"The Price of Happiness" - an 18+ film starring Thai Hoa as a cheating husband - has many plot holes and uneven acting.
* Article reveals part of the movie content
Trailer "The Price of Happiness" - in theaters from April 19. Video: Galaxy
The film is one of the Vietnamese films that opened the box office race on the occasion of April 30 - May 1. Belonging to the family drama genre, the film attracted attention when it marked the return of Thai Hoa as the main character, after a year of winning many film awards.
The film is about adultery in marriage - a familiar topic in recent Vietnamese television series. The story revolves around the family of businessman Dinh Cong Thoai (Thai Hoa) and Vo Thuy Duong (Xuan Lan). On the surface, they have a rich, happy life, admired by many people. Mrs. Duong is a model woman who is devoted to her husband and children, often invited to talk on family talk shows. Thoai is the CEO of a large corporation with a bright future, about to replace his father-in-law (Huu Chau) as chairman. They have two grown children, son Will (Lam Thanh Nha) just got married to his girlfriend.
However, the marriage was shattered when Mrs. Duong witnessed her husband having an affair. Hiring an investigator, Duong discovered that her husband was having affairs with many other girls. Mrs. Duong tried to find out the truth, hoping to convince her husband to return to their family, even though her daughter Nina (Uyen An) advised a divorce.
Thai Hoa plays the villain as the cheating husband. Photo: LaLaLand
With a length of 115 minutes, the film feels long-winded due to its slow pace and lack of climax . In his debut film, director Ngoc Lam chose to put the surprise (plot twist) in the last 5 minutes of the film, spending the time before that to insert details. However, this reduces the appeal of the work when most of the story is introduced through the trailer.
The process of building the plot has many logical errors. The event at the beginning of the film, which opens a series of storms in Mrs. Duong's family, is when the character discovers her husband is having an affair with his daughter-in-law on her son's wedding night. According to many viewers, this detail is also forced. Duong Binh Nguyen - author of many literary books - believes that this scene is one of the film's major "mistakes" because it lacks logic in terms of the character's psychology. "The female lead's revenge story is sometimes tiring without creating a climax," Binh Nguyen commented.
The dialogue of many characters sometimes does not match the plot. For example, Thoai always blames his wife for making him feel suffocated in his own house, which is why he had an affair, but what he did proves that his philandering personality is his nature. Will is angry at his mother for making his life miserable, but throughout the film, Mrs. Duong is portrayed as a person who is devoted to her family, and has never done anything like the things her husband and children blame her for.
Scene of Mr. Thoai with his lover (Tram Anh). Photo: LaLaLand
The director abused many tragic elements in the form of melodrama (psychological drama) to make the audience cry. Besides the main story about Duong's marriage, the love story of Will and his boyfriend is a secondary story, inserted to send a message of living truthfully to the LGBT community. However, the segments about these two characters are exploited in a motif with many tearful crying scenes, not convincing the audience to believe in the love story in the film.
The film's weak point is the lack of consistent acting. Nina is the next role of Uyen An - Tran Thanh's younger sister - after the character Binh Minh in Mai , released on the occasion of Tet Giap Thin. However, the 25-year-old actress's participation is still bland, mainly appearing in the scene where Nina advises and encourages her mother to divorce. Lam Thanh Nha's acting in many scenes has a strong theatrical tone, her dialogue is unnatural. Xuan Phuc - a film vlogger in Ho Chi Minh City - commented: "I feel like the actors don't really understand the characters, they just cry and laugh according to the director's request."
Xuan Lan plays the female lead in a movie for the first time. Photo: LaLaLand
Compared to many recent Vietnamese films, the film's cinematic techniques are quite old. In a scene at the end of the film, when Mrs. Duong breaks a series of family photos and burns a souvenir photo, many viewers commented that the filming style still has the style of a music video from the 2000s. The special effects in many places lack investment, for example, the photo of Mr. Thoai taking a photo with his lover clearly shows Thai Hoa's face, photoshopped and added to the co-star.
On a film forum with more than 200,000 members, many viewers rated Thai Hoa as the highlight of the film. Watching the show on the evening of April 18, actor Huy Khanh commented that his senior actor successfully transformed into the character, especially in the last 5 minutes of the film, making the audience believe in Mr. Thoai's obsession with guilt. Xuan Lan also had a perfect performance because she was given all the "space" to act, from a patient wife when witnessing her husband's infidelity to the time she planned revenge. After two days of release, the film earned 12 billion VND, leading the domestic box office over the weekend, according to Box Office Vietnam.
Japanese Plum
Source link
Comment (0)