Vietnamese film "Domino: The Last Exit" is facing the possibility of heavy losses due to low revenue, not exceeding 500 million VND. Despite serious investment, the work still lacks depth in script and acting, and has not been well promoted, so it does not attract audiences.
Domino: The Last Exit Is Vietnamese movies The only film released last week, it is also a rare action project this year. However, the work was not warmly received by the audience like the Vietnamese films released before it. Bran, Get Rich with Ghosts, Hai Muoi…
The project is currently in a slump with low revenue, not exceeding 500 million VND. This failure comes from the hasty release of the film, without a reasonable promotion strategy, plus the poor quality of the film.
Vietnamese gangsters in America
The film is set mainly in Houston (Texas, USA) - where criminal gangs are still secretly fighting to gain the upper hand.
The main character An (Thuan Nguyen) is the son of a notorious Vietnamese boss in America. After his father was murdered by a villain, he had to fly from Vietnam to America to take care of the funeral. From there, An was gradually drawn into the war between gangs, facing life-threatening dangers.
The project is the debut film of director Nguyen Phuc Huy Cuong - who has made many famous MVs for singers Tuan Hung, Dong Nhi, Noo Phuoc Thinh, Miu Le...
The filmmaker showed serious investment when filming most of the scenes in the US without renting a studio. From the choice of camera angle to color calibration, everything was done carefully, helping the work have a winning visual part.
However, the script idea is simple, not too surprising. The gangster story reminds of many familiar works such as The Departed, The Godfather… or nearest Nine Dragons Fortress: Siege of the City of Hong Kong (Chinese) cinema .
The screenwriter did include a twist at the end, but it wasn't impressive enough. The main character's psychological transformation was also somewhat rushed, creating a forced feeling.
In his debut work, Nguyen Phuc Huy Cuong has not mastered the film's flow. The director takes a long time to introduce the characters and establish the atmosphere. Therefore, the first half of the film has a somewhat slow rhythm, making the story gradually lose its appeal.
In return, the action scenes were done quite well. The chases and fights were elaborately staged. The actors also got into their roles, creating the necessary passion, which made the story more interesting.
There are also bloody, violent scenes that caused the film to be labeled T18 (for audiences under 18 years old) when released in theaters.
However, the project chose an American setting, the characters wore suits, and the shooting created the feeling of a Hollywood movie. The work was more like an American movie starring Vietnamese people than a Vietnamese movie.
Thuan Nguyen is fading.
Besides the script, acting is one of the factors that causes the quality of the film to decline. Despite having a lot of experience in acting, Thuan Nguyen has not shown any progress when playing the main role of An.
The actor born in 1992 showed exaggerated acting in many scenes to portray the character's emotions.
When An suddenly has psychological changes, Thuan Nguyen's acting skills are not deep enough to make the character multidimensional, thereby gaining the sympathy of the audience.
Besides Thuan Nguyen, veteran faces such as Quoc Cuong and Huynh Anh Tuan both played their roles well. They more or less showed the cold-bloodedness of the underworld from their eyes, gestures and demeanor.
The only female role in the film was given to Cat Ha - a young face and quite unfamiliar to the audience. However, she also had little screen time, not many memorable scenes so she could not shine in this appearance.
When launched, Domino: The Last Exit was not warmly received by the audience. In the three opening weekends, the film only sold about 3,855 tickets out of 558 screenings, earning about 342 million VND. This is a very low number compared to the general level of Vietnamese films. The spread of the work on social networking sites is also not high.
In terms of popularity, the film's content is not as attractive and was introduced quite late before the release date. The male lead Thuan Nguyen is not a popular face, ensuring success at the box office.
To date, the film has not made it into the top 10. Box Office Vietnam (box office observer), will likely have to close theaters early and suffer heavy losses.
Previously, some action movie Vietnam also failed at the box office like Wolf (2022) , 578: Madman's Bullet (2022). That shows that this genre is still picky about audiences, difficult to generate high revenue like horror or psychological - family drama films.
In general, Domino: The Last Exit shows the crew's efforts in exploiting the action film genre. However, the director still follows the genre's rut, not creating anything new for the audience.
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