Wooden fish and the struggle for Vietnamese short films

The "Miracle" of Vietnamese Short Films

“Super surprising”, that is the comment of young director Nguyen Pham Thanh Dat about the box office revenue of Dan Ca Go. At one point, the film even took the top spot in ticket sales per day (more than 50,000 tickets).

The short film Wooden Fish had surprising box office revenue. Photo: Producer

“I actually had no intention of releasing this film commercially, but when the MV “Miracle” – the film’s soundtrack – became popular online and attracted a lot of supporters, I took the risk of releasing the film in theaters,” Thanh Dat shared. He also said that due to the film’s nature of being only 30 minutes long, many issues had to be recalculated, from screening time, number of screenings to ticket prices, all of which were very different from other films released in theaters.

The Wooden Fish tells the story of Cuong, a coastal man who has to put aside his passion for music to take care of his family. The film is a gentle story about love, aspirations and difficult choices in life. On social networks, the film is a hotly discussed topic. The film's strengths are assessed to lie in its simple, emotional story, beautiful setting, and fast pace. However, many viewers commented that the film lacks climax, the resolution of open-ended situations, and the acting is not really consistent. If we look at it from a positive perspective, the controversies surrounding the Wooden Fish are both inevitable and necessary. Any film that creates a wave of mixed comments upon its release proves that the film has received the attention of the audience, rather than quietly entering and leaving the theater "without fanfare or drums".

But, as the director himself said, the film's popularity is due to the soundtrack. The theme song Miracle, composed and performed by the main actor Nguyen Quoc Hung, is attracting more than 39 million views, more than 229,000 likes and thousands of positive comments on YouTube. Many comments said that the MV and the song were touching, melodious and even brought them to tears. Some people in dire circumstances in life confided that they were inspired, optimistic and hoped that they would also have their own "miracle".

Opportunity for art film

Although The Wooden Fish was only shown for a week, the aftertaste was very lively. One of the issues that many people mentioned was the disappointment of going to the theater because they loved the song, but did not see in the movie what they expected. However, critics were quite supportive of the work and said that the problem did not lie in the movie itself but in the environment where the movie reached the audience.

A film critic said that this is the type of film that should be shown in dedicated theaters, where audiences come with the mindset of wanting to enjoy this type of film, not in a purely commercial theater. The story of Inside the Golden Cocoon is also a typical example. Although it received many international awards, including the grand prize of the Cannes Film Festival (France), when it was released in theaters, the film quickly failed in terms of revenue, with complaints such as "confusing", "making you sleepy while watching"...

Despite the controversy, The Wooden Fish can still be seen as an optimistic signal, even pioneering, paving the way for the release of a short film. Currently, domestic cinema produces quite a lot of short films each year but the output is very limited. Bringing films to commercial theaters is very difficult, almost impossible. Mainly, films are posted online for free, or shown at awards, film exchange programs, film festivals, etc.

In fact, not only short films, documentaries, films showing for political and social needs, etc., there is currently no specialized theater system to show them to audiences in need. In addition, showing them in theaters of this type is also a necessary test to measure the audience's reaction before widely showing them. This is also one of the basic foundations of a developed film industry, which is what the Vietnamese film industry is aiming for.

Knowing that it is difficult, but when the market has a “miracle”, it means that short films have the potential and opportunity to reach a large audience. The first issue is still the quality when the film must really touch the audience. The success or failure of box office revenue at that time is completely in the hands of the audience.

VAN TUAN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/dan-ca-go-va-tran-tro-cho-phim-ngan-viet-post805151.html