Nguyễn Vinh Sơn, the director behind the classic Vietnamese TV series Đất phương Nam (1997), died on the afternoon of 22 October 2026 at the age of 73 after treatment for cancer, VnExpress reported. From 23 October colleagues, former students and members of the series' cast came to pay respects at the Đức Mẹ Hằng Cứu Giúp parish church in Nhiêu Lộc ward, Ho Chi Minh City.
The news shocked many in the industry, VnExpress said, because only last year he had joined colleagues at the Đà Nẵng Asian Film Festival.
The cast says goodbye
Among the mourners were Hùng Thuận, who played the boy An, and Phùng Ngọc, who played his friend Cò, alongside director Nhâm Minh Hiền, the series' assistant director. Hiền described Sơn as the teacher who brought him into the profession; together with Nguyễn Hậu they searched widely and picked the two child leads from hundreds of children.
Phùng Ngọc was cast at 12. When his family worried about his age, Sơn suggested his father travel with the crew to look after him. Ngọc remembers a gentle director who never shouted at anyone. Hùng Thuận said in farewell that Sơn had left behind characters who live on for generations of viewers, and for him personally the best part of his childhood.
Actor Trung Dân, cast as Út Lục Lâm after Sơn asked whether he could paddle a boat and swim, called working with him the great fortune of his life. Phương Điền, then a second-year drama student, recalled the director leading the crew through swamp shoots and urging them not to give up.
A career in milestones
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1953 | Born in Huế, eldest brother to nearly 10 younger siblings |
| 1989 | Tuổi thơ dữ dội, adapted from Phùng Quán's novel |
| 1990 | Silver Lotus at the Vietnam Film Festival for Tuổi thơ dữ dội; best director award |
| 1997 | Đất phương Nam, 11 episodes, adapted from Đoàn Giỏi's novel Đất rừng phương Nam |
| 2002 | Works quietly behind the scenes on Phillip Noyce's The Quiet American |
| 2000s | Trăng nơi đáy giếng wins a Silver Lotus at the Vietnam Film Festival |
| 2023 | Adviser on Nguyễn Quang Dũng's film version of Đất rừng phương Nam |
For Đất phương Nam he moved the story's setting to 1920–1930 from the novel's 1945 and added characters such as ông Đạo Tưởng and bác Ba Phi. The series was later released in the US on DVD with English subtitles. As a young man he sold lottery tickets and sugar cane and worked as a street photographer to put his younger siblings through school; several of them, including cinematographer Nguyễn Trinh Hoan, founder of HKFilm, followed him into the industry.
He was known as a perfectionist: for Trăng nơi đáy giếng he rented land, built a traditional Huế house and garden, and paid a local to tend it for more than a year before shooting. The role of Hạnh won Hồng Ánh best actress at the Cánh Diều awards.
Funeral
In his final years, ill health made him shelve plans including a second Đất phương Nam, and he turned to teaching and advising. According to VnExpress, the funeral procession takes place on the morning of 26 October 2026, followed by cremation at Bình Hưng Hòa.