First encounter with “Face Off”
In part 1, Ly Hai plays Khai – a poor working young man who, because he wants to change his life, joins his best friend Thang in a diamond mining mission. But after digging up the diamond, Khai's friends began to turn against each other, harming each other to win the valuable reward.
As the first “Face Off” project, Ly Hai played a “4 in 1” role, being the director, producer, screenwriter and male lead. He invested 10 billion VND heavily in “Face Off”, as well as “molding” the script for a long time to make it really harmonious. Regarding the reason for playing the main role, Ly Hai said that the film crew once held a casting for the role of Khai but in the end could not find anyone compatible, so the director had to “also” play this central role.
“Acting with all your life” in “Face Off 2: Film Set”
In “Face Off 2: Film Set”, Ly Hai continues to participate as director and male lead. This time he plays the role of Trung – a stuntman who joins his younger brother Thanh as a stuntman in a movie project. However, when the project was suspended due to lack of capital, Trung and Thanh accidentally got involved in an illegal business deal, in which the two brothers had to find a way to save their lives and overcome dangerous situations.
Ly Hai continued to participate in many action scenes and explosions in “Face Off 2”, leading to many injuries. During a motorbike chase segment, Ly Hai unfortunately had an accident, causing him broken ribs and scratches all over his body. At that time, Ly Hai fell in front of the truck. The haunting moment made Ly Hai remember forever, later he only dared to play a cameo role and not play the main character anymore.
Back in “Face Off 4: We Have Guests”
Because of an accident in part 2, Ly Hai was “absent” as an actor in “Face Off 3”. However, in part 4 “The House Has Guests”, he returned with an interesting cameo role, arousing the audience's curiosity. In the film, Ly Hai plays Bay Chon, a person who claims to have experience in exorcising evil spirits, making the main characters remember him forever with his huge birthmark on his face.
Initially, the role of Bay Chon was originally assigned by Ly Hai's crew to a famous guest actor. But because this person had a schedule problem, Ly Hai personally took on the role of Mr. Bay Chon catching snakes, thereby creating a unique impression in the hearts of the audience. From now on, Ly Hai began a series of “cameo” roles in his own films, as a way of “signing his name” to the series of works he created.
Chasing by buggy in “Face Off 5: 48h”
Entering “Face Off 5: 48h”, Ly Hai continues to have a memorable supporting role, even with many “bloody” action scenes. Ly Hai plays the role of Uncle Tu, always appearing when the main characters are in danger and being chased.
In the movie, Ly Hai has a spectacular eye-catching chase with the characters using a buggy, wriggling through narrow alleys. In addition, Ly Hai also demonstrated his canoe driving skills, along with Hien (Vo Thanh Tam) and Lam (Mac Van Khoa) chasing the villains to save Hien's daughter.
Rare bad guy role in “Face Off 6: Ticket of Destiny”
After a series of positive roles, on the side of justice, in “Face Off 6: Ticket of Destiny”, Ly Hai has a rare evil role, bringing something new to the audience. Ly Hai's character in “Face Off 6” has a mysterious background. While the friends in the movie were fighting over the lottery ticket, this character suddenly appeared, holding the lottery ticket and threatening to tear it up.
Ly Hai once shared that although he only appeared quite a bit, his role in the film was of great importance. This character is cruel, unpredictable, has a “thug” nature but still has funny moments when cornered, because evil never has good results.
The bad husband of “Face Off 7: One Wish”
Returning to the latest movie “Face Off 7: One Wish”, Ly Hai once again plays a bad role, causing frustration to viewers. In the film, he plays Ba Deo – husband of Ba Lanh (Dinh Y Nhung). Ba Deo was drunk all day long, wandering around with a bottle of wine in his hand, asking people for money to go out drinking. Meeting his wife and children, Ba Deo asked for money, even snatching the money Ba Lanh had just earned to buy alcohol.
This is not Ly Hai's first “villain” role, but it is certainly the most impressive. Ba Deo is the image of domestic violence, the toxic masculinity of considering yourself the most important in the family, and forcing your wife to serve you like a servant. Ly Hai sacrificed his usual good image to show a strange “dark side” on screen, thereby demonstrating his “not average” acting ability. However, the role of Ba Deo was still facilitated by Ly Hai to “start over”, gradually having positive changes later on.
Even though he is only a supporting role, Ba Deo is still “favored” by the crew in many ways. To build a private hut for Ba Deo in the movie, the crew took advantage of a… chicken coop. Producer Minh Ha also “teased” her husband that Ba Deo in the movie always drinks vegetarian food and fruit cakes. Both husband and wife also had a “price strip” of Ba Deo's clothes, joking that the whole set of clothes cost up to 40 million VND because they were all “branded goods”. In addition, Ly Hai also had a scuffle scene with Dinh Y Nhung in the movie. The two cooperated well, not afraid to use strong hands to express Ba Deo's brutal nature and Ba Lanh's miserable situation right at the beginning of the film.