HCM CITY —  The first part of a new TV show about Vietnamese fairytales was released last night on Hồ Chí Minh Television’s HTV3 channel. 

The 60-part series, Rồng Rắn Lên Mây (The Game of Dragon-Snake), features 30 stories of friendship, love and dreams featuring Vietnamese history, culture and lifestyle.

The show focuses on young characters whose lives are brave and compassionate. 

Directed by Nguyễn Minh Chung, the film includes beautiful scenes captured in the Cửu Long (Mekong) River Delta and southern provinces.

The director and his staff depict scenes of rivers and forests in Sa Đéc and Gò Công, both famous southern destinations, with folk songs and traditional customs of the south.

Rồng Rắn Lên Mây attracted more than 50 skilled actors, including dozens of young talents from theatres and cinema clubs in HCM City, according to the film’s producer HCM City Television Studio (TFS).  

"We spent nearly two years and a big sum to complete the film,” said the film’s director Chung, who has more than 20 years experience in the film industry. 

"I hope young audiences can see the beautiful mind and brave character of Vietnamese people through my film.”

Rồng Rắn Lên Mây is based on Vietnamese fairytales collected and rewritten by late professor Nguyễn Đổng Chi, one of the country’s most popular cultural researchers.

The collection, Kho Tàng Truyện Cổ Tích Việt Nam (The Treasure of Vietnamese Fairytales), released in 2016, includes five books and lively pictures by young artists from Trẻ Publishing House.

The books feature 150 stories from ethnic minority groups and others. More than 105,000 copies of each book have been printed.  

Chi, who was born in a traditional family in 1915 in Hà Tĩnh, worked for dozens of newspapers, magazines, and institutes.

From 1977 to 1981, he was the director of the Institute of Hán Nôm (classical Vietnamese script) Study in Hà Nội.

He published 26 books and research collections in history, folk literature and culture.

His works on folk literature and culture are useful for both Vietnamese and foreign writers, lecturers and students from universities and institutes.   

He spent nearly 25 years to collect, rewrite and translate 2,000 Vietnamese and foreign fairytales .

For his contributions, he received the Hồ Chí Minh Prize for literature from the Government in 2006.

The series Rồng Rắn Lên Mây will be broadcast at 6:30pm every Thursday and Friday.— VNS