Life safers

A scene in the thriller Thiên Thần Hộ Mệnh (The Guardian), a production by Vietnamese-American director Victor Vũ. The film will be distributed in 12 countries, including Australia, Canada, the UK and US, after its premiere in Việt Nam on April 30. — Photo courtesy of the producer

HCM CITY — Thiên Thần Hộ Mệnh (The Guardian), a production by Vietnamese-American director Victor Vũ, will be distributed in cinemas in 12 countries after its premiere in Việt Nam on April 30.

The film’s producer, Tfilm Entertainment, has announced it is working with its foreign partners to release Thiên Thần Hộ Mệnh in Australia, Canada, Hungary, France, Ireland, the UK and US.

The film will also be in cinemas in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and the Czech Republic.

Thiên Thần Hộ Mệnh features three young women who feed and dress life-sized baby dolls as if they are living things.

Its trailer, which features haunting scenes, has attracted more than 103,000 views on YouTube.

Director Vũ combined Vietnamese and Hollywood styles in his film.

“My film reflects the weak points in young people’s psychology,” said Vũ, a graduate of Loyola Marymount University in the US.

Vũ began his career in Việt Nam in 2008 after his first film in the country, Chuyện Tình Xa Xứ (Passport to Love), won the title Favourite Film at the Golden Kite Awards from the Việt Nam Cinematography Association. The romantic comedy was distributed in the US in 2009.

In 2012, his third film, Thiên Mệnh Anh Hùng (Blood Letter), a kung fu production, won the jury prize at the International Film Festival in Hà Nội.

One year later, his Bí Mật Thảm Đỏ (Scandal), a work about the dark side of show business, received the Golden Kite Prize for Best Director.

His two thriller films, Quả Tim Máu (Vengeful Heart) and Người Bất Tử (The Immortal), were blockbusters in 2014 and 2018.

Vũ loves capturing landscapes across Việt Nam in his films.

“I love working in Việt Nam. I have learned a lot about the country’s history, and its traditional culture and lifestyle,” said Vũ.

Vũ’s Mắt Biếc (Dreamy Eyes), released in 2019, was chosen by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to compete in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscar awards ceremony this year.

The film was listed among the industry’s top 10 hits with more than VNĐ127 billion (US$5.5 million) at the Vietnamese box office.

Thiên Thần Hộ Mệnh will be distributed in Việt Nam by Thiên Ngân Galaxy Studio. — VNS

Members of Recycling Knight group using instant noodle bags to make some recycled products. Photo baovanhoa.vn

HÀ NỘI – Recycling has grown ever more popular in Vietnamese society in recent years.

In Hà Nội, many environmental protection models have brought practical results, contributing to spreading green lifestyles.

With a passion for inventing toys from discarded plastic cans and bottles, Lưu Chung Nghĩa, a 30-year-old man in Võng La Commune of Đông Anh District, has a beautiful collection of animals and robots.

His outstanding products include a crocodile made from cardboard and fitted with an engine that can crawl on a flat floor and pigs made from beer cans and shampoo bottle caps.

“I have created about 1,000 products from discarded objects. Most of the things I made were small, funny, and suitable for children,” Ngĩa said.

“Before being assembled into finished products, I had to neatly trim to avoid hurting users,” Nghĩa said.

Nghĩa usually gives the products to relatives, friends and children’s centres.

In addition, he regularly lends his recyclables for displays at environmental exhibitions in Hà Nội.

According to Nghĩa, making a product takes a lot of time and effort, from forming ideas to selecting materials.

“The brainstorming process usually takes the longest time. I have to calculate so that the idea is close to reality, easy to implement and especially beautiful and attractive,” Nghĩa said.

Every day, after working at a private company, he spends time researching, tinkering, and cutting and grafting products in his small room full of waste.

In Hoang Mai District, a group named the ‘Recycling Knights’ was launched in 2018.

The group aims to train environmental “ambassadors” to spread the green lifestyle.

In addition, the group collects and recycles waste and connects with other organisations to find ways to treat waste with the highest efficiency.

Cao Thị Sao Mai, the group’s leader, said: “The group members often collect instant noodle packages, cardboard, beer cans and old clothes for recycling.”

“With the waste, they unleash their creativity to make useful and eye-catching products,” Sao Mai said.

“From discarded objects, through skilled hands and creativity, the young people here turn instant noodle packages to bags, vases, plates, and pillows while the old fabrics and clothes are sewn into pillow bags, purses, and towels,” Sao Mai said.

Sao Mai said after each waste collection drive, the group’s office was like a landfill.

Thanks to the work and creativity of the members, these scraps are usefully “revived”, reducing the burden on the environment.

“We proudly called our office the ‘happy landfill’,” said the group leader.

Having been in waste recycling for nearly 10 years, Nguyễn Diệu Thuý in Ba Đình District said: “Initially, my husband and I found many glass bottles with beautiful colours, then we collected them and cut them into flower vases and then we decorated them more beautifully.”

“Initially, the products were made for use only and presented to friends,” Thuý said.

“But we were surprised that many people were interested in these recycled products so we decided to do more, gradually becoming our main profession,” Thuý said.

They found cutting glass so difficult. To make different kinds of glass products, Thuý had to make her own cutters, but this was not highly effective.

In addition, painting on glass was very difficult and the paint was expensive, meaning their income from recycling was low, she said.

However, the recycling profession has given her a new, green and meaningful life.

“I want to use the recycling work as a message to people, especially youngsters, to pay more attention to environmental issues,” Thuý said.

Representatives of some waste recycling models in Hà Nội said the goal of the models was to spread green lifestyles and protect the living environment for the community.

Therefore, the products were made with minimum profits.

“The revenue from selling our products is invested in environmental protection, helping and creating jobs for children with disabilities and people in difficult circumstances,” Sao Mai said.

The Recycling Knights group has worked with cafes and tourism sites to sell their products.

“All the money is used to raise funds to open a free book library called Việt Nam Reading Spots. The spots are present in all 63 provinces and cities, with the number of participants up to nearly 4,000 people,” said Sao Mai.

Sharing the idea of ​​spreading a green lifestyle,  Nghĩa expressed his wish that in the future, waste collection and recycling will no longer be a single action but replicated throughout the community.– VNS

Ngô Tùng Bích, 80 years old, teaches poor children in the border area of Bình Phước Province to practise writing letters. — Photo sggp.org.vn

BÌNH PHƯỚC — Though he may be 80 years old, Ngô Tùng Bích is far from retired.

The man in Tân Hòa Village, southern Bình Phước Province, teaches poor children in his area for free.

Tân Hòa, Tân Tiến Commune has a border with Cambodia where people from several ethnic groups live.

Their life remains unstable and depends largely on farming.

After seeing children at school age who were still illiterate or had dropped out of school, Bích opened free classes to teach children from grade one to grade five in 2009.

“On the first days when classes had just opened, I taught them in a hut with a roof made from leaves and some old furniture for five to seven children to sit on,” he told Sài Gòn Giải Phóng (Liberated Sài Gòn) newspaper.

Bích had to teach children in five grades at the same time. One group learned maths, one studied writing, another practised reading.

Word of the classes spread in the area and more and more students signed up. During the summer holidays, the class receives up to 30 children.

Bích helps the children review old knowledge and teaches them new things to keep up with the school curriculum.

Bích said he taught children not only maths and literature but also moral lessons to help them become good people.

After learning of Bích’s charity work, many people have donated desks, chairs, books and boards.

Đàm Văn Hàn lives in Tân Hòa Village and his son attends Bích’s class.

“My son’s academic performance was only average because of the family’s economic difficulties and lacking care from parents. Since my son studied with teacher Bích, he has become more diligent, focused on his studies and gradually improved his performance at school,” he said.

Hàn, the father, used to be Bích’s student when Bích opened the first classes ten years ago.

“I want my children and grandchildren in my family to continue studying with teacher Bích. He has taught two generations of my family, but has never taken tuition.”

Bích has even taught disabled children and five years ago, he admitted a 15-year-old boy who had problems with moving his arms and legs.

The boy’s parents trusted Bích to teach him because no school agreed to receive the disabled boy.

“Teaching the disabled boy was such a challenging time because I had to spend hours talking to him, telling him sentences and asking him to repeat to practise speaking. Half a year later, the boy could speak and is now proficient in four basic calculations,” Bích said.

Bích runs the classes for free but his own family is classified as a poor household in the area.

He and his wife live on the financial support of their children who work far from home.

Despite his difficult life, he said: “As long as I am in a good state of health, I will keep teaching. The children’s success is the highest reward for my teaching career.” — VNS

The Yên Dũng Safe Vegetable Cooperative applies high technology in its production. VNA/VNS Photo Minh Quyết

BẮC GIANG — The northern province of Bắc Giang will promote the application of biotechnology and new material technologies to serve socio-economic development, according to the director of the provincial science and technology department Nguyễn Thanh Bình.

Located in the northern key economic zone and adjacent to major centres such as Hà Nội, Hải Phòng City, and Quảng Ninh Province, Bắc Giang boasts favourable conditions for economic development.

A particular focus of biotechnology and new material technologies are the fields of breeding, preserving, and processing agricultural and forestry products, especially key products such as lychee, Yên Thế free-range chicken, Yên Dũng fragrant rice, Lạng Giang mushrooms, Tân Yên peanuts, Hiệp Hoà grapefruit, and Sơn Động honey; the treatment of waste and wastewater in industrial zones and clusters and trade villages; and health and medical surveillance technology.

The province is also stepping up the application of advanced materials and fuel-saving and environmentally-friendly technologies in production and daily life.

It prioritises developing science and technology, especially biotechnology and new material technologies, supporting the establishment of and improvements to the operational efficiency of science and technology enterprises, innovative enterprises, and start-ups in the fields of information technology, biotechnology, and new material technologies.

Meanwhile, the provincial centre for science and technology application will form an experimental area and conduct research and application and transfer biotechnology and new material technologies.

Over recent years, the strong application of biotechnology has had a positive impact on the province. Its Department of Science and Technology has deployed 91 national and provincial level projects to date in the field of biotechnology, which have been applied to develop high-yield, good-quality crops and animals and contributed to economic restructuring, improving the quality, commercial value, and competitive edge of local agricultural products. By way of example, the breeding and development of new fruit trees such as V2 orange, ODL guava, MC17 and Choquete avocado, late ripe longan, and early thiều litchi have yielded hundreds of billions of đồng a year.

Bắc Giang has also applied VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards in cultivation at 39 per cent of orchards and used QR Codes for tracing product origin, together with the iMetos smart weather station, the VietGAP app, and drip irrigation technology.

The province has recently expanded its VietGAP-standard lychee coverage to 14,300 ha and its GlobalGAP-standard coverage to 258 ha. It also has 218 ha of lychee with cultivation codes granted for export to the US, Australia, and the EU.

Using drip irrigation technology, biological fertilisers, and pesticides, and following VietGAP standards, a tea production model in Yên Thế District has recorded a 20-30 per cent increase on an annual basis in productivity and revenue. The success of the model helped expand the district’s tea growing area to 530 ha, with a combined output of over 4,300 tonnes a year.

Many local enterprises have applied biotechnology in pollution treatment and environmental pollution recovery. The application of biotechnology in socio-economic development contributed to economic growth in the province averaging 14 per cent per year in the 2015-2020 period. It currently has more than 160 enterprises and household businesses operating in the production of building materials applying new material technologies, including the production of unfired bricks.

The province has received and transferred technology from many projects to produce plywood using new technology.

In the field of medicine, new material technologies have also made a positive contribution to local medical examinations and treatment, such as the application of nanopolymer in medicine and nanomaterials in biomedicine. Their application has also contributed to medical examinations and treatment of local people.

Bắc Giang implemented 74 national and provincial science and technology projects in various fields during the 2015-2020 period, with total funding of over VNĐ222 billion. — VNS

A body of an unidentified man was found floating off Nha Trang, a beach city in the south-central Vietnamese province of Khanh Hoa, on Sunday afternoon.

The deceased man was discovered by a crew of fishermen at around 1:00 pm, an official from the People’s Committee in Vinh Tho Ward confirmed.

They then brought the body ashore and reported it to competent authorities.

Eyewitnesses said that the man was between 30 and 35 years old and wearing a gray checkered shirt.

No ID or related documents were found with him.

Police in Vinh Tho Ward later handed over the body to the municipal Department of Public Security and the city’s forensic unit for further investigation.

On Friday, security guards of a factory in the north-central province Nghe An found parts of a human skeleton that had washed up on a local beach.

The guards said they had discovered a human skull, several bones, an orange life vest wrapping over more bones and joints, and a black fold wallet carrying two banknotes of VND1,000 and VND2,000.

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