Tran Thanh's movies: Fierce controversy, box office explosion

Mai is the third Vietnamese film to surpass the 400 billion VND mark, after Bo Gia and Nha Ba Nu. The three works directed and produced by Tran Thanh have now achieved a total revenue of 1,302 billion VND. With this figure, Tran Thanh has become the first and only director with a thousand billion VND in Vietnam, up to this point.

It is worth mentioning that Tran Thanh achieved this success after only 4 years of entering the film industry. He is considered one of the most successful filmmakers at the domestic box office.

With 3 films grossing over 400 billion VND, Tran Thanh is Vietnam's first trillionaire director.

Explaining Tran Thanh's success, experts say that this male artist knows how to grasp the psychology of the majority, exploiting the right psychological and family topics.

Evaluating Tran Thanh's film works, Dr. Ngo Phuong Lan, former Director of the Department of Cinema, said that although there are conflicting opinions, some praise or criticize, it must be recognized that Tran Thanh's works are both entertaining and have positive social messages, set Vietnamese box office records, and gradually affirmed Tran Thanh's style in Vietnamese cinema.

Tomorrow

Mai , Tran Thanh's third film, was released on the occasion of the recent Giap Thin Lunar New Year. The film stars Phuong Anh Dao, Tuan Tran, People's Artist Ngoc Giau, Hong Dao...

"Mai" reached the fastest revenue of 400 billion VND in the history of Vietnamese box office, after 11 days.

The film revolves around the life of the female lead named Mai (Phuong Anh Dao), a nearly 40-year-old massage worker who accidentally meets musician Duong (Tuan Tran) and is pursued by him. Lacking self-confidence, Mai does not have the courage to accept the feelings of a guy 7 years her junior.

Compared to the two films Mrs. Nu's House and Bo Gia, Tran Thanh's Mai received the least mixed reviews. Tran Thanh showed a clear improvement, from the camera angle, scene transitions to storytelling. The film no longer has scenes of arguing and "market" dialogue between the characters. Mai is considered Tran Thanh's best film to date.

However, there is also a lot of controversy surrounding the ending that Tran Thanh chose to present. Many people praised Tran Thanh for bringing a very realistic ending, while others said that this ending was unsatisfying and caused a lot of regret.

Explaining this, Tran Thanh affirmed that he did not create a film ending to sell tickets: " I have never made a film ending just to serve something. Usually, with Tran Thanh's film endings, first I want them to be true to life, second I want them to convey a certain message. The film ending does not serve the ticket selling factor, the message is always the top priority."

Tran Thanh talks with the two main actors in the movie "Mai".

In addition, the film was also caught up in a controversy over taking up all the showtimes. Mai has nearly 4,000 showtimes per day, accounting for about 75-80% of the showtimes at the box office.

Most audiences believe that Tran Thanh’s films are always favored with dense screenings at the box office, squeezing out other projects every time they are released. Some other comments say that because Tran Thanh’s films attract a large audience, the distributors schedule more screenings.

In fact, cinemas are businesses, and the rules for arranging screenings at each cinema are based on the actual needs of the audience. Advance ticket sales are also one of the bases for the cinema to arrange screenings. Therefore, it is not surprising that Mai has more screenings.

Choosing the right time to release in theaters like the previous two films, Mai set an unprecedented record. After 11 days of release, the film surpassed the 400 billion VND revenue mark, the fastest in the history of the Vietnamese box office. With the momentum of Mai 's ticket sales, that number is expected to increase rapidly, making Mai the most popular film in the history of Vietnamese cinema. Currently , Mai is still attracting a large audience to the cinema.

Mrs. Nu's house

Released in theaters on the occasion of the Lunar New Year of the Cat, Mrs. Nu's House made history in Vietnamese cinema by attracting nearly 6 million viewers and grossing 475 billion VND.

Mrs. Nu's House revolves around the everyday stories of Mrs. Nu's family life. In addition to family affection and love, the film also conveys many meaningful messages about life and social relationships.

The main cast in the film includes Tran Thanh, Uyen An, Song Luan, Le Giang, People's Artist Ngoc Giau, Kha Nhu,...

"Mrs. Nu's House" has a revenue of 475 billion VND, becoming the highest-grossing film to date.

However, this is also Tran Thanh's most controversial film, from the content of the film, character design to dialogue. The controversial issue is the characters' foreign language, in which there are many scenes of Mrs. Nu and the characters criticizing each other, cursing, swearing...

The loud dialogues in the film are considered to lack restraint, have too many interpretations, and cause heavy emotions for the audience. Many opinions say that Mrs. Nu's House , despite being labeled a family film, is considered to create more negativity and fatigue.

In the face of controversy, Tran Thanh spoke up to explain that those details were inspired by reality, a part of his childhood when he had to live in poverty since he was young. " I only recreate life as it is, there are many stories out there that no camera has recorded," Tran Thanh said.

Despite the controversy, the film continuously set many revenue records and was also chosen as the Best Film in the Vietnamese Film Competition category and Tran Thanh won the Best Director award for this film at the 1st Da Nang Asian Film Festival held in Da Nang in May 2033.

Godfather

Bo Gia, released in 2021, is the first film in which Tran Thanh plays many roles, from scriptwriter, co-director, to main actor. The film revolves around the life of Mr. Ba Sang (played by Tran Thanh) who works as a hired freight carrier. Ba Sang's son - Quan (played by Tuan Tran) - has a lifestyle opposite to his father, causing him to worry many times.

After 7 weeks of showing, the film earned 427 billion VND, becoming the highest-grossing Vietnamese film at that time. Tran Thanh's "child" was also shown in markets such as Malaysia, Singapore, Australia... and surpassed the 1 million USD mark in revenue in the US. Tran Thanh's Godfather won many awards such as Golden Kite 2020, Silver Lotus, Green Star,....

As Tran Thanh's first film, "Bo Gia" received a series of negative comments from international experts.

Despite its huge box office success, Bo Gia still caused controversy over its quality and content. Many other viewers said that the film had many loopholes, its content was not unique, and many aspects of exploitation were still weak. Some viewers felt uncomfortable because the arguing and back-and-forth scenes between the characters took up most of the film's duration. The conflicts were bland, the plot was too exaggerated, and the character played by Tran Thanh was so gentle that it was weak...

Not only receiving mixed opinions domestically, when premiering in foreign markets, Tran Thanh's Bo Gia also encountered a series of mixed opinions from international experts.

Among them, Variety, one of the film criticism sites, had the most severe criticism of Tran Thanh's work. This site wrote that Bo Gia disappointed viewers because it was heavily influenced by television dramas and used too much tension, tension, and screaming.

"Tran Thanh could create a voice worth listening to in the international market if he stopped yelling at the audience and his co-stars," Variety expressed its opinion.

The writer of the South China Morning Post gave The Godfather a score of 2/5. This person commented that The Godfather 's weakness lies in its over-complexity, causing the audience to get lost from one film to another, ignoring the subtlety and consistency of color.

Some opinions agree with international experts, saying that Vietnamese films still have many limitations. However, many readers believe that the criticism is not really convincing because it is the opinion of foreigners about a film that exploits Vietnamese life and culture.

The Godfather also caused controversy when it was selected to participate in the preliminary round of the Best International Feature Film category at the 2022 Oscars, then failed to be nominated for the shortlist.

Le Chi

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