According to poet Nguyen Phong Viet, it is a fact that the preference of the majority of young audiences who go to the cinema is still films with stories close to their generation, making them laugh and cry with the characters and highly entertaining: “Therefore, with most art films shown in the Vietnamese cinema system (including both foreign and domestic films), we all understand that these are spices that make the menu of films shown in cinemas a little richer, in addition, it is very difficult to create breakthroughs in revenue or cause a media sensation compared to commercial films.
Cases like the movie “Paraside” a few years ago are very rare cases that balance artistic and commercial elements and create market appeal, while other movies almost all have low revenue and few screenings at bad times. And “Muon vi nhan gian” also falls into the same case, it is not too surprising.
From his observations, poet Nguyen Phong Viet believes that it is not by chance that Tran Thanh or Ly Hai's films create good public opinion and revenue for the market, because they are all very good storytellers as well as grasp the audience's tastes very closely: "The Vietnamese film market is still on the way to development, at a very slow pace compared to other countries in the region.
Therefore, the audience’s demand at this time for popular, familiar stories… is also inevitable. We need more time, more talent in the filmmaking profession and also more stages for the audience’s taste to be raised to a higher level with unique, interesting stories that suggest more creativity…
Of course, to get to that point will be a long journey. As for today's market, I think the filmmakers' job is to do a good job of conveying emotions with the story they want to tell (whether it is popular or not) so that the audience will go to the cinema to watch the movie, which is a very good thing that this market needs. In reality, the general level of our Vietnamese film market has a terrible difference in quality..."
According to poet Nguyen Phong Viet, each stage of the market will have different adjustments in terms of taste with the audience going to the cinema. Just like there was a time when we really liked superhero movies, but then after that period, about 2-3 years ago, that genre of film has lost a lot of the audience who used to love it:
“That said, audience taste is completely unrelated to high or low aesthetics, but the problem is that in each period, the audience's choice to go to the cinema is very much related to the culture, lifestyle, and experience of that generation. Making popular but excellent films like Tran Thanh or Ly Hai (here we are talking about the domestic film market), I think all other filmmakers in Vietnam hope for the same.”
The reason for this problem, poet Nguyen Phong Viet explains, comes from the audience’s taste. The audience has a need and the market meets that need, that is also a success: “Today, family themes and popular stories may be popular, but in a few years, it may be a different trend. This is very normal in a market that is changing very quickly according to the entertainment needs of young people…”
As someone who has been following the film industry for a long time as well as writing many in-depth film reviews, poet Nguyen Phong Viet believes that there are not many film critics: “It is just that I am standing in a neutral position, so sometimes my views and perspectives are not much influenced by the parties involved in filmmaking. Meanwhile, in newspapers and other media channels, there are still many people who follow and write in-depth about the film industry. However, perhaps from the perspective of the newspaper or the limitations of a media agency, the articles sometimes do not fully reflect the personal views of the writer…”.
Regarding improving the taste and enjoyment level of the Vietnamese public, poet Nguyen Phong Viet shared that education has a great impact on the awareness of students, who are also the generations that inherit and develop the film industry in Vietnam:
“However, we all know that the Vietnamese education system still focuses heavily on learning according to a predetermined curriculum structure, and it is very difficult to add classes and courses on cinema in particular and art in general. Fortunately, only a few international schools can do this. The rest comes from self-effort, in addition to young people knowing their own abilities to study cinema majors in Vietnam and abroad.
We absolutely do not have an interesting foundation for artistic understanding with small versions in school. And this is a huge disadvantage in finding generations of Vietnamese filmmaking talent in the near future."
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