Thuy Nga Paris By Night 99 – Toi La Nguoi Viet Nam

I am very proud to be Vietnamese. In fact, I am so damn proud that I forced myself to sit through the five-hour Paris By Night 99: Toi La Nguoi Viet Nam on a Sunday afternoon and bored out of my mind. By the second lineup, Y Lan took on Tuan Khanh’s “Nhat Nhoa,” the show turned insipid.

Musically, there were a bunch of uninspiring, refurbishing fillers including Vu Tuan Duc’s medley (performed by Ky Phuong Uyen and Luu Bich), Duc Huy’s medley (performed by Luong Tung Quang and Mai Tien Dung), Khanh Ly’s yet another version of Trinh Cong Son’s “Uot Mi” and Thanh An’s wimpiest rendition of Ngoc Son’s “Tinh Cha” yet.

Duong Trieu Vu couldn’t bring life to Pham Duy’s “Ky Niem” even though the production had done its best to beef up the imageries from the lyrics. He lacked the experience to make the tune believable. In contrast, Ngoc Ha managed to give a nostalgic performance of Tu Huy’s “Que Huong Tuoi Tho Toi,” the only track that stood out from the show. Dieu Huong’s new tune, “Xin Dung Quay Lai,” was predictable. Mr. Trizzy Phuong Trinh made it even more obvious how the chords were structured. The ballad started off soft but progressed into a Celine Dion’s belting-out climax.

Even the theme of the show was not inspiring. Asia had been highlighting successful Vietnamese-Americans for years. It’s about time Thuy Nga gave props to the “King of Nail” for all the ads he bought from the production. Not only Thuy Nga ripped off the concept, but it also used Trinh Hoi to do the same damn things he did when he was at Asia. The different is that his role at Thuy Nga is more like an assistant MC.

24 Comments

  1. I beg to differ. I have never been more proud to be a Vietnamese before watching this. Perhaps, the music wasn’t up to par but it was a very enjoyable 5 hour. Asia has done this countless times but it wasn’t as well executed. I applaud PBN for putting their effor into this production!

    Comment by boosushi — 27 April 2010 @ 4:42 pm
  2. You are so right boosushi, and thank you.

    Comment by Ian — 27 April 2010 @ 8:55 pm
  3. I am pretty sure many people feel that way.

    Comment by donny — 27 April 2010 @ 9:44 pm
  4. My views:
    - the music was boring
    - the dancing was boring
    - Trinh Hoi was annoying
    - the Billionaire did not tried to speak Vietnamese, so much for feeling proud to be a “Vietnamese”
    - loved Cung Le, he’s not good at speaking Vietnamese but he tried, and that’s very well received by my family
    - some volunteer work lady’s speech was all peotry wanna be, really annoying, I know she’s passionate, but hrm, seems a bit try hard

    Comment by TDK — 27 April 2010 @ 11:03 pm
  5. hehe I like sushi in general but there is good sushi and there are bad sushi, this seem to be the later :)

    Comment by Hoang — 28 April 2010 @ 1:16 am
  6. TDK, yes the Billionaire didn’t even try to speak Vietnamese even though he married to Ha Phuong. Trinh Hoi was definitely annoying.

    Comment by donny — 28 April 2010 @ 7:18 am
  7. i did enjoy this dvd…not so much the music but to know that lots of Vietnamese are making marks internationally, and i like hearing success stories..inspiring!
    I guess no one like the billionaire who did not make an effort in speaking Vietnamese, even though clearly his accent was not bad, and hes married to ha Phuong..for godsake, Dont tell me they speak english at home!!I hope they are doing lots of charity.
    I definitely enjoyed this TNPBN DVD much more than the new ( but nothing new ) DVD..

    Comment by lam dien — 28 April 2010 @ 7:49 am
  8. the singers with out micro, were they lip sing. it’s seems so.

    Comment by tam — 28 April 2010 @ 10:43 pm
  9. also, I thought Ngoc Anh was wonderful. her voice is unique, re` re` and like vua het benh nho, no khang khang :)

    Comment by tam — 28 April 2010 @ 10:46 pm
  10. can’t seem to finish the dvd yet

    Comment by tank — 30 April 2010 @ 4:25 am
  11. I thought Ha Phuong ‘s husband is a multimullionaire, not a billionaire LOL

    Comment by Thu Hoai — 4 May 2010 @ 5:27 pm
  12. I enjoyed the opening and closing numbers. Nice ensemble singing. Ngoc Ha and Nhu Quynh were also enjoyable. I’m glad they tried to include at least a few new songs.

    I hate how Asia continues to rehash their themes and songs. Once or twice is okay, but I swear many of those songs they’ve used at least 3 or 4 times within the past few years. Tinh Yeu Va Tinh Nguoi as a closing number again? Really?

    Comment by Nguyen — 6 May 2010 @ 10:44 pm
  13. “Tinh Yeu Va Tinh Nguoi as a closing number again? Really?” Yes really. Truc Ho is the man behind this show, what do you expect?

    Comment by donny — 9 May 2010 @ 5:35 pm
  14. I thought the program was good and had a lot of polish even though it was pretty safe overall. It was also pretty obvious they tried to avoid any political statement by staying comfortably down the middle. There was no mention of why Cung Le always wears shorts with the yellow and three red stripes. i found that peculiar because thats one of the first things you notice about the fighter, he makes political statement everytime he fights. Actually, was the Southern Vietnamese Flag anywhere in the program?

    Musically though, the show was more often miss than hit. I don’t want to even place blame on the singers because for the most part- it doesnt seem to be there fault. I thought Khanh Ly’s updated Uot Mi was unremarkable. Tung Chau seems to make music in a hurry, his arrangements rarely leave the performer enough time to sing without sounding like they are singing by the numbers 1 and two and 3 and 4. Slow down the pace please.

    Comment by Tannie — 10 May 2010 @ 8:16 pm
  15. Tôi nghỉ rằng những người Việt nam được Vinh danh thành công nên xứ người cũng nên bảo tồn tiếng Việt nam để có thể giáo dục cho con cháu sau này, chẳng hạn như chồng Ca sỉ Hà Phương nếu nói được một ít tiếng Việt thì “tuyệt vời” và mới HÃNH DIỆN TÔI LÀ NGƯỜI VIỆT NAM

    Comment by Dang — 12 May 2010 @ 6:35 pm
  16. “Yes really. Truc Ho is the man behind this show, what do you expect?”
    I expected something new. My bad.

    Tannie, I agree about Tung Chau’s arrangements. He’s hit or miss with Trinh Cong Son songs especially.

    Comment by Anonymous — 16 May 2010 @ 11:33 am
  17. I was watching it and saw this one UFC fighter. I can’t remember his name do you guys remember it? He also starred in some movie, I don’t know the name.

    Comment by Alex Le — 23 May 2010 @ 10:31 pm
  18. stupid

    Comment by titi — 30 May 2010 @ 11:29 pm
  19. Du thanh cong va noi tieng den dau ma khong noi duoc ngon ngu cua nuoc minh lam sao tu hao TOI LA NGUOI VIET NAM. Day la mot guong xau cho nhung the he tre Viet Nam sau nay.

    Comment by Nguyen Hung — 31 May 2010 @ 9:13 pm
  20. In my opinion,the name of this Thuy nga Paris 99 should be: TOI LA NGUOI GOC VIET,it cannot be TOI LA NGUOI VIETNAM. The people who live outside Vietnam,who have different citizenships,who have support from the other countries like US,Canada.Australia…Can these people still say: Toi la nguoi Vietnam,even when they cannot keep Vietnamese citizenships,and they cannot speak Vietnamese language,and forgot who helped them to be successful?

    Comment by Linh Thi — 1 June 2010 @ 10:49 pm
  21. In my opinion, Thuy Nga is desperate for money. They saw how ASIA’s DVDs are making huge sales with their politics themes, so they simply try to copy ASIA’s ways to make money.

    If you think about it, Thuy Nga never once mentioned politics let alone do a whole show about it until ASIA became so popular.

    Comment by Huh?! — 27 August 2010 @ 12:49 pm
  22. huhu i lost my HAPHUONG to the billionaire. is he real billionaire? i look in fobre richest list. didn’t see his name. any way good luck HA PHUONG see u next life. hehe

    Comment by xaopako — 11 September 2010 @ 4:12 am
  23. i heard a rumor from vietnamese community that pbn 99 is a last episode. i’m sorry for the loss of thuynga. even it is bored to watch most of the time. but can’t live without it.

    Comment by xaopako — 11 September 2010 @ 4:25 am
  24. man this fool ain’t no billionaire…billionaire in vietnamese Dong? Look at the forbes billionaire list..he’s not even on.

    Comment by Anonymous — 24 November 2010 @ 7:32 pm