Anh Hùng Bán Than (The Hero Selling Coal) is a series of audio movies about the 13th-century General Trần Khánh Dư who defeats the Yan-Mongol invaders several times.

HCM CITY — Despite the COVID-19 pandemic causing the suspensions of many art projects, a HCM City-based company has debuted a series of "audio movies" about Vietnamese history.

Đạt Phi Media – a company founded by voiceover artist Đạt Phi, specializing on dubbing, voice-over, and post-production sound – has presented Anh Hùng Bán Than (The Hero Selling Coal),  a series about the 13th-century General Trần Khánh Dư who defeated Yan-Mongol invaders several times.

The series is presented on Đạt Phi's official YouTube channel Hùng Ca Sử Việt (The Heroic Tunes of Vietnamese History).

Every episode presents thousands of drawings and paintings collected from online sources. The scripts are composed by the Đạt Phi team, while the voice-over is read by Đạt Phi himself.

According to the artist, the non-profit project has been funded by his own passion for Vietnamese history.

“Our main purpose for why we created the YouTube channel Hùng Ca Sử Việt is to spread the love for history to every Vietnamese person," said Đạt Phi, who has more than 30 years working in the field.

"With engaging and enticing storytelling, we expect young people to no longer find history boring as in unappealing in textbooks."

The 29-minute debut episode has received much acclaim since its launch two weeks ago.

“Keep going and don’t give up. Please show young Vietnamese people their history in a vivid way like this,” subscriber Hoàn Cảnh Khó Khăn wrote.

Subscriber Trí Cao said: “I feel the movie is very close; I even have the feeling like I’m living in that period of time.”

For Duy Lê, after a long working day his joy is to listen to the warm voice in Anh Hùng Bán Than telling historical tales.

“It’s a peaceful yet relaxing feeling,” he wrote.

Other subscribers wrote that the script was worthy of becoming a screen movie.

Other episodes of Anh Hùng Bán Than have also been warmly greeted by tens of thousands of viewers.

The fourth episode, which is also the last of the series, will be released in the coming days.

Alongside Anh Hùng Bán Than, Đạt Phi Media also has partnered with Đuốc Mồi – a group of young enthusiasts working in community projects, especially in culture, history, and education – to contribute to their ongoing animation project Việt Sử Kiêu Hùng (The Việt Nam’s Glorious History).

Đạt Phi Media has been celebrated, with its channel Hùng Ca Sử Việt granted a Silver Creator Award by YouTube in July.

“Although Hùng Ca Sử Việt is a non-profit project, we’ve earned another ‘profit’ – that is the increasing number of channel subscribers," Đạt Phi said.

"It means the number of people who are interested in history is increasing. That’s our great motivation to keep going with what we have been doing since the establishment of the channel." VNS