Kieu Chinh Returns to Vietnam for the First Time in Competition at Danang Film Fest With ‘Chrysalis,’ Daniel K. Winn’s Adaptation of His Memoir
Kieu Chinh has spent 68 years as an actor, and most of those years carried her further from the country where she began, through Hollywood, through “The Joy Luck Club,” through “The Sympathizer,” through a career built largely outside the borders of the country that shaped her.
This week, that arc bends back. “Chrysalis,” adapted from the memoir of Vietnamese-American artist Sir Daniel K. Winn and starring Kieu Chinh as his grandmother in 1972 Saigon, competes in the official selection of the Danang Asian Film Festival, marking the actor’s first time returning to Vietnamese soil in competition with a film of her own.
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“My life has carried me from Saigon to Hollywood and back again, but Vietnam has always remained in my heart,” Kieu Chinh tells Variety. “To return now with ‘Chrysalis,’ and to have this film welcomed in competition in Danang on Vietnamese soil, feels like coming home.”
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DANAFF IV runs through July 4, in Danang, organized by the Vietnam Film Development Association in partnership with the Danang People’s Committee. “Chrysalis” is one of the festival’s selections in this year’s edition, which also carries a “Focus on American Cinema” program, and its presence in competition lands as something closer to a homecoming than a premiere for nearly everyone connected to the project.
The film is adapted from “The Scarcity of Love,” Winn’s memoir, which traces his journey from a childhood in Vietnam through displacement and loss to his later career as an internationally recognized painter and sculptor working in a style he calls “Existential Surrealism,” using dreamlike compositions to examine the nature of existence. Directed by J. Robert Schulz from a screenplay by Andrew Creme, based on a story by Winn, Randall J. Slavin and Schulz, “Chrysalis” intercuts Winn’s present-day life as an artist, hammering at a mysterious metal apple in his studio, with his childhood in war-torn Saigon, where a boy nicknamed Cu Den navigates an absent mother working in a brothel, a stepfather who offers him neither love nor support, a stint in a Catholic orphanage where he is bullied and falls ill, and a sudden reunion with the father he believed dead.
At the center of all of it is his grandmother, Ba Noi, the role played by Kieu Chinh. It is Ba Noi’s act of selfless love in sending the boy to the orphanage, and her unwavering care in the years that follow, that allows his artistic spark to take hold as a means of self-expression amid the chaos around him. “I have known women like her all my life, and I have lived through the years this family lived through,” Kieu Chinh tells Variety. “I did not need to imagine her. To give voice to a Vietnamese grandmother in a Vietnamese story felt like something I was meant to do.”
According to the film’s producers, “Chrysalis” marks the first time the Vietnamese government has granted an American production permission to film a wartime narrative on location in the country, a distinction that shadows nearly every other claim made about the project. Shooting took place across Ho Chi Minh City and Orange County and Los Angeles, California, in April 2025, with the bulk of the wartime sequences captured on Vietnamese soil rather than recreated on a studio backlot abroad. Pre-production ran from January to April 2025, with post-production stretching from May 2025 through March 2026.
The cast surrounding Kieu Chinh draws heavily from Vietnam’s own industry. Nguyen Vu Uy Nhan, known for “Tiem An Cua Quy” and “Fly 2023,” plays child Daniel, while Le Anh Huy, of “Kieu” and the TV series “Luoi Troi,” plays a young adult version of the character reunited with his grandmother after more than a decade apart, a reunion the film’s character notes describe as devastating in its brevity: Ba Noi dies shortly after the two are reconciled, and the young adult Daniel is too consumed by denial to attend her funeral. Samuel An, who has appeared in “Thien Than Ho Menh” and “Em Va Trinh,” plays Daniel’s father, an interpreter who worked between the American and South Vietnamese militaries before later taking a position with the U.S. embassy, the job that ultimately allows him to bring his family, including Child Daniel, out of the country at the end of the war. Winn himself appears in the present-day timeline as the adult artist.
Behind the camera, the production paired Vietnam-based and U.S.-based producing teams. Tien Pham of Legend Artist Entertainment, whose credits include “The Sympathizer” and “NCIS-LA,” and Dang Thu Hien, a former Vietnam marketing director for Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Marvel, 20th Century Studios and CJ E&M, serve as producer and co-producer, respectively, alongside David Hopwood of Group of Ferrets, whose credits include “Den of Thieves” and the Golden Globe-nominated “CAKE.” Steve Longi of Longitude Entertainment, whose credits include the Academy Award-winning “Hacksaw Ridge,” also produces. Winn and Slavin produce through their banner WS Productions, the entity behind Winn Slavin Fine Art, with prior film credits including “Creation” and “Ectropy.” The score comes from Czech-born composer Elia Cmiral, whose film credits include “Ronin,” “Stigmata” and “Wrong Turn,” and who also scored the video game “Spec Ops: The Line” and the television series “Nash Bridges.”
“The cooperative nature of its production, uniting talent from multiple continents, is an example of the collaboration and acceptance that is so needed in the world today,” Slavin tells Variety. “It speaks to vital issues regarding refugee displacement, immigration, and personal resilience. The film features talented cast members from four countries and employed highly skilled crew members from both Vietnam and the U.S. We are honored to be included in the 4th Danang Asian Film Festival and hope that ‘Chrysalis’ will stand as a template for future international co-productions between Vietnam and the global film community.”
The VFDA’s president and DANAFF’s founding director, Dr. Ngo Phuong Lan, echoed that framing in a statement. “‘Chrysalis’ stands out as a notable example of collaboration between international filmmakers and Vietnam’s talented actors, creative professionals, and production teams,” she said. “The film’s selection for the competition program at DANAFF IV reflects the growing momentum of cross-border film productions across Asia and around the world.” She added that the VFDA hopes Vietnam will keep building its reputation with American and international filmmakers “not only because of its diverse landscapes and increasingly skilled film workforce, but also because of its welcoming collaborative environment and rich creative potential for telling cinematic stories with global resonance.”
“Vietnam isn’t just the backdrop of ‘Chrysalis.’ It’s woven into every part of it, the people, the culture, the landscapes, the memories,” Schulz tells Variety. “As an outsider, I never wanted to impose my perspective on that. I wanted to listen, learn, and work alongside the incredible Vietnamese cast and crew who helped bring the story to life. Their insight and craftsmanship gave the film a level of authenticity that simply couldn’t have been recreated anywhere else.”
“Awards and recognition are wonderful, but what means the most to me is seeing ‘Chrysalis’ embraced and become part of a larger conversation about family, identity, and search for home between two worlds,” he adds. “To be included at DANAFF is a tremendous honor, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to bring the film back to the country that inspired it.”
Winn, who serves as both the film’s subject and an executive producer, wrote separately about the film’s origins in an artist’s statement. “The pain demanded more,” he wrote. “Something beyond an item on a wall to be contemplated in silence. Something that clutched the soul and refused to release. That is why I made ‘Chrysalis.'”
“I left Vietnam as a child. I carried that departure with me for decades,” Winn tells Variety. “And now to return with this film, to have Vietnam embrace it, feels like a completion I did not know I was searching for. It is the chrysalis finally opening.”
“‘Chrysalis’ is not a film about an artist,” Winn adds. “It is a film about all of us, the human condition, the human emotion, the adversity we all carry and the ways we find to overcome it. Without pain, we would not understand what happiness is. Without dark, there is no understanding what light is.”
“Chrysalis” arrives in Danang having already traveled through several other rooms this year. The film made its market debut at the 2026 Cannes Film Market with two market screenings, where Winn, Slavin, Schulz and Kieu Chinh walked the Cannes red carpet together, and it picked up a handful of honors on the festival and summit circuit, including a best actress recognition for Kieu Chinh and a best director nod for Schulz from the I Success International Awards, along with a best autobiographical work prize for Winn at the Global Traveler Awards. Schulz also won best director at the Munich Film Awards in 2025 for the project, as well as best experimental film prizes from the LA Indie Shorts Awards and the Experimental, Dance & Music Film Festival.
The film’s chronology stretches well beyond its DANAFF stop: after Cannes in May and Danang in June, “Chrysalis” is scheduled to screen in Ho Chi Minh City in September, followed by a stop in Beverly Hills in October ahead of a planned worldwide release in November.
“I hope they feel their story is being told with love and with truth,” Kieu Chinh says. “‘Chrysalis’ is about a Vietnamese family and a Vietnamese heart. I want our audiences at home to feel seen, and to feel proud. And to know that no matter how far life carries any of us, the love for Vietnam is always in our heart.”
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The Beckhams risk wrath of their neighbours with planning application
David and Victoria Beckham are risking the wrath of their neighbours at their Cotswolds estate by submitting their 44th planning application in a decade.
The couple, who have previously been accused of 'trying to bring suburbia to the countryside', have now requested planning to build an oak frame balcony.
The Beckhams have been embroiled in several planning rows since purchasing Maplewood Barn, near Great Tew, which they have developed over the years.
The family have been accused of 'drip-feeding' development there and their latest project will see them replace their 'Crittall-style screen and doors' and install an 'oak balcony to the western elevation'.
The planning application, seen by the Telegraph, reads: 'The proposed replacement Crittall-style screen and doors, together with the new oak-framed balcony to the west elevation, have been carefully designed to consider the character and significance of Maplewood Barn and its listed setting.
'The works are to the modern west range constructed as part of the approved barn conversion and will not result in the loss of, or harm to, any historic fabric associated with the original Grade II listed buildings.
David and Victoria Beckham are risking the wrath of their neighbours at their Cotswolds estate by submitting their 44th planning application in a decade
The couple, who have previously been accused of 'trying to bring suburbia to the countryside', have requested planning to build an oak frame balcony
'The replacement glazing will match the existing design, proportions and colour, ensuring visual continuity with the existing barns, while the oak balcony introduces a simple and sympathetic addition that reflects existing timber detailing within the development.'
The application insisted that the works are in keeping with the architecture and historic interest of the building.
Since purchasing the £12million property, the Beckhams have replaced the driveway and added gates, an additional garage, tennis court, treehouse and a security hut.
They have also extended the garage outbuilding and installed a landscaped pond in the grounds of the sprawling pile.
In 2020, they lost a battle with neighbours at their Holland Park home in London over renovation plans – including their desire for a balcony, expressing fears that the first floor balcony would overlook their back garden.
Earlier in 2026 they were also given permission for a new driveway and access road to their Cotswolds home to try and avoid traffic heading to Soho Farmhouse.
They also won a planning bid to light up a kidney-shaped pond in the property's grounds.
In April they were given the green light to create a sprawling forest amid security concerns at their luxury home.
The couple, who have previously been accused of 'trying to bring suburbia to the countryside', have requested planning to build an oak frame balcony.
The family have been accused of 'drip-feeding' development there and their latest project will see them replace their 'Crittall-style screen and doors' and install an 'oak balcony to the western elevation'.
The former footballer and the fashion designer submitted plans with the local council to plant 79 trees and a wildflower meadow at their property.
Since then, the couple have redeveloped what was once a rundown site into an expansive countryside residence, which was originally bought for £6.5million.
West Oxfordshire District Council had already approved plans for a private driveway, with the new 'forest' the latest planning win for the Beckhams, after attempted break-ins at both their London and Cotswolds homes led to 24-hour security.
The planned woodland, which will include 12 European beech, 19 English oak, 15 small-leaved lime, eight field maple, seven Scots pine, five common hazel, five sycamore maple, four holly and four English yew, will now largely shield their home from prying eyes.
This will complement the new driveway, which will provide top-level 'security-controlled access to the property with inward-opening gates'.
However, some locals were not happy with the proposals put forward by the Beckhams.
Neighbour James Worthington submitted a formal objection along with 45 pages of supporting material, arguing that the celebrity couple were attempting to turn their home into a 'fortress' and claimed they had already undertaken work prior to seeking approval.
He previously told The Mirror: 'This current application is just a joke.
'Why submit an application when you have already laid the road, installed gates, laid an electricity supply to the gate, planted trees, installed post and rail fencing along both sides of this track?'
He added: 'Before long, I am sure by recent events the five-barred gate will be changed, stone pillars will be constructed with a 6ft high solid double electric gates installed with CCTV and lighting on the pillars.
'Lighting along the track will be installed, mark my words this will happen, maybe not now but in a few months.'
Plans for the woodland show the existing trees (in blue) alongside dozens of others (in green) which the Beckhams proposed to plant
Mr Worthington has lodged a string of complaints against planning applications linked to the Beckhams' Grade II-listed home, accusing the celebrity couple of turning the countryside into 'Miami or Florida' with 'suburbia-style' features.
But despite presenting himself as a concerned local resident, Mr Worthington admitted in one objection letter that he had been 'working away from the UK since 2019', while giving an address in Perth, Western Australia, according to The Times.
In August 2023, the Beckhams were forced to withdraw a planning application for a new 250m access road after a series of complaints - including one from Mr Worthington.
At the time, he made an objection to the access road and sent the council photographs which allegedly proved that work had already started.
Mr Worthington added in his letter: 'A large spruce pine tree has been felled already, the roots are all in the ground, a membrane has already been laid, posts have been installed in the ground with barbed wire instead of rails on both sides of this already laid track.
'This track has recently been laid it was not there a year ago.'
Local resident Joan Lane, who lives in Great Tew, also objected and said: 'I must strongly object to this proposal.
'The house already has got a perfectly serviceable access road so why is another stretch of tarmac laid through the woods deemed a good idea.
'Ramblers use the lane and they should be left undisturbed by giant SUVs lumbering up and down. Please do not allow this application.'
But the couple successfully argued their case for the new woodland as well as a new access road.
At present, the Beckhams' mansion has a single lane cul-de-sac access, which also serves as the only way for visitors to drive to Soho Farmhouse - a luxury retreat billed as a 'rural escape'.
The swanky establishment charges members £250 a month to enjoy the pools, health club and range of country pursuits on offer - including clay pigeon shooting.
During the summer months, celebs come in their droves to relax and network - and their flashy cars are all filtered down the same - and currently only - road that serves the Beckhams' own private retreat.
In documents to support their application for a new access road, the couple said their existing access to Tracey Lane was problematic because it is a single use cul-de-sac with busy and 'unsafe' levels of traffic.
The couple's planning team produced a detailed transport report, including a survey of vehicles, which stated that at peak times there were up to 180 vehicles per hour going to and from the venue.
The report added that this can sometimes lead to driver skirmishes, something the Beckhams wanted to personally avoid, adding: 'Delays also occur when vehicles misjudge the speed and location of approaching vehicles, resulting in conflicts and vehicles then having to reverse back to nearest passing bay, which is detrimental to road safety.
'Given these vehicle flows and vehicle conflicts... it can become difficult for residents to egress from the existing drive without coming into conflict with oncoming traffic from both directions.'
David and Victoria have previously been accused of 'drip-feeding' development at their Cotswolds home.
They have submitted multiple applications for work at their Grade-II listed country house.
David and Victoria pictured with their children, including estranged eldest son Brooklyn, at their Cotswolds home
Since buying the three listed barns for £6,150,000 in 2016, the couple have added a new driveway and gates, an additional garage outbuilding, tennis court, treehouse, security hut, extension to the garage outbuilding and a landscaped pond.
Along the way they ruffled feathers among their Cotswolds neighbours with work on their country home.
A 1,000 square foot sand bank close to their man-made lake is now being investigated after a complaint that it broke the agreed planning approval.
A source said: 'Neighbours think it is totally out of character for the surrounding area and they are very twitchy around adhering to the rules.'
Bordering their enormous lake, the beach was visible between a wooden jetty and a safari tent as the couple sat tearfully discussing Victoria's ambitions and their future together in her recent Netflix documentary.
Yet when the kidney-shaped lake was installed, the rules were extremely specific to ensure it would 'sit well in its rural context'.
Detailed notes and diagrams at the time said the surrounding area should be landscaped like an 'organic parkland', with wildflower meadows and native trees, and scrub and other plants to provide a habitat for nesting birds, small animals and insects.
The council is now investigating concerns that the beach is not consistent with what was agreed.
West Oxfordshire District Council confirmed: 'A report of a planning breach has been received and will now be investigated.'
