Teen idol becomes a master of martial arts Trailer: Once upon a time in Vietnam Once upon a time, foreign invaders came from distant lands to conquer all. Time and time again, they're exorcised by the most elite of the Monk-Hood. PT2M19S http://www.smh.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2v3uo 620 349 October 7, 2013 Dustin Nguyen has gone back to where he started, in more ways than one. In 1975, he and his family fled Saigon to start a new life in America, and he fell in love with cinema. Now he's back in Vietnam making movies. And after many years in front of the camera, he's finally achieved his initial dream and directed his first feature. He has just written, directed, co-produced and starred in Once Upon A Time In Vietnam, an action-adventure-fantasy that's part martial arts movie, part Western. "You can see my adoration for Sergio Leone," he says, "particularly Once Upon A Time In The West." His movie is set in a fictional realm where motorbikes, swords, croissants and imperial warriors co-exist. Nguyen plays a warrior, Dao, who arrives at a small town on a mission. He is an ambiguous kind of hero; in fact, says Nguyen, he's not actually the hero of the movie at all. Dustin Nguyen and Ngo Thanh Van in Once Upon a Time in Vietnam. It's not clear at first why Dao is there, or what impact his presence will have on the family of the local baker, particularly the baker's wife, played by Ngo Thanh Van. She's an actress, Nguyen says, who can handle both action and emotion, and he wrote the role specifically for her. He makes no bones about the difficulties of shooting an action and special effects movie in Vietnam in 41 days. We have terrific crews and filmmakers, but they're limited by their experience. He went into it with his eyes open, he adds, but it was still tricky - particularly, he says with feeling, when it came to the location for the small town. Building sets on sand dunes and shooting in a howling gale was a particular challenge. Dustin Nguyen in Once Upon a Time in Vietnam. But he's positive about the progress that's being made. Arthouse films made by directors such as Tran Anh Hung are best known internationally, he says, but there is a burgeoning commercial cinema. After more than 30 years away, he returned to Vietnam to appear in a historical action film, The Rebel, in 2007. "It's a small community," he says, "and I kept meeting people who told me, 'You should come back and be part of this new wave of Vietnamese cinema'. And I was enjoying the kind of roles I was getting. I thought, 'I'll give it a try'. He found partners, formed a production company, and started producing and writing. He fell into an acting career almost by accident, he says, first making his name in the 1980s in the TV series 21 Jump Street alongside Johnny Depp. What he really wanted to do was direct or produce. "I was a very introverted immigrant kid, and acting was the furthest thing from my mind," he says. When he didn't get into film school on his first try, he continued to make short films. He did some acting classes, he says, thinking that it would help him understand performers better. The agent of an actor friend urged him to consider going to auditions, and finally he gave in. "It was a horrifying experience," he says, "but I got cast, and off I went. I kept on getting jobs. This became his de facto film school, he says. Instead of doing my lines and going to the trailer, I would hang out on the set. I absorbed it all. He paid attention to camera angles and wardrobe choices, budgets and shooting schedules. Whatever it takes to make a movie. Once Upon A Time In Vietnam is being distributed in many territories, including North America, and Nguyen is particularly pleased that his directorial debut will be opening in Australia. This was where he made Rowan Woods' feature Little Fish (2005), starring opposite Cate Blanchett. That film came at a good time for him, he says. He'd become a little disenchanted with acting. I don't want to complain, because I've had some modest successes, but I was disillusioned with the kind of roles that I thought were ahead of me. The role of Jonny, a former heroin addict who had been the lover of Blanchett's character, was a very special opportunity, he says. It was one he didn't expect to have, when the likes of Tony Leung and Ken Watanabe were being considered. "It was an important part in my life," he says. It rekindled my passion for acting, and turned my attitude around. Once Upon A Time In Vietnam opens in selected cinemas in Melbourne on October 17 and in Sydney on October 24.