Tran Thanh is suspected

Tran Thanh's Tet movie trailer received mixed reviews. Audiences feared the director would take a step back after the resounding success of "Mai".

“Records are born to be broken.” Tran Thanh wrote on his personal page after Tomorrow (2024) surpasses another of his works, Mrs. Nu's house (2023), to become the highest-grossing film of all time. Previously, Mrs. Nu's house usurpation Godfather (2021) - the project is also directed by Tran Thanh himself, to sit at the top of Vietnamese film revenue.

Having set box office milestones three times, and with just three works, Tran Thanh has become a trillion-dollar director - an "unprecedented" achievement. Since then, the male director's films have always received great attention from audiences and box office observers. Many people even expect him to continue to break records, as he himself has shared.

However, that hope is causing concern after Tran Thanh released the trailer of The Guardian Quartet - my next brainchild.

Tran Thanh receives many expectations

In an article on Deadline , writer Liz Shackleton mentioned the overall picture of the Vietnamese film market. She said that the recovery rate of Vietnamese cinema after the pandemic is the second fastest in Asia, after India, and the box office revenue growth rate (10%) even surpassed Thailand.

Also in the above article, Liz Shackleton mentioned Tran Thanh with 2 works. Tomorrow and Mrs. Nu's family considers him an important individual in the recent impressive recovery. It is easy to see that not only the domestic media, but also the international press seems to see the 37-year-old director as a typical representative of Vietnamese commercial films.

Ly Hai needs 7 parts of Lat Mat to have a revenue of a thousand billion, while Tran Thanh only needs 3 works to reach the above milestone.

Besides creating revenue milestones, director Tran Thanh's skills are also considered to have improved over time. In his first project, he and Vu Ngoc Dang collaborated to create The Godfather . The film is said to still have a television feel, but is rich in emotion and suitable for Vietnamese tastes. For Tran Thanh, this can be considered an impressive debut, as it immediately turned him from a rookie director into the owner of the highest-grossing work of all time.

His second work - Mrs. Nu's house - is considered a regression in quality compared to The Godfather . However, the film was still a big hit at the box office, creating a lot of discussion on social networks. The work also marked a new turning point for the male director personally, when he personally took charge of a film project for the first time.

And finally, Tomorrow is the result of many years of accumulation by Tran Thanh. The project shows a breakthrough in the director's skills. He moderated the noise which was a big minus point of the Mrs. Nu's House ; characters in Tomorrow also has a clearer journey, not getting bogged down in long-winded stories like in The Godfather . Despite limitations in script and editing, the work is still highly appreciated for its attempt to exploit many cinematic languages in storytelling.

Rapid progress in both skills and box office revenue has brought Tran Thanh to the top position in Vietnamese commercial films. Not to mention, with Mai , the male director also expressed his desire to bring Vietnamese cinema to the international arena.

In the context of the regional cinema industry reaping formidable achievements, when Thailand has had a work on the Oscar Shortlist, Indonesian horror films are increasingly making their mark on the international stage, it is that vision that makes the audience have high expectations for Tran Thanh's next works.

New movie trailer raises suspicion

With his “hands on” 2/3 of the projects, the 2025 Tet film race witnessed Tran Thanh’s dominance even before it took place. Besides having his own works, the male director also invested and was the producer of Love the wrong best friend - another Tet movie. Recent developments show that the Tet movie market is fully capable of at least 2 works reaching the hundred billion milestone. Tran Thanh has clearly shown his ambition when releasing both of his "trump cards".

The image of the "four defenders" in Tran Thanh's latest work.

In fact, the director Godfather continuing to create hit projects is completely within prediction. Before that, Mrs. Nu's house Although not highly rated in terms of quality, it can still create a new milestone in revenue. But now, it is clear that the audience expects more from him than conquering box office records.

However, after the trailer The Guardian Quartet - a project directed and written by Tran Thanh himself, many viewers expressed disappointment, even doubting that this would be a step backward in his career.

According to the trailer, the film revolves around the young couple Quoc Anh (Quoc Anh) and Quynh Vy (Tieu Vy). After a period of being together, they get married. However, a storm comes when Karen (Ky Duyen) appears. Not only that, the young couple's life is also turned upside down by the quartet: Kieu (Uyen An), Aunt Bon (Le Giang), Uncle Muoi Mot (Tran Thanh)...

The Guardian Quartet will be a work with a strong humorous atmosphere, the genre that made Tran Thanh famous as an actor. However, through the trailer, many viewers commented that the film lacks the necessary charm of a comedy. Tran Thanh's scenes were criticized as bland, uninteresting, and intentionally creating laughter through exaggerated situations.

Furthermore, the story that Tran Thanh tells is not new compared to the common comedy motifs on the market, so it has not created an impression in terms of ideas. The interaction between the characters in the trailer creates a noisy feeling, especially the roles of Le Giang and Le Duong Bao Lam.

Finally, acting is the factor that makes the audience argue the most. Except for Tran Thanh, The Guardian Quartet lacks faces that are highly regarded in the field of film acting. Uyen An, Le Duong Bao Lam, or Quoc Anh have not had any impressive roles before. Even for Tieu Vy or Ky Duyen, Tran Thanh's projects are their first cinematic experiences.

The main role played by Tieu Vy has made many viewers worried. She lacks variety in her expressions, and her dialogue also feels unnatural. The interaction between the female lead and Quoc Anh does not have enough “chemistry” to make the audience believe in their love. The acting of the quartet also fails to create sympathy due to too many noisy scenes.

Tran Thanh's Tet movie trailer received mixed opinions because it was noisy and overly humorous.

In 2017, I'm not 18 yet was also underestimated before its release, but later became a huge phenomenon in both revenue and entertainment. The same thing can happen to The Guardian Quartet , especially when the work is directed by Tran Thanh. Not to mention, at the present time, it is probably still too early to conclude the success or failure as well as the quality of the film.

However, with the obvious limitations in the trailer, the audience also has the right to doubt the revenue growth and quality of the new film of the trillion-dollar director.

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