Tet Comedy 2016: Some are worried about being turned away, others are waiting 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 are afraid of losses as soon as they are released, 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 for Tet 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 greed for fame and strangeness of the "noble 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 single wives) but has no money for the wedding, so he has to become an unwilling mafia boss; the dizzying changes of a countryside before the illusion of getting rich or the habit of etiquette of the fake people; the story of corrupt officials who find every way to extort public money (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 “Chon Loi 3” and “Tro Lai”, the other comedy discs have relatively bland and nonsensical 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 skeleton script and then adding “skin” and “flesh” during filming. This lack of professionalism makes comedy sketches 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.

“Many scripts I wrote were good but the audience didn’t like them, while what I was worried about was enthusiastically supported by the audience. 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 if “Dai gia chan dat” and “Lang e vo” do not receive a positive response from the audience this year, he will change his business direction next year.

Director and actor Pham Duc Dung (in white shirt) in a scene from the comedy CD "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 been making 1-2 comedy discs every year to serve the audience every spring. However, finding a satisfactory script for a comedy skit is as difficult as “finding gold in the sand”. That is why this year he decided to “change the menu” with the music program “Tet Van Loc – Laughing to Love”.

Past and present stories… never lost money

For many years, director Pham Dong Hong has remained loyal to the way of exploiting comedy sketches based on recreating folk tales to convey timely messages. The comedy sketch series "Quan truong - Truong quan" and "Chon noi" 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 they also have a large number of releases and very high views online. The sketch "Chon noi" 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, “Burying Words 3” and “Returning”. “Burying 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 doctor (Hiep Ga). The story is about the district governor Bom, who, out of necessity, had to spend 2 coins to buy new pants for his servant, plus a storm that broke several 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 the 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 business tricks of a dishonest fake doctor, growing dirty vegetables to supply to customers, causing them to get diarrhea so that they can easily practice and sell medicine... The humorous situations both bring laughter and focus on the negative aspects of society.

Actors in the comedy "Come Back" 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 the showbiz world, DJ Trang Moon and hot girl Linh Miu. The comedy disc is also built on the backdrop of ancient mandarins. 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 “orbit” of the future 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 Tet are the most familiar and popular. However, if we just stick to folk stories, there will be nothing new, so in the folk stories, the director must find a way to bring in the breath of modern life, which means using old stories to talk about today.

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 doing Tet comedy, Pham Dong Hong has never had to worry about revenue after the disc was 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