“Elephant head and rat tail” is considered an incurable disease of Vietnamese films. Many films that last up to dozens of episodes make the audience bored because of the absurd and rambling details. Many people admire that Vietnamese movies add the number of episodes just to serve ads?
The film Thong Gia Narrow, which aired on September 16, is receiving the attention of the audience with a gentle script and a cast including the elderly artist Tuyet Lien, People’s Artist Trong Trinh, People’s Artist Ngoc Thu, Meritorious Artist Chi Trung, Meritorious Artist Linh Hue…
The film focuses on the relationship between two family men played by People’s Artist Trong Trinh and Meritorious Artist Chi Trung, promising to bring many funny and fun details. After episode one aired, it received quite positive feedback from viewers.
However, many viewers expressed concern that the film would go into the “head and tail” path of Vietnamese films as well as prolong the duration to earn advertising profits.
Allergic to long but bad movies
In recent years, Vietnamese films have gradually won the hearts of the audience with many attractive projects such as Living with Mother-in-law, Judge, Going Home to Children, Rose on Left Chest, Sunflower Against the Sun, Flavor Love, Love, Sunny Day Returns, May 11 Days, Flower Season Finds Again…
However, most of these are considered to have a good, dramatic opening, but the later they become more and more lengthy, rambling with many absurd details and faded endings.
Typically the movie Huong Vi Tinh Than directed by Nguyen Danh Dung. This is a project that is Vietnameseized from the Korean work My Only One. Initially, the series was scheduled to air 120 episodes but ended up ending in episode 136.
The Taste of Friendship set a “terrible” rating record during half a year of broadcasting, but this is also the most controversial drama in terms of content, film details and actors’ acting.
Phuong Oanh once caused controversy in terms of acting in Flavors of Love
If part 1 is attractive, logical and attractive, in part 2, the content is spread and stretched, causing boredom for the audience. The love story of the couple Phuong Nam (Phuong Oanh) and Long (Manh Truong) is long, seemingly without an end.
The movie Blooming Apple Tree also fell into a similar situation. Although it lasted more than 20 episodes than expected, the film was disappointing because the plot later dragged on and ended so quickly and superficially that it was difficult to understand.
Or the most attractive movie project recently, Thuong Days of Sunshine also inevitably rambling, falling into the construction of stories and characters to prolong the duration. Entering the second part, the film mainly revolves around the family conflict of Khanh – the eldest daughter of Mrs. Nga (the meritorious artist Thanh Quy).
Khanh (Lan Phuong) is constantly pushed into tragedy, from having to pay debts on behalf of her sister-in-law to being tricked into a rape trap. She was scolded by her mother-in-law, while her husband insisted on a divorce and fell into despair and impasse. At that time, the screenwriter Thuong Days of the Sun received countless criticisms and criticisms from the audience because the focus of the film was on the character Trang (Huen Lizzie) and her journey to find her biological mother.
Lan Phuong’s character Khanh is constantly pushed into tragedy
Until the movie “Happiness Garage” being broadcast, it is also frustrating when it comes to healing messages, but the characters constantly fall into a whirlpool of tragedy, with no way out. The content of the film is increasingly rambling, the fun and gentle details gradually disappear, replaced by a slick, confusing drama. Viewers of the film said that the feeling was like being cheated by a movie called Happy Garage but full of unhappiness and suffering.
Stretch content despite the ad revenue?
It is no longer strange that Vietnamese films extend their duration with rambling content later. Many people believe that the station deliberately “smeared” it out to earn advertising profits. It is not unreasonable when films with high coverage have brought in “huge” revenue.
According to calculations from advertising quotations of VTV’s Center for Television Advertising and Services (TVAD), the movie Going Home to Children brought in VND 155.5 billion in profit from advertising sales in 85 episodes, not extra story and other forms of advertising such as running banners or using movie script content.
The movie Go home, children brought in 155.5 billion dong profit from advertising sales
This number is not surprising because movies that cause “storms” such as The Judge, Living With Mother-in-law, A Life of Resentment have also earned more than one hundred billion dong from advertising.
The Judge once achieved a record of advertising price with 220 million VND for 30 seconds TVC. Thus, with 10 minutes of advertising in this movie, the station can earn more than 4 billion VND. With 47 episodes, the profit from advertising far exceeded the figure of VND 100 billion.
Or the movie A Life of An Oath with 72 episodes also brought the station an amount of more than 150 billion VND.
Similarly, due to the attraction right after the first episodes were aired, The Taste of Love increasingly abused ads before, in the middle of the broadcast time frame. Fans pointed out there were 3 5-second commercials, 9 15-second TVCs, 2 20-second clips, and 5 30-second clips. The amount of time spent on ads is roughly the same as the duration of an episode.
However, VTV has earned a profit of more than 1 billion dong per episode. Therefore, when the film drags on with absurd details, it is not surprising. That is also what makes the audience worried about Vietnamese films in the future.
If Korean movies are usually limited to 12 to 20 episodes with condensed and concise content, Vietnamese films are the opposite. Some experts say that Vietnamese films often have a long duration because that is enough for the screenwriter to have an income and the producer to get back the investment and profit from advertising.
However, if profit is put first without caring about the quality and content of the film, leading to the situation of “elephant head and mouse tail”, Vietnamese films gradually turn viewers’ backs. As the domestic and international film market is increasingly invested and created, producers need to focus on the audience.
Vietnamese dramas are holding a high market share, but if this situation continues, it will lead to the obvious result: The audience flees!