The biggest turning point came at the end of 2025 when Lien Binh Phat became the first Vietnamese actor to win the "Best Leading Actor" award at the Golden Bell Awards (Kim Chung), thanks to her role in the TV series "Doctor Stranger".
This achievement has personal significance as well as marking the clearer presence of Vietnamese actors in major television awards in Asia.
In "Doctor Abroad", Lien Binh Phat plays Pham Van Ninh - a Vietnamese doctor working illegally in Taiwan (China). The character faces persistent conflicts between professional ethics and survival pressure in a foreign land. In the process, Ninh forms a relationship with neurologist Trinh Uyen Binh, thereby opening up psychological developments surrounding responsibility, choice and personal limits.
Previously, in the movie "Come and Go" (2021), Lien Binh Phat also took on the image of a Vietnamese worker abroad. The character Nam went to Japan as a trainee, working in harsh conditions and falling into a deadlock when he could not return home to take care of his sick mother.
The two roles belong to two different settings but both reflect the fate of Vietnamese expatriates, with a focus on loneliness, inner struggles and real-life pressure.
A noteworthy point is that Lien Binh Phat's international roles are all built around characters with complex inner lives, few dialogues but requiring restrained and accurate acting ability. This partly shows the trust of foreign directors in the actor's acting ability.
To meet the role requirements, Lien Binh Phat invested significantly in the preparation stage. With "Come and Go", he learned Japanese and got acquainted with the working process of the Japanese crew. In "Doctor Abroad", the actor continued to improve his Chinese, learn medical knowledge and study the life of the immigrant labor community in Taiwan (China).
During the filming process, I focused all my efforts throughout 4 months in Taiwan (China) to act in the film with the mindset of striving and completing the role as best as possible," Lien Binh Phat said.
The seriousness in artistic activities helps Lien Binh Phat maintain her own mark, even when standing next to big names like Truong Quan Ninh. The success of "Doctor Stranger" with a score of 8.2 on Douban has shown that the international direction of the male actor is being positively received.
