Lunar New Yr is a key field workplace interval in a number of Asian territories, however nowhere was it extra hotly contested this 12 months than in Vietnam, the place a number of native, Japanese and Hollywood motion pictures had been slugging it over the week-long holidays (February 9-15).
Tran Thanh‘s Mai, a romantic drama that delves into the psychology of its feminine protagonist, was the clear winner — on the time of writing it was topping the field workplace with a haul of VND400BN ($16.4M). Produced by CJ HK Leisure, a three way partnership between Korea’s CJ ENM and native outfit HKFilm, the movie has the potential to interrupt the document set by Tran’s personal The Home of No Man, launched this time final 12 months, which is Vietnam’s highest ever grossing movie with VND476BN ($19.4m).
Additionally launched over the vacations, referred to as Tet in Vietnam, was Nhat Trung’s comedy Meet My Pregnant Sister Once more, which got here in second with $3M. Two different native movies additionally opened on February 10 — Hoang Tuan Cuong’s music-themed Vivid Lights (Sang Den) and Le Hoang’s drama Tea — however withdrew from cinemas after a couple of days because the battle was so intense. Additionally opening on this interval had been Japanese animation Spy X Household Code: White, which got here in third, adopted by US studio movies Madame Internet and Argylle.
The busy launch schedule displays a vibrant market that has seen stellar post-pandemic restoration — by some counts the second quickest restoration in Asia following India — together with a younger however dynamic native business. Earlier than the Tet vacation, 89s Group’s horror Quy Cau, from first-time director Luu Thanh Luan, topped the field workplace for six consecutive weeks, grossing greater than VND108BN ($4.5M). The movies set data for a neighborhood horror film in Vietnam even supposing January is normally a quiet month forward of Tet.
‘Quy Cau’
89s Group
However today there are numerous uncommon occurrences in Vietnam’s film market. Though the beforehand state-run business solely opened its doorways 10-15 years in the past, field workplace was rising at a gentle clip of 10% yearly earlier than the pandemic, overtaking Thailand, which has a way more developed and longer established movie business. Final 12 months, Vietnam’s field workplace reached $150M, or round 90% of pre-pandemic ranges, from a complete of 1,100 screens. Not dangerous for a market that in 2010 solely had 90 screens and annual income of lower than $15M.
Development elements
The expansion is due to a couple elements, however one of many largest is the multiplex constructing programmes undertaken by Korean exhibitors CJ CGV and Lotte Cinema, together with native studios Galaxy Cinema and BHD Star Cineplex. Not too long ago, Vietnam has additionally seen the emergence of hip new cinema chains, corresponding to Beta Cinemas and Cinestar, which provide decrease ticket costs geared toward college students and center earnings cinema-goers.
Additionally driving the market is a vigorous native manufacturing sector that’s experimenting with new genres and making a wider vary of movies — once more an achievement contemplating that personal corporations had been solely allowed to begin producing within the mid-2000s. Korea’s CJ ENM and Lotte are additionally energetic in financing and producing Vietnamese-language motion pictures — CJ with movies corresponding to Mai and The Home Of No Man and Lotte with titles together with Le Van Kiet’s 2019 motion movie Furie and Victor Vu’s latest interval drama The Final Spouse.
“It’s a really younger viewers — we estimate that as much as 80% are beneath the age of 25,” says CJ HK Distribution Supervisor Nguyen Tuan Linh. “In order that age group is mainly dictating the tastes of the market: Native romance, comedy and horror in addition to motion pictures from Korea, Thailand and Indonesia.” Justin Kim, CJ ENM’s Head of Worldwide Movie Manufacturing, provides that it’s additionally a demanding and unforgiving viewers: “They’re very energetic on social media, particularly TikTok and Instagram, and can react rapidly in the event that they assume the standard of a film isn’t so good.”
‘The Final Spouse’
Lotte Leisure
At the moment, it’s additionally an viewers that appears to want native movies to Hollywood fare. Solely two US studios titles — Quick X and Elemental — made it into the highest ten in 2023, whereas six native productions made the chart, headed by The Home Of No Man, Ly Hai’s Face Off 6: The Ticket of Future and interval drama Tune of the South. Two Japanese animated movies — the most recent instalments within the Detective Conan and Doreamon franchises — additionally ranked within the high ten.
These outcomes replicate developments throughout a lot of post-pandemic Asia, through which the provision of contemporary US studio movies has slowed down, because of the double whammy of Covid and Hollywood strikes, on the similar time that Gen Z audiences are clamouring for content material that’s extra culturally related to them and that includes Asian popular culture developments and stars.
“Among the many Hollywood movies, we nonetheless discover that the franchise motion pictures work finest,” says Nguyen Hoang Hai, Chief Content material Officer of CJ CGV Vietnam, which handles titles for Warner Bros, Paramount and Common (native studio Galaxy handles Disney and Sony). “It’s the same case with Japanese anime. In the course of the pandemic, audiences turned accustomed to the characters in large Japanese franchises as a result of they began watching them on OTT platforms. Then they had been blissful to come back to the cinema when the movie variations had been launched.”
In the case of movies imported from different nations, Korean, Thai and Indonesian motion pictures are presently among the many hottest. As a result of youth of the viewers, European arthouse is extra of a battle, though French animation has been performing properly. “Manufacturing values, advertising and marketing technique and story are all parts that assist a movie in Vietnam,” says Phong Duong, Supervisor of Worldwide Enterprise for distributor Mockingbird Footage, which just lately scored successful with Thai horror Tee Yod. “Korean movies are well-liked, particularly romance and comedies, however not all Korean motion pictures do properly.”
For now, nevertheless, it’s native movies which are driving the market. ProductionQ CEO Nguyen Hoang Quan, who together with director Tran Huu Tan is behind a wave of profitable native horrors, explains the corporate has had most success with tales rooted in native folklore and traditions, in addition to variations of novels from younger writers with a big Gen Z readership.
‘The Soul Reaper’
ProductionQ
ProductionQ’s most up-to-date hit, The Soul Reaper, is the proper instance of this — billed as Vietnam’s first interval horror film, the movie relies on Thao Trang’s best-selling novel Lunar New Yr In Hell Village. ProductionQ additionally tailored the ebook as a collection, Hellbound Village, for native streamer Ok+ with Netflix buying Southeast Asian rights.
“We’ve had audiences telling us that they beloved the Korean collection Kingdom and had been eager for a Vietnamese collection that additionally had a interval setting and excessive manufacturing values,” says Nguyen. “The story could also be rooted in historic village life, nevertheless it additionally touches on themes like bullying so has trendy relevance.”
Trade in its infancy
However whereas there’s clearly no scarcity of ambition within the Vietnamese movie business, producers and filmmakers all deliver up the identical points — the business continues to be in its early levels, traders are nonetheless cautious following the pandemic and the expertise pool isn’t sufficiently big to fulfill viewers demand.
“Once we begin a brand new mission, we don’t have many choices amongst solid and crew to make the movie really feel contemporary and completely different,” says Dangle Trinh, founding father of sister manufacturing and distribution corporations Silver Moonlight and Skyline Media. “Proper now, coaching is the important thing subject so we are able to have extra expertise to select from and the market can actually develop.”
CGV’s Nguyen, who additionally heads manufacturing subsidiary V Footage, agrees: “Earlier than the pandemic, Vietnam was producing round 40-45 motion pictures a 12 months, however now it’s lower than 30 as a result of many traders come from exterior the movie business and their different companies are actually going through monetary difficulties.”
Nonetheless, Nguyen is optimistic in the long run and thinks the market may attain $200M inside a couple of years. Within the meantime, V Footage is elevating finance for a slate of native motion pictures and CGV is supporting new expertise by financing quick movies. Pham Thien An, the director of Cannes Digicam d’Or winner Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell, is among the many filmmakers who began their careers by making a CGV-backed quick.
‘Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell’
Cercamon
Not like different Southeast Asian markets, Vietnam has not been a significant focus of the worldwide streamers, even earlier than the present scaling again of local-language manufacturing. Netflix filmed a U.S.-led English-language authentic, A Vacationers Information To Love, in Vietnam, and acquires a good quantity of Vietnamese movies and collection (along with Hellbound Village, Netflix just lately acquired BHD’s actuality collection Let’s Feast Vietnam). However not one of the streamers have but ventured into Vietnamese-language originals.
There are a couple of points holding again international funding in Vietnam, together with censorship (which acquired Barbie banned final 12 months for its alleged portrayal of the nine-dash line, representing China’s territorial claims within the South China Sea); rules that forestall international corporations from establishing with no native majority accomplice; and an absence of tax credit or different manufacturing incentives.
Nonetheless, native producers additionally say that just lately the federal government seems extra prepared to hearken to the business about what is required to develop the market. Beneath a brand new Cinema Regulation, which got here into impact in January 2023, the nation’s movie rankings system was up to date, which has made classification extra clear and simpler to work with, and personal corporations are actually allowed to launch movie festivals for the primary time. A model new occasion, Ho Chi Minh Metropolis Worldwide Movie Pageant (HIFF) is scheduled to happen April 6-13, becoming a member of present festivals in Hanoi and Danang.
“Our business has been via difficult occasions in the course of the pandemic, however we’ve got tales to inform and there’s undoubtedly a chance,” says BHD founder and Senior Vice President Ngo Bich Hanh. “We’ve reached a sort of tipping level the place we are able to actually turn out to be one thing if all of us work collectively and have the proper authorities assist.”
Reaching the North America Market & past
Final 12 months was a proud second for Vietnamese filmmakers on the pageant circuit, with Pham Thien An’s Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell and Tran Anh Hung’s French movie The Style of Issues profitable awards in Cannes and promoting broadly. Nonetheless, Vietnamese motion pictures are additionally beginning to develop in mainstream distribution channels, significantly within the U.S..
Thiem A. Pham, founding father of U.S. distributor 3388 Movies, explains that, till three years in the past, there can be just one Vietnamese movie launched each few years in a few U.S. websites. However following the success of Tran Thanh’s Dad, I’m Sorry in 2021, the quantity and measurement of releases has dramatically elevated. “In 2023, we had a minimum of six Vietnamese movies in North American theaters, lots of which performed in 40-70 websites,” Pham says, including that these movies are reaching “a wholly new phase of viewers that had by no means stepped foot right into a movie show earlier than”.
Whereas 3388 Movies targets conventional Vietnamese diaspora markets, it has additionally began increasing into states corresponding to Kansas, Ohio and North Carolina, “Locations that had by no means screened a Vietnamese movie earlier than, however we felt had numerous market potential primarily based on our analysis and on-the-ground expertise,” Pham says.
In the meantime, producers in Vietnam are beginning to experiment with remakes and co-productions as a way of reaching worldwide markets. CJ’s Justin Kim is taking a look at remake alternatives for Vietnamese content material, citing the instance of Indonesian horror Devil’s Slaves, which is heading for an English-language adaptation: “Vietnamese movies may additionally go this route in future and CJ, with its worldwide community, may also help with that.”
As well as, Skyline’s Dangle Trinh is engaged on a slate of co-productions with nations together with the U.S., Korea and Mongolia. “Our predominant concern is that different nations haven’t absolutely recovered from the pandemic, however we imagine that if we management prices and have the proper industrial and worldwide parts, we are able to attain extra worldwide markets,” Dangle says.
Skyline is certainly one of two Vietnamese gross sales brokers, together with BHD’s Vietnam Media Corp, that commonly attends worldwide markets. However in contrast to different Southeast Asian nations together with Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia, Vietnam doesn’t presently obtain authorities assist for abroad promotion. Native producers are hoping that now the federal government is listening to concepts for creating the cultural industries, this is among the first points they may tackle.
