Released in the first days of the year, the horror series Devil's Restaurant by director Ham Tran currently has the highest viewership rating on Netflix. Can this be considered an extension of the horror series on Vietnamese screens?
Looking back at Vietnamese cinema in 2024, it is easy to see that horror films dominate. This forms a trend that experts predict will continue to dominate the Vietnamese cinema market in 2025.
Attracting audiences to Vietnamese cinemas
In that big trend we can also see manufacturers Vietnamese movies has shifted the story space from contemporary, urban society to more intimate spaces. Emphasizing folk elements, retelling legends, myths or fairy tales from a different perspective.
In general, Vietnamese horror films last year at least succeeded in attracting audiences to the theater, attracting attention and multi-dimensional discussion. Familiar local elements also contributed to creating sympathy for the audience.
However, to recreate the cultural and historical context and recreate the ancient atmosphere still requires more careful investment from the filmmaker.
Horror elements and exploitation of folk legends are still of interest to the public, but it is difficult to say that they will not reach saturation.
Although today's audiences can name more Vietnamese horror films, if we choose a film that can be called a classic of Vietnamese horror, we still have to consider a lot.
January 10 (February 7), Vietnamese horror film Ghost lights released to the audience. The film is inspired by "The Story of Nam Xuong's Daughter", a story that appeared in Nguyen Du's Legend of the Condor Heroes in the 16th century. From the audience's seats, we still hope that in 2025, Vietnamese cinema will have many horror films with their own unique features and investment.
It is easy to see that horror will still be a mainstream trend on screen in 2025, but whether it will be a fleeting phenomenon or become a distinctive feature with local imprint and color with impressive works, as Thailand and Taiwan have been doing, remains to be seen.
Don't lose the novelty factor
As mentioned above, although horror films are in the mainstream, the current Vietnamese box office is still dominated by comedies with contemporary settings, psychological and emotional films with family and love themes such as films with the participation of Tran Thanh and Ly Hai.
The Vietnamese film market usually opens with films that we usually call "Tet films". In 2025, Vietnamese cinema will "open" with three romantic comedies: The Panther Quartet , Billionaire Kiss and Love the wrong best friend .
In there Love the wrong best friend It is difficult to break through in the Tet film race. Partly because the shadow of the Thai version released in 2019 is still imprinted in the audience's mind.
It is understandable that the adapted version is always compared to the previous version. It is also normal for a movie to have many versions.
Movie example Man in love (Men in Love) of Korea was released in 2014, within 10 years there have been two versions in Taiwan (2021) and Thailand (2024).
Good You Are The Apple Of My Eye (Vietnamese title: The Girl We Chased Together) from Taiwan also has Japanese (2018), Thai (2023) and Korean adaptations.
Remakes that are made too close to the original are often not highly rated. Not to mention losing the novelty factor, when the audience is not far enough back to forget the impressions of the previous version.
Back to The Four Guardians , the movie reached nearly 300 billion VND in revenue after 10 days of showing. Far surpassing the 118 billion VND revenue of Billionaire Kiss - although this is also a very impressive number.
Comedy films have dominated Vietnamese cinema for a long time, including many Tet films. And very few films remain in the minds of audiences. Some films have even been bought by online film platforms, and audiences have just learned that the films existed.
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