Is 'Tam Cam - The Untold Story' capable of writing a fairy tale for Vietnamese cinema?

"Tam Cam: The Untold Story" by director and actress Ngo Thanh Van must shoulder the weight of expectation that it will be a "Vietnamese blockbuster".

In recent days, the story of whether or not the CGV cinema system will close with "Tam Cam: The Untold Story" has caused a stir on social networking sites, leading to heated debates.

Many questions have been raised: Is CGV really “drowning” Vietnamese films? Is Ngo Thanh Van’s PR campaign too clever? What is the actual ratio of box office revenue sharing between the two parties?

But perhaps for movie-loving audiences, the most important issue and what they are most curious to know is how Ngo Thanh Van will retell the fairy tale that is so familiar to the Vietnamese people on screen.

Is "Tam Cam: The Untold Story" excellent enough to help the "action woman" of Vietnamese cinema confidently affirm: "I want to dominate the fantasy film genre within the next 5 years"?

Fantasy, action, war

"Tam Cam: The Untold Story" recounts the full story of the gentle, resigned Tam, the stubborn, selfish Cam, the cruel stepmother and the benevolent, magical Buddha...

Of course, we cannot ignore the story of the goby being eaten by Cam’s mother and daughter, the shoe Tam dropped, the golden oriole clinging to the prince, the lush xoan dao tree and the magical fragrant star apple. But if it were just Tam and Cam, how could it be called an “untold story”?

Tam Cam: The Untold Story focuses on action and fantasy.

In fact, "Tam Cam: The Untold Story" mainly tells the story of the prince who fell in love with Tam once, soon found happiness as a couple but had to face threats, dangers, internal and external enemies, and had to shoulder the responsibility of the country. Tam, Cam and the stepmother are actually just supporting characters that embellish the prince's coming-of-age story.

The film combines elements of fantasy, action and war, showing the vague appearance of a "Vietnamese blockbuster". The special effects and battle scenes of "Tam Cam: The Untold Story" also reveal certain limitations, such as the scene where soldiers rush to kill each other, but it is so superficial... The traces of artificiality in the computer-generated images are quite obvious, especially the battle between the two monsters is too cartoonish.

However, the visual effects have made a positive impression, at least compared to the general level of Vietnamese films. The close-combat action scenes are attractive and beautiful. The green mountains and blue waters of Vietnam appear majestic and beautiful in every frame.

The costumes of each character are beautifully designed, pure Vietnamese, which is also an impressive highlight of "Tam Cam: The Untold Story". It can be completely affirmed that this is a work that has been invested in elaborately and clearly shows the ambition and professional determination of the filmmakers.

Ha Vi is disappointing

But unfortunately, "Tam Cam: The Untold Story" has many completely avoidable flaws. Focusing too much on action - fantasy elements, plus fairy tales and romance, makes the film heavy and lacking in emotion.

The prince fell in love with Tam when he first met her, but that important scene in the film was shown very superficially, the audience could not feel the emotions and feelings between the handsome prince and the beautiful, innocent country girl.

Ha Vi is very beautiful but her acting is unprofessional.

The characters in the movie are too clearly portrayed as good and evil, which is redundant and counterproductive. In reality, not all slanted eyes and fierce frowning faces are evil, but evil must be expressed from within.

The way "Tam Cam: The Untold Story" is created makes the characters cartoonish, formulaic, stuck in a predetermined frame, lacking depth of personality.

The acting of the young and beautiful cast also has many problems. Singer Isaac is not really convincing in the role of the prince, and new face Ha Vi is disappointing in the role of Tam.

“Cuong Dola’s girlfriend” has a very suitable appearance, but her acting is weak and bland, with many parts appearing quite “stiff”. Ninh Duong Lan Ngoc is more skilled and performs better, but her role as Cam has too little screen time.

Ngo Thanh Van overexerts herself in the role of stepmother

The most annoying thing is that the characters sometimes seem too dramatic, too operatic, every time they do something evil they burst out laughing. Even a veteran actress like Ngo Thanh Van, when playing the role of a cruel stepmother, has to strain herself to puff out her cheeks and roll her eyes.

Comparing Hollywood with Vietnamese cinema is very lame, but remember the stepmother played by Cate Blanchet in Ciderella, without raising an eyebrow or shouting, but the cruelty and selfishness still spread, palpable.

However, after all the noise and controversy, it is necessary to see that "Tam Cam: The Untold Story" is a work worth watching and worthy of commenting despite its shortcomings. There is no need to carry the mentality of "protecting Vietnamese films" to tire yourself out. The audience only needs to know that there is a film that should not be missed, watched for entertainment and discussion, that is enough.

"Tam Cam: The Untold Story" opens nationwide from August 19.

According to Zing.vn