Dustin Nguyen’s ‘Legend is Alive’ in Vietnam

Vietnamese-American actor Dustin Nguyen’s second martial arts-related film, THE LEGEND IS ALIVE (aka Huyền Thoại Bất Tử) opened this week on its home turf in Vietnam. The slick-looking $580,000 production from sophomore director Luu Huynh (THE WHITE SILK DRESS) follows in the wake of the country’s first international commercial hit, period martial arts actioner THE REBEL, which was released on home video here in the U.S. last year by The Weinstein Company’s Dragon Dynasty label.

Trailer 1

In THE LEGEND IS ALIVE Dustin portrays a mentally-disabled martial artist, a role the actor considers the most difficult of his career.

“It’s another action/drama set in contemporary time,” said Dustin in an interview with Visual Communications, an advocacy group for Asian Pacific American media works. “I play a guy who was born a victim of Agent Orange and as a result, has the mental capacity of a ten-year old. He goes on a road trip after his surrogate mom died and meets all these characters along the way. It’s really a film about the unconditional love of mothers.”

Dustin is known in the U.S. for roles in such diverse projects as the hit TV series 21 JUMP STREET, LITTLE FISH starring Cate Blanchett and Justin Lin’s indie Bruceploitation mockumentary FINISHING THE GAME. Since portraying the lead villain opposite veteran stun actor Johnny Nguyen in THE REBEL, Dustin has been reinventing himself on the world stage as a dramatic action star and THE LEGEND IS ALIVE is his first real test.

With a varied background in multiple martial arts styles that includes Muay Thai, Tae Kwan Do, Kali knife fighting, Escrima, and Jeet Kune Do, Dustin appears to be adapting to the riggers of martial arts screen fighting quite well based on his excellent physical performance in THE REBEL and based on footage in the trailers for THE LEGEND IS ALIVE. What’s more, Dustin also has the acting chops which was surely put to the test for his latest role.

Dustin isn’t resting though. Even as THE LEGEND IS ALIVE opens, he’s preparing to make his directorial debut with MONK ON FIRE. It’s a stylized period actioner that producer and REBEL director Charlie Nguyen described as being “a samurai/wuxia crossover with a Western type of structure,” when speaking to Kung Fu Cinema in an interview back in October of 2008. Onscreen, the film will reunite Dustin with THE REBEL co-stars Johnny Nguyen and Veronica Ngo.

Trailer 2

Source: Viet Nam News

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Tags: Dustin Nguyen, upcoming