SKIN OF YOUTH / Ồn ào tuổi trẻ, Ash Mayfair‘s third long feature, after The third Wife (2018) and its black-and-white/silent reworking Between Shadow and Soul (2020), will have its theatrical release in Japan on March 21, 2025.
The film stars Trần Quân and Võ Điền Gia Huy as the young lovebirds San and Nam. San is a teenage trans girl who works as a performer and escort at a Saigon night club with the hope to earn enough money for her final operation. Nam is a gifted but hotblooded young boxer who decides to enter the more lucrative world of underground fighting in order to fulfill San’s ultimate dream to live in a woman’s body. Both slowly Mister Vương, a powerful and charismatic crime lord who’s fascinated by San and accepts to welcome Nam into his underground fighting ring.
After a very long search, Ash Mayfair eventually found young trans beauty Trần Quân to play San, while the role of Nam went to heartthrob Võ Điền Gia Huy, who got noticed in Thưa mẹ con đi/Goodbye Mother (2019).
Hajime Inoue (Shoplifters (2018), The Third Murder (2019), Oh Lucy! (2017), plays Mr. Vương, and the rest of the cast includes Phạm Thị Kim Ngân, who had a small but significant role in The Third Wife, and Vietnamese indie film darling Lê Công Hoàng (Glorious Ashes (2022), Big Father, Small Father and other Stories (2015), Goodbye Mother (2019)…)
The film was produced by Trần Thị Bích Ngọc (Cu li never cries (2024), The third Wife, Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories, Glorious Ashes) and Yuji Sadai (Asako I & II (2018), The Land of Hope (2012)

Besides the film score, Tôn Thất An also wrote, produced and performed four songs: Gót giày tự do (Swinging Heels), Chạm gió (Touch of Wind), Một lối về (One Winding Path), which San performs at the club and Hẹn hò với ai (Story of Us). Since the story takes place in the 90’s, Ash Mayfair suggested the songs to have that distinctive musical flavour of the era. Gót giày tự do is a uplifting bass-heavy, funkpop number, while Hẹn hò với ai borrows from brit-pop with a feel-good surf-y vibe – with guitars courtesy Japanese songwriter Akitsugu Fukushima. For Chạm gió Tôn Thất An came up with two different versions of the song: one reminiscent of Canto-pop ballads by Leslie Cheung or Anita Mui, and another one for voice and string quartet played by members of the NHK Symphony.
The last song, Một lối về is a mournful piano song that appears twice in the film: as the swan song San sings to Mr. Vương at the club, and the second time during the end credits, with a violin and cello playing along with the piano.
All lyrics were penned in Saigon with Long Đinh during a riotous month before shooting began.

Watch the trailer for the upcoming theatrical release in Japan:

Tôn Thất An