AI and 3D rebuilt old Hanoi for a chamber-music debut video

Singer Dang Ngoc Anh, a 22-year-old final-year vocal student, wanted her debut to carry her love of Hanoi; the chamber symphony was composed by Tran Manh Hung with lyrics by Ha Quang Minh, and the release marked the 72nd anniversary of the Liberation of Hanoi.

Rebuild old Hanoi — tiled roofs, Hoa Phong Tower, the old station — in 3D and AI from gathered images, as the set for a chamber symphony video.

Director Viet Dang's team gathered images of the city from multiple sources and generations, rebuilt the tiled-roof streets, Hoa Phong Tower and the old train station in 3D with AI, and combined them with live acting — prioritising what they call the authenticity of the space over unrealistic embellishment.

The video premiered on 6 October 2026 at the National Film Center alongside the CD "Sending Autumn Behind"; the project is framed as a way for young classical singers to reach wider audiences. No viewership figures yet.

On 6 October 2026 at Hanoi's National Film Center, classical singer Dang Ngoc Anh launched her debut CD "Sending Autumn Behind" and its music video "After Days of Long-Distance Love" — a chamber symphony by Tran Manh Hung composed specifically for her and artistic director Nguyen Khanh Ly, with lyrics by Ha Quang Minh. The release marked the 72nd anniversary of the Liberation of Hanoi. Ngoc Anh, born in 2004, is a final-year vocal student at the Vietnam National Academy of Music with a Gold Cup from the 2024 Asian Arts Festival in Singapore.

Although the song never names Hanoi, director Viet Dang wanted it filled with the city's familiar spaces — but the survey found many locations no longer existed in their original state. The chosen solution was to gather images of the city from multiple sources and generations, and rebuild old Hanoi — the tiled roofs of the old streets, Hoa Phong Tower, the old train station — in 3D space combined with artificial intelligence, played against live acting.

"Hanoi inherently contains wonderful things, so with this project the team prioritises the 'authenticity' of the space over unrealistic embellishments," Dang said. The video doubles as a bid to carry chamber music beyond its usual audience — the launch framed the debut as a way for young classical singers to reach more listeners.

The locations the song evoked no longer existed, so authenticity had to be reconstructed rather than filmed.

Images from multiple generations gave the 3D rebuild period grounding instead of generic old-town scenery.

Live acting inside the rebuilt spaces kept human performance at the centre of a technically heavy video.

The anniversary date tied a personal debut to a shared civic memory of the city.

When the real place is gone, the surviving images are the set: assemble what exists and rebuild, instead of settling for locations that no longer match the song.

The CD and video were released on 6 October 2026; the team says it wants the approach to open classical music to wider audiences. No audience figures have been published.