Diverse and colorful
“In my opinion, in the last 6 months of this year, Vietnamese films will still dominate foreign films and there will be some interesting films shown during the holidays. In particular, the next 6 months will witness more diversity in genres, scale and director names,” said producer Tuong Vi (V Pictures).
The above assessment is considered well-founded, based on the announced expected release schedule. First of all, Red Rain, inspired by the 81 days and nights of heroic and resilient fighting by our army and people to protect the ancient citadel of Quang Tri in 1972. Next is Death Battle in the Sky, the first film in Vietnam to exploit the theme of hijacking, which is also receiving high expectations, especially when the film has the participation of a guaranteed cast: Thai Hoa, Kaity Nguyen, Thanh Son, Xuan Phuc, Vo Dien Gia Huy, Tran Ngoc Vang, Ma Ran Do...
The second half of 2025 also witnessed a strong return of co-production films with 3 works in collaboration with Korea: Mang Me Di Bo, Diep Cuoi Cuoi and Cai Ma. In addition, there is also Co Bieu Ma, a film in cooperation with Thailand.
The above films are notable for being associated with many famous names. Like Mang Me Di Bo, in addition to gathering actors from Korea and Vietnam, the project's director and main director is Mo Hong-jin, who attracted attention with Prisoner's Last Wish 2037. Meanwhile, Last Wish marks the first time that Contents Panda - the unit behind blockbusters such as Train To Busan, Peninsula, Handsome Guys... - participates in co-producing a Vietnamese film.
With Mo Cai, the film is inspired by the exhumation ritual - an ancient belief of the Vietnamese people. Meanwhile, Ghost Bride exploits the unique spiritual elements of Vietnam and Thailand with a setting spanning from Ho Chi Minh City to Chiang Mai.
Towards sustainability of the film industry
Looking at the released and upcoming works, the Vietnamese film market currently has two outstanding problems. Firstly, although the number of films exceeding the record-high revenue mark of hundreds of billions of VND, the quality problem is still a big question mark. The quality fluctuates, especially the weaknesses in the script continue to be a controversial issue. The biggest problem now is how to stabilize the quality of Vietnamese films, avoiding the unstable situation and winning the box office just because of luck.
Second, the dominance of horror films is also a story worth pondering. It can be seen that currently, most horror films have relatively low production costs but easily achieve high revenue and easily attract young audiences. That is the main reason why in the second half of 2025, this genre continues to dominate with many upcoming works: House of Ghosts, Grave Reform, Getting Rich with Ghosts 2, Ghost Bride, Five-Hoofed Pig, Devil Prince...
On the positive side, thanks to the success of many horror films, creativity in filmmakers has been stimulated, and visual effects and techniques have improved a lot. Many filmmakers have tried to exploit different stories and aspects from folk colors to new ideas.
However, on the contrary, the dominance of the horror genre can cause other genres such as comedy, social psychology, romance, action, science fiction, history... to be overshadowed or have less opportunity to be invested in production, leading to a lack of diversity in film genres. In particular, there is a risk of horror films becoming "saturated" and of their quality declining, easily losing the trust of the audience.
“The quality of the film is still the deciding factor. After all, audiences will happily spend money and create a long “lifespan” for the film when it satisfies them. Of course, filmmakers also need to pay attention to the audience’s viewing trends, exploit new topics and especially need to know how to innovate the storytelling style to attract audiences,” said producer Tuong Vi.
Another aspect that is worth noting is the need to promote communication and promotion. Because in the current era of information overload, even quality films, if they do not do this well, will find it difficult to reach a large audience. But the market also has the opposite situation, that is, many units focus on promotion strategies first and more on story building. If these two factors are not balanced, Vietnamese films can easily fall into a situation of "the elephant's head and the mouse's tail" with many unpredictable consequences.
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/phim-viet-cuoi-nam-2025-co-hoi-but-pha-post801300.html
Comment (0)