Is the era of movie remakes over?

The failure of "Friend Zone" shows that remakes are no longer a safe bet for producers.

Thanh Sơn and Kaity Nguyễn in the movie "Falling in Love with My Best Friend". (Photo: DPCC)

Vietnamese cinema has had many successful remakes of foreign scripts, grossing hundreds of billions of dong and receiving great public acclaim over the years, such as: "You Are My Grandma," "The Glorious Years," "My Monster Brother," "Blood Moon Party"... Using pre-existing stories, plots, and characters is always an advantage for producers and directors because popular scripts have already been filtered by the audience, and when the film is released, it will have a ready-made viewership from the original version.

However, Vietnamese films remake the original Thai version. Falling in love with the wrong best friend. It failed unexpectedly, much to many people's surprise. As of February 6th, after 16 days since its release, the film had only grossed 21 billion VND. Meanwhile, two other films released during the same Tet holiday had significantly different box office revenues. The Four Revengeful Spirits 325 billion VND, Billion-dollar kiss 190 billion VND

"Falling in love with your best friend" - Thai version. (Photo: IGNV)

Falling in love with the wrong best friend. The film possesses many elements that give audiences high expectations, such as directors Nguyen Quang Dung and Diep The Vinh. The two actors, Kaity Nguyen and Tran Ngoc Vang, are also highly praised for their beauty, acting ability, and chemistry. The scenes depicting the beautiful and captivating Vietnamese landscape are meticulously crafted, with every camera angle, costume, and prop carefully considered. Kaity Nguyen also served as the creative director of the film, ensuring consistency in the visuals.

Actresses Kaity Nguyen and Tran Ngoc Vang in the film "Falling in Love with My Best Friend". (Photo: DPCC)

One of the most challenging aspects of a remake is harmonizing the cultural elements of the original version with the new one. Each film has a specific social context, carrying with it cultural and religious elements... This is precisely what audiences expect from each remake. In "Falling in Love with My Best Friend ," the film retains most of the original scenes, only changing the character Bao Toan's profession and adding some beautiful Vietnamese scenery, which lacks novelty to attract viewers. The comedic elements in the film are heavily influenced by Thai culture, lacking connection to the local culture.

Vietnamese culture is portrayed in a lackluster way in films.

In addition, while the film The Four Villains, The Billion-Dollar Kiss By constantly updating yourself with the latest information on social media and other media outlets, Falling in love with the wrong best friend. Falling behind, lacking promotional methods to boost box office revenue, and with no intriguing highlights to attract public attention. The singers performing in the music video showcasing the country's beauty are new faces with little recognition, while those roles could have been given to famous guest stars to attract viewers.

Furthermore, Tran Ngoc Vang's kiss on the red carpet for Kaity Nguyen was deemed inappropriate given the news that the actress was about to get married to her long-time boyfriend. This diminished the audience's goodwill towards the actors' efforts.

Previously, it was argued that using remakes was merely a quick fix during a period of scarcity of quality scripts. But the failure of Falling in love with the wrong best friend. This shows that a film released in theaters shouldn't simply be a copycat; filmmakers need to keep up with audience tastes and adopt a more professional and systematic approach to reaching the public.

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/phim-remake-da-het-thoi-3344402.html