Tet Comedy 2016: Some worry about being turned away, others sit and wait to count their money

As scheduled, every year-end, private film studios rush to release many Tet comedy discs to serve the audience.

However, for many years now, the Northern Tet comedy market has had to face a situation where many comedy discs have just been released and are afraid of losses, and many comedy discs are just waiting to count the revenue.

Lack of professional script, laughter fades

Up to this point, the Northern comedy disc market has had a number of Tet comedy discs released such as: “Dai gia chan dat 2016”, “Lang e vo”, “Tien do”, and coming soon are the comedy discs “Chon noi 3”, “Tro lai”…

Most of the comedy discs this year continue the traditional exploitation of the funny and sad stories behind the bamboo fences of the village. Based on the context of the Vietnamese countryside, the comedy discs focus on exploiting stories about the fame-seeking and strangeness of the "rich people pretending to be rich" (Barefoot Tycoon), the ironic situation of a "young pilot" who accidentally flies an "old lady's plane" (The Village of Singles) but has no money for the wedding so he has to reluctantly become a mafia boss; the dizzying changes of a countryside before the illusion of getting rich or the etiquette of the fake people; the story of corrupt officials trying to find every way to plunder public property (Burying Words 3); the journey back to the roots, back to one's true self to accept the inherently difficult life (Return)...

A scene from the movie "Barefoot Tycoon 2016". Photo: Provided by the film crew.

Except for the two comedy discs “Chôn lời 3” and “Trở lại”, the other comedy discs have relatively bland and nonsense content. The stories they mention are not typical of today’s countryside or the laughter created is forced. In addition, the repetition of a single exploitation from one comedy disc to another creates boredom for the viewers.

One of the reasons for this is the scarcity of comedy scripts written by professional writers. Because there are no scriptwriters, producers are forced to let directors write and perform by creating a basic script and then adding "skin" and "flesh" during filming. This lack of professionalism makes comedy skits patchwork, fragmentary and lacking consistency. In addition, the details, stories, dialogues... are not invested in, so they lack subtlety and value.

Director Tran Binh Trong, the “father” of “Dai gia chan dat” and “Lang e vo” shared that all the Tet comedies he directed were scripted by him. And he often worked in a “lucky” mindset like a fisherman because he did not really understand the tastes of the audience.

“I think many scripts are good but the audience doesn’t like them, but what I’m worried about is what the audience enthusiastically supports. Balancing entertainment with true art is difficult,” the director said.

Director Binh Trong himself admitted that making comedy films is very hard, there were times when he could only sleep for 3 hours… And the scariest thing is that when the film is finished, the audience does not laugh. The reason for this fear is the script problem. This director also revealed that this year, if “Dai gia chan dat” and “Lang e vo” are not well received by the audience, next year he will change his business direction.

Director and actor Pham Duc Dung (in white shirt) in a scene from the comedy disc "Tien Do". Photo: Provided by the film crew.

Similarly, young director and producer Pham Duc Dung, the “father” of “Crying or Laughing” (2015) and “Prospects” (2016) also admitted that the most difficult part of making a Tet comedy is the script. A comedy will be 80% successful if it has a good script and skilled actors, the remaining part is the staging. However, “digging” out a good script is not easy and that is why producers are forced to “blindly jump in” by using the script they wrote to make the film even though they know the laughter may not come yet.

Comedian Vuong Rau himself also shared that for the past 10 years, he has regularly made 1-2 comedy discs every year to serve the audience every spring. However, to have a satisfactory script for a comedy skit is as difficult as "panning for gold". That is why this year he decided to "change the dish" with the music program "Tet Van Loc - Laugh to love".

Ancient stories, modern stories… never lost capital

For many years, director Pham Dong Hong has remained loyal to the way of exploiting comedy skits based on reenacting folk tales to convey timely messages. The comedy skit series "Quan truong - Truong quan" and "Chon loi" are not only the exclusive brand of this director but also highly appreciated in the Northern comedy scene. In fact, up to now, no comedy disc has "surpassed" these "old-fashioned" comedy discs. The proof is that not only are they always leading in revenue among Tet comedy discs, but these comedy discs also have a large number of releases and very high views online. The skit "Chon loi" after 15 days of posting on Youtube had 4.1 million views, "Quan truong - Truong quan" (Xuan Bac, Tu Long) reached 4.6 million views.

The laughter in Pham Dong Hong’s skits is profound, bitter and penetrating. Each line, each detail, each setting… has a clear investment of intelligence and carries a clear message.

This year, Pham Dong Hong continues to make two comedy skits, “Buried Words 3” and “Return”. “Buried Words 3” continues the humorous story in the house of the district governor (Pham Bang – Minh Hang), the district governor Bom and his wife (Quang Thang – Kim Oanh), the village chief (Quoc Anh) and the herbalist (Hiep Ga). The story is about district governor Bom, who, out of necessity, had to spend 2 coins to buy new pants for his servant, plus a storm broke some tree branches, so he came up with the “initiative” to cut down all the trees on both sides of the district road to collect money and share it. The village chief, who had been oppressed by district governor Bom for a long time, already had a grudge against him by cutting down the row of trees in front of the district governor’s residence.

In addition, the comedy disc also mentions the unscrupulous fake herbalist's business practices of growing dirty vegetables to supply to customers, causing them to get diarrhea so that he can easily practice and sell medicine... The humorous situations both bring laughter and focus on the negative aspects of society.

Actors in the comedy "Comeback" take a souvenir photo during the break. Photo: PDH.

The disc “Return” features People’s Artist Hong Van, People’s Artist Trung Hieu, People’s Artist Tien Dat, Meritorious Artist Thu Hanh, Van Luong, Giang Coi... and two young faces rising in showbiz, DJ Trang Moon and hot girl Linh Miu. The comedy disc is also built on the ancient mandarin background. The content deals with the journey back to the reality of one’s own life through humorous stories when being thrown back to the past, when being diverted to the future “orbit” of a young mandarin...

Explaining why he has remained loyal to the same style of making Tet comedy discs for many years, director Pham Dong Hong said that he does not like to be "incompatible". According to this director, 70% of Vietnamese people come from the countryside and there is nothing better than Tet when the whole family gathers around the dinner table to enjoy spiritual cultural products associated with pure Vietnamese culture. That is the reason why folk comedy discs during the Lunar New Year are the most familiar and popular. However, if we just stick to folk stories, there will be nothing new, so in the folk stories, directors must find ways to bring in the breath of modern life, meaning using old stories to talk about the present.

According to this director, his way of doing things is not new and many people have known about it for a long time, but not everyone who knows can do it. With this way of making Tet comedy, Pham Dong Hong has never had to worry about revenue after the disc is released. And that is the reason why he is confident that he will continue to be "loyal" to comedy discs like "Quan truong - Truong quan" and "Chon noi" in the future./.

According to Dan Tri