HCM CITY —  The first part of a new TV show about Vietnamese fairy tales aired last night on Vĩnh Long Radio & Television’s THVL1 channel. 

The 50-part series, Cậu Bé Nước Nam (Vietnamese Geniuses), features 50 stories of friendship, love and dreams highlighting Vietnamese history, culture and lifestyle.

The show focuses on Tí, a rural boy and his friends who live brave and compassionate lives. 

Directed by Nguyễn Khoa Nam, the film includes beautiful scenes captured in the Mekong River Delta and southern provinces, interspersed with folk songs and traditional customs of the southern people.

Cậu Bé Nước Nam includes more than 30 actors, including dozens of young talents of theatre clubs in Vĩnh Long.

"We decided to invest in shows based on Vietnamese fairy tales to attract children and teenagers. We hope young audiences can see the beautiful mind and brave character of Vietnamese people through our films,” said director Nam.

Last year, the HCM City Television Studio (TFS) produced and aired a 60-part TV show about Vietnamese fairy tales on HTV3 channel. 

The show, Rồng Rắn Lên Mây (The Game of Dragon-Snake), has attracted several thousand viewers in the region since its first episode which aired in November.

Its director, Nguyễn Minh Chung, and his staff spent nearly two years to complete the film, which required a big budget.

Both productions, Cậu Bé Nước Nam and Rồng Rắn Lên Mây, are based on a book collection of Vietnamese fairy tales 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 Fairy Tales), released in 2016, includes five books and lively pictures by young artists of the HCM City-based Trẻ Publishing House.

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

Chi worked for dozens of leading newspapers, magazines, and institutes.

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

He spent nearly 25 years to collect, rewrite and translate 2,000 Vietnamese and foreign fairy tales, and published 26 books and research collections about history, folk literature and culture.

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

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

The series Cậu Bé Nước Nam on Vĩnh Long Radio & Television is being broadcast at 7.50pm every Sunday.

Rồng Rắn Lên Mây is being rebroadcast at 6.30pm every Thursday and Friday on Hồ Chí Minh Television’s HTV3 channel. — VNS