With “Ma da”, Viet Huong showed her dedication to her role. However, that was not enough to make the character she played truly touch the audience’s emotions.
It is undeniable that Vietnamese horror films are attracting more and more attention. Viewers now get to enjoy this genre in its original form.
Previously, domestic horror films tended to overuse slapstick: when the scriptwriters were not confident enough, they decided to make people laugh instead of scare them. This inherent problem has now been improved. Filmmakers also pay more attention to the setting and costumes, trying to find creative materials. These can be beliefs, folklore or even urban horror stories, making the viewer's experience richer and fresher.
Most recently, Ghost by young director Nguyen Huu Hoang chose to exploit the legend of the ghost of the river region, a haunting story that has been passed down through many generations. The work attracted attention because of its strange theme, besides the appearance of artist Viet Huong in the main role.
Viet Huong's efforts
Just a few days after its launch, Ghost has pocketed 50 billion VND , surpassing many competitors to lead the box office chart. The film's content and side stories also became a controversial topic on social networking sites.
With a duration of 95 minutes, Ghost follows Mrs. Le (played by Viet Huong) who works as a corpse collector. Her husband died early, and the character lives with her young daughter in a riverside hut. However, tragedy strikes after Mrs. Le retrieves the body of a boy named Hieu. According to the people in the neighborhood, Hieu drowned because his legs were pulled by a ghost. Making enemies with him puts Mrs. Le's family in danger.
Not long after, her daughter Nhung was taken away by a ghost.
The character of Mrs. Le can be said to be the most dedicated role in Viet Huong's 3-decade career. "This is the first time I have played such a dangerous role. It took me a long time to learn to dive, learn how to survive underwater...", the actress confided at the film's premiere to the press. She said she had to film in the Ca Mau river area for more than a month, soak in cold water for hours every day or constantly encounter health problems...
Viewers can easily see that through the character of Viet Huong in the film. Mrs. Le appears to be hard-working, ascetic, her skin is darkened by sunburn, her short hair is matted with sweat, her face has many wrinkles and age spots, and her eyes are sunken, full of worries...
To be fair, Viet Huong's performance was quite good. She dared to take on many difficult scenes that required strength and effort. For example, the scenes where Mrs. Le had to continuously dive under the vast water, searching for the bodies of drowning people trapped in the water to bring them to shore.
Earlier this year, Viet Huong disappointed with her comeback in Tea (Directed by Le Hoang). The "overact" style of performance, with frequent over-the-top expressions, exaggerated writhing, makes the character dramatic and difficult to empathize with. However, when it comes to Ma da , Viet Huong has been restrained, not overdoing it, and no longer making jokes or throwing jokes to make the audience laugh.
The character of Mrs. Le shows the artist's more seriousness in her cinematic acting: subtlety and intentionality in delving into her inner self. In the scenes where Mrs. Le sits alone, smoking and looking far away towards the endless river, the audience can feel some of the character's inner turmoil, without any need for any dialogue or action to explain.
Sloppy character building
But in reality, despite being placed at the center of the work, the role of Mrs. Le still did not leave a special impression in the hearts of viewers when the film's journey ended.
This comes from many reasons, but the biggest is that the character lacks a “goal” throughout the development path in a film script. Building Mrs. Le as the main character, but Ghost does not answer the question of what the character needs and wants. Further, why must he act like that.
Mrs. Le works as a corpse collector, the director tells the audience that early on. However, why the character chose this profession, and what kept her in the profession for so long, has not been properly explained. Perhaps, the audience only gets a clue through a vague flashback scene, along with the line "the profession chose me, I didn't choose the profession". That is, according to Mrs. Le, she works as a corpse collector because of "a reason": this profession "chose" her after the character personally brought her drowned husband to shore.
This excuse is too thin compared to the difficulties and challenges that the screenwriter throws at the character: from risking her life to retrieve corpses regardless of day or night, facing the criticism of the world, to gradually losing the connection with her daughter - Mrs. Le's only motivation to live at the present time.
At least three times, the character was advised to quit her job. In it, the doctor (played by Trung Dan) once told her, “You and your family must be careful” after learning that she had offended the ghost. However, the only response was unbelievable indifference from Mrs. Le. Even though she witnessed many tragic drowning cases every day, knew the story of the ghost pulling the leg that was being passed around by the villagers, or even when she saw Nhung fearfully recounting the story of being kidnapped by a strange woman, Mrs. Le remained indifferent to her daughter’s safety.
Viewers cannot help but wonder what the character's true concerns are, and whether there is a secret behind Mrs. Le's disregard for the happiness of her small family to do dangerous work. Both of these details were actually forgotten by the screenwriter.
Instead of delving into the inner self of the character on the journey to discover the mysteries and hidden corners of the profession of exterminator, the film is bogged down in the journey to rescue the child with boring scare scenes, old and predictable staging, giving the feeling of horror films from decades ago. The psychological development of Mrs. Le would have left a deeper impression, if the director had shown the audience how the journey of working affects the character, or how those challenges push the character to the limit of struggle and move forward.
The passive and monotonous psychology of the character continues to be shown in the series of actions after Nhung goes missing. Mrs. Le cries, as is natural for a mother who has lost her child. However, the tears she shed have little value, because they only mean belated regret. Before that, the character rarely shows actions, words or gestures that show love for her child, so the series of psychological reactions such as panic, helplessness, despair and then disregarding everything to find Nhung in reality is not reasonable.
In the explosive climax, Viet Huong did not do enough. The connection points between the two extreme emotions from a quiet woman, full of worries to the point of despair, "going crazy" because of losing her child were not shown convincingly enough. Partly because the scriptwriter's way of building the character's psychological path was clumsy, partly because the actress had to constantly "force" herself in the last act of the film. The scenes of fighting ghosts, or being possessed by ghosts looked unreal, along with the cheesy, old-fashioned editing, making the audience laugh instead of being scared.
The way the film's final plot twist is handled in a tearjerker style is also outdated. It not only fails to create deep sympathy for the character Le, but also makes the journey of this corpse-retrieving woman more obscure and forgettable.
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