The movie "Paths near and far" is airing around the story of the career and life of a group of young people.
In it, Cu Thi Tra plays Dong - the only girl in the group. Dong is determined to pursue his passion of becoming a fencing athlete.
The work was initially of interest because fencing is not very popular in Vietnam and is rarely exploited in movies.
Cu Thi Tra is known for her roles as a "little girl", a brazen ex-lover through the films "Journal of Justice", "Don't Make Mom Angry", "Us 8 Years Later", "See You Today". sunny"...
With "Paths near and far", Cu Thi Tra has her first challenging leading role. No longer wearing heavy makeup and creating a personality like her previous roles, Cu Thi Tra's role as Dong often has a bare face and is sweating profusely on the practice field.
To recreate realistic fencing scenes, Cu Thi Tra spent several months learning fencing, practicing fencing postures, and chatting with fencers to better understand this subject.
Thanks to that, the sword fighting scenes in the movie are all performed by actors, without using stunt doubles.
In the movie, Dong also has a love affair with Vinh (Viet Anh) - a polite and romantic tycoon. Viet Anh once affirmed that Cu Thi Tra would do well because his female co-star had never "spoiled".
However, "Paths near and far" failed to create heat and was inferior when it aired to compete with "Venus shoots the heart of Mars", "Cheer up, brothers", "Let's love each other peacefully". ...
On YouTube and VTV Entertainment channels, the movie's views are quite modest, lower than other movies broadcast at the same time.
Cu Thi Tra's performance also caused controversy. Many viewers commented that the young actress could not express the simplicity and youthfulness of the character, her vocabulary was limited, her bare face looked lifeless...
Many people compare Cu Thi's role as a fencer with Kim Tae Ri in "Age 25, Age 21".
In 2022, Kim Tae Ri, then in her 30s, made a splash when portraying the role of Hee Do - an 18-year-old female student with a strong and humorous personality.
Hee Do is resilient and does not give up his passion easily. She brings bright, positive energy, receiving sympathy from many young audiences.
To prepare for the role, Kim Tae Ri spent 6 months learning fencing. An emotional transformation helped Kim Tae Hee win the award for Outstanding Female Lead in Television at the 2022 Baeksang Awards.
Meanwhile, Dong in "Paths near and far" has not made a mark despite his unique status and circumstances when pursuing a subject that is unfamiliar to Vietnamese audiences.
The role is not lively partly because Cu Thi Tra only had a few months of physical training and learning how to play sword fighting. She said she searched all over Hanoi but there was only one facility that taught fencing.
Not to mention, the facilities to compete and practice this subject in Vietnam are still limited. The film focuses on the "drama" surrounding the athletes rather than the hard training process.
Cu Thi Tra is paired with Viet Anh. She is 18 years younger than her senior but still plays the role of a couple with passionate scenes.
Compared to the young love between Hee Do and Baek Yi Jin (played by Nam Joo Hyuk), Dong and Vinh received mixed reactions because of the age gap and the boring motif of a rich man loving a young girl.
