Lê Hồng Lâm, Vietnam’s Cinematic Chronicler

I first encountered Lê Hồng Lâm in 2019 through his book 101 Best Vietnamese Films, a landmark publication that remains high on my wish list to be fully translated into English. The book charts decades of Vietnamese cinema, from classics like When the Tenth Month Comes, The Abandoned Field, and The Scent of Green Papaya to contemporary titles like Jail Bait and The Way Station. It took him two years to distill over a thousand films into this curated list. With rare posters, newly surfaced stills, and his personal lens, the book is more than a catalogue, it’s a living archive I return to time and again.

In January 2025, I had the privilege of meeting Lâm in Saigon, at a talk where around 20 cinephiles, artists, and film lovers gathered to hear him in conversation with Phong Kiều. He spoke about the Đổi Mới era of Vietnamese cinema, tracing the rise of “instant noodle” films, fast-produced, commercially driven films of the early 1990s that captured the post-war spirit, youth culture, and a new generation of movie stars.

Lâm, a veteran arts journalist and independent film researcher, has worked in journalism for over 20 years and published six books on cinema. He has collaborated with international film festivals such as Berlin and Bangkok and lectures widely at Hoa Sen University and TPD. His depth of knowledge, dedication to archiving Vietnamese film history, and ability to illuminate both the art and the market of Vietnamese cinema are qualities I deeply admire.

If you want to understand the past and present of Vietnamese cinema, Lâm’s work is an essential guide.

[Read the full interview here]