Cinemas expect end of year movie madness

Movie theaters are expecting good crowds for November and December when they screen new Vietnamese and American releases.

The success of Floating Lives raised cinema’s expectations for the Christmas period. The movie, filmed in Dong Thap Province, had a VND10 billion box office in the first 12 days of screening

“When a Vietnamese film with a good screenplay comes out, it shows that local audiences haven’t turned their back on homegrown movies,” Tran Nhut Anh Loan, operations manager of Saigon Movies Media, said.

Although Floating Lives wasn’t released for the holiday or Tet  crowds and had some poor reviews, the film became a phenomenon at the ticket booth. “The success of this film erased the attitude that Vietnamese movies only survive thanks to Tet holiday,” said Ho Hoang Khanh Vy, representative of BHD Star Cinema Co. Ltd. 

Another Vietnamese movie which excelled this year was Fool for Love produced by Early Riser and Wonder Boy Entertainment and directed by Charlie Nguyen. It earned VND3 billion after three days screening.

A new Vietnamese history movie called Aspiration of Thang Long will be released at the end of this year. The movie is about the great founder Ly Cong Uan, who moved the capital from the ancient Hoa Lu citadel to Thang Long (Hanoi). This film will show at Megastar cinemas nationwide from November 12. 

The success of the blockbuster Avatar that earned US$1.5 million in Vietnam started a new era in 3D movies. Megastar Media Co. Ltd. recently added three more 3D cinemas to its lineup making a total of eight. Galaxy Studio JSC also has three 3D screens in HCMC. Saigon Movies Media, BHD Star Cinema have also opened screens.

Megastar brought eleven 3D movies to its cinemas in the last year with two more to come before the Christmas: Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Tron Legacy. BHD Star Cinema will show the 3D movie Street Dance at cinemas nationwide.  

Other Hollywood titles to come this year are: Skyline, The Next Three Days, Paranormal Activity 2, Detective D, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Unstoppable.

Related Articles

• Cinemas expect end of year movie madness
• Local tour operators honored in Thailand
• Tiger Woods and wife divorce after sex scandal
• Mothers share sorrow of war
• Interest rates set to rise after central bank's surprise move

“Floating Lives” fails to win award at Pusan

" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">

An act in the film "Bleak Night". It wins prize for the New Currents category at the 15th Pusan International Film Festival which wrapped up in South Korea on October 15, 2010

Vietnam’s “Floating Lives” film directed by Nguyen Phan Quang Binh failed to win award at the 15th Pusan International Film Festival, which wrapped up yesterday although it has touched hears of the audiences during screening there.

Two South Korean productions won the major awards at the Asia’s top film festival Friday, lauded for their richly evocative reflections of modern Korean society.

Park Jung-Bum’s "The Journals of Musan" and Yoon Sung-Hyun’s "Bleak Night" took two leading prizes for the New Currents category, each worth US$30,000 in cash prize.

Park was a double winner, also picking up the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) award for his film, which follows the problems faced by a North Korean defector when he moves to the south.

"Independent films are always very personal so I am very happy that my film was able to find an audience here in Pusan," AFP quoted him as saying.

This year’s New Currents award attracted 13 entries, from South Korea, Hong Kong, China, the Philippines, Iraq, India, Vietnam and Thailand.

PIFF’s other main award is the Flash Forward prize of $20,000 and is open to non-Asian directors.

This year it was won by Swedish director Lisa Langseth’s gripping production "Pure", which follows the tale of a young woman whose life is changed forever after she witnesses a performance of Mozart’s "Requiem".

In all, a total of 306 films will have been screened over the festival’s 10 days, with 101 of them being world premieres. A total of 182,046 people visited the event, according to organizers.

The New Currents awards were to be officially presented at the festival's closing ceremony at the Haeundae Yachting Center on Friday night.

Related Articles

• Hanoi T&T win first V-League after scoreless draw
• Thien wins second championship title at U18 ITF
• Hanoi model wins Miss Vietnam 2010
• Market moves up sharply
• Green cars begin world race

"Floating Lives" deeply moves Korean audiences

Actress Do Hai Yen (black dress) casting Suong in “Floating Lives” talks with the audience at the Busan International Film Festival from October 7-15 in South Korea

"Canh Dong Bat Tan” (Floating Lives) has brought audiences of the 15th Pusan International Film Festival to tears in a room filled with the weight of human despair and the beauty of resilient emotions.

It competed in the New Currents category at the film festival which wrapped up today in Pusan port city, South Korea.

South Korean audiences saw the film before Vietnamese can do as of October 22. Silence fell in two projection rooms with nearly 800 seats in Lotte movie-theater as the Monochord’s lament came to a halt. The silent sound of tears was only broken by a heavy round of applause.

Adapted from Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tu’s novel, "Boundless Rice Field", the movie directed by Nguyen Phan Quang Binh centers around a family living in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta and a man’s search for romantic redemption.

Father Vo (Dustin Nguyen), daughter Nuong (Lan Ngoc) and son Dien (Vo Thanh Hoa) live nomadically on a boat after the father burned their house down in retaliation for his wife's infidelity.

They drift from one rice field to the next, rearing ducks and doing occasional handy jobs. When Suong (Do Thi Hai Yen), a hooker, joins the family to evade an angry mob, Nuong and Dien welcome her as a surrogate mother and object of pubescent fantasy, while a volatile relationship develops between Vo and her.

Young director Nguyen Phan Quang Binh reaches his audiences most deep-seeded emotions as he digs down through his characters’ cruelty, loss and despair to the most fundamental need and desire for love.

The waterways not only hold and lead the family’s boat, but also symbolize the characters sifting, drifting and endless fluid emotions while also embodying the graceful flow of Binh’s visual storytelling.

The actors deliver an outstanding performance. Nuong conveys not only her suffering but also her strength in containing it and mastering it while living on the edge of that painful abyss seen only through her piercing look. She is able to elicit strong emotions and bring her audiences to earnest tears without long and elaborate dialogues, but with the sheer strength of her acting.

Hai Yen (Suong) surpasses all expectations and proved her critics wrong as she aces a role many had deemed unsuitable for her talent. Her performance makes the onscreen Suong come to life more powerfully than even the carefully described one in the book. Her careful balancing of emotions, with love and compassion on one end and despair on the other, bursts out of the screen with unmatched vigor.

Dustin Nguyen (Vo), plays the most challenging role, as his rage builds up throughout the movie fueled by the pain and shame caused by his wife betrayal.

His is a very articulated acting tale of pain and interior torments ordered through daily acts of cruelty.

The carefully arranged and paired soundtrack talks directly to the audience’s hearts. The sad and lonely sound of the traditional Monochord and the melodies composed by Vietnamese Quoc Trung emerge as direct testimonials from the true soul of the Mekong Delta.

Nguyen Ngoc Tu’s "Boundless Rice Field" was published in the South Korean version in 2007.

All 12 films competing in the New Currents category at Pusan International Film Festival reflect contemporary issues like poverty, war, overpopulation and loss of traditional values. The movies include “The journal of Musan” (South Korea), “Eternity” (Thailand), “Strawberry Cliff” (Hong Kong), My Spectacular (China), The Quarter of Scarecrows (Iraq) and Ways of the Sea (Philippines).

Tickets to “Floating Lives” were sold out one week before the screening, according to organizers.

Related Articles

• Market moves up sharply
• Girls gear up for Vietnam’s Next Top Model
• Credit-Thirsty SMEs Seeking Ways To Survive