Must Watch. 20 Minute Documentary About Vietnam’s Hardcore Scene Up Now [Vietnam]

Hardcore will always be this wonderful underground thing where people who truly believe in this culture will do whatever they can to keep it moving forward. Whether that is starting bands, helping bands record, putting on shows, booking tours, or running a website like this – we all do whatever we can with whatever little finances we have to document and promote and foster this little corner of heavy music/lifestyle to the world. All in the hopes that out of a million people maybe we can reach 10 people for whom this world built on DIY/social awareness may resonate.

Today we have the extreme pleasure of helping 4 Vietnamese college students promote a phenomenal passion project. Nhua Phim is a group of students majoring in Multimedia Communication at FPT University in Ho Chi Min City. The names of the members are Nguyen Thi Thu Hong, Bui Huy Cuong, Pham Minh Man, Nguyen Hoang Phuc. As part of their final project, they decided to put together a pretty damn epic documentary of the Vietnamese hardcore/metal scene/community.

“As a group that has a passion for music, we realize that some genres like Hardcore/Metal have not yet fully developed here and are still quite misunderstood. Therefore, NHUA PHIM is eager to bring people around a more open and multi-dimensional view of art in general and Hardcore/Metal music in particular through the documentary project Underdog’s Rising.”

The foursome gets right to the heart of it in their opening sequence with a quick message from the vocalist of Vietnamese hardcore/beatdown band District 105 who reminds the audience and the world, that this hardcore shit is more than just the music, it’s a lifestyle.

“After researching and interviewing veteran members of the Vietnamese hardcore community, my group found this to be an extremely interesting subculture, bringing many great spiritual values ​​to life. Hardcore music is also studied by many universities abroad and has shown many benefits for the psychology of the audience. However, in Vietnam, this music is still not accepted.”

And why did Nhua Phim want to put this together in the first place? “Actually, we are all music and art lovers. One of us used to play in a hardcore band and the others all are fans of rock. When we decided to work on this project and this topic specifically, we were quite worried that we could not convey the heart of this culture properly. However, at this moment as we look at this finished project, we all feel really appreciative and grateful to the community who came together to support us in this. Through interactions with them, we were able to become more knowledgable ourselves about this world.”

As you watch the documentary it is clear how much time and effort the crew put into putting this whole thing together not only through interviews and footage of the early days of the scene but also through the great extra filming and editing that really captured a much more emotional level to this video. Of course, for us non-Vietnamese, all the English subtitles are extremely helpful! But even without it, the way this crew edited the video, interviews, sound, music, ALL of it is heartfelt.

“This documentary project is a new step for us in the journey to bring new values ​​​​not only to the Hardcore community but also to those who want to learn about the culture and update the latest news or knowledge.”

Hell yeah.

Go watch this and spread the word!

https://www.facebook.com/nhuafilm