:
Mai, a traditional ribbon dancer from the outskirts of Saigon arrives to the big city and forms an unlikely friendship with Kim, a rebellious street dancer who introduces her to the underground scene of hip hop crews in modern-day Vietnam.And here's the filmmaker's vision statement:
In my wish of telling universal stories with a global outlook and a distinctly Vietnamese point of view, the seeds of “Saigon Electric” were planted. Continuing the themes of my first narrative feature “Owl and the Sparrow”, my hope is to create a visceral landscape of the hustle and bustle in modernized Vietnam. More than half of Vietnam’s current population is under the age of eighteen, born after the American War. As the doors of the West have opened up to the nation and consumerism weaves its way into the value system, youth culture is seeping onto the streets of Vietnam. Hip-hop, graffiti artists, and punk rock are alive. My wish is to give these teenagers a voice and present to an international audience a fresh new look at the dreams and struggles of Asian youth.I'm told that the movie set for release in December in Vietnam, and stateside and beyond early next year. For more information, go to the Saigon Electric website here and the Facebook page here.