Awakening the "treasure trove" of classic Vietnamese films

It is a way to honor memories and evoke national pride. But from those screenings, we can see a reality: this precious film archive has not been exploited to its full potential, especially in the digital environment, where young audiences are most present.

Recently, at the 2025 Da Nang Asian Film Festival, a special program called “Half a century of Vietnamese films about war” was dedicated to screening 22 famous works on this topic. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification (April 30, 1975 - April 30, 2025), classic films about the struggle of our army and people for the cause of national reunification were also screened... However, despite receiving a lot of positive feedback from the audience, these classic films were quietly withdrawn into the archives after the commemorative events and festivals ended.

Four years ago, the Vietnam Film Institute also opened a YouTube channel introducing 9 typical films: The Prophet, Looking Out to the Sea, Guava Season, Little Conscience, Don't Burn, Apartment, Yen's Life, Gun-Free Front, White Flower River, attracting millions of views. However, due to copyright issues, the channel was forced to stop updating. At that time, Mr. Vi Kien Thanh, Director of the Department of Cinema, said that because the Vietnam Film Institute only had the function of archiving and preserving, to disseminate it, it needed the consent of the Department of Cinema and the production company. In 2022, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued a decision to build a project "Center for online film distribution and dissemination", all difficulties seemed to be resolved, but until now "everything is still the same"!

In that context, many units have also made efforts to bring the "treasure" of classic films to the audience, but due to many limitations, it is only fragmented. A typical example is the section "Reliving the Golden Age - Top Classic Vietnamese Films" of the paid online platform Galaxy Play, which only has a few titles such as Season of Floating Waters, Fatherland with the Sound of Noon Chickens, Hot Sand, Last Harvest, Me Thao's Glorious Times ... Or recently, VTV opened the section "Cine7 - Memories of Vietnamese Films" which not only shows but also organizes exchanges with actors in the films, but the number of films is also very small, only a few films. The rare bright spot is probably the YouTube channel Vietnamese Animation Film (belonging to Vietnam Animation Film Studio Joint Stock Company) which has been opened since 2018 with 363 films posted, attracting more than 874,000 followers and over 354 million views.

The demand is there but the official supply is absent, creating an opportunity for unofficial channels. Most of the classic works of Vietnamese cinema can be found on YouTube, TikTok or on pirated movie sites, and of course, issues such as quality and copyright are ignored. It is worth mentioning that most of these films have very high viewership, bringing in a significant amount of income for those who upload them.

Therefore, awakening the "treasure" of classic Vietnamese films when the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is drafting the "Decree regulating the distribution and dissemination of films serving political tasks" is a positive signal. The new point of this decree is that the State will invest in and support the construction of an online film dissemination platform; at the same time, encourage organizations and individuals to participate in public-private partnerships in the distribution and dissemination of films...

The Decree, expected to be submitted to the Government for promulgation in December 2025, is a legal foundation to open up the "treasure trove" of Vietnamese classic films. However, how it will be implemented in practice may still have to wait for time to answer. However, the success of some recent historical revolutionary works shows that, if there is a good way of making and promoting, classic films can still ensure commercial exploitation, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of spreading the ideological values of the work.

VAN TUAN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/danh-thuc-kho-bau-phim-kinh-dien-viet-post808782.html