Ghost Light: suspected of 'dominating theaters' thanks to dirty seeding, 'surpassing' Tran Thanh - Thu Trang?

The Lunar New Year holiday has not been over for long. If we follow the tradition established in the previous 3 Tet seasons, then the hottest movie at the box office and on social media at this time should be Tran Thanh's work.

However, this year, the cinema scene in the first days of the year has continuously changed, the "twists" are even more intense than in the movies when Tran Thanh, and Thu Trang, both lost the top 1 position to a rookie - Den Am Hon. The movie does not have a great director, does not have a star cast, and the subject is also considered not really suitable to watch in the days just after Tet, near Valentine's Day, but it is currently causing a strong craze, earning nearly 60 billion after only 4 days of release.

The Ghost Lamp is inspired by the work The Tale of Nam Xuong, telling a story that takes place in a feudal Northern village. Thuong, a hard-working young woman, takes care of her son Linh alone while waiting for her husband to return from the army. One day, Linh picks up a strange lamp and begins to call the shadow on the wall his father. The village shaman warns that this is a ghost lamp, capable of summoning evil spirits. Thuong's unjust death after her husband returns, the connection between the two worlds of yin and yang, and the stories about worship in Vietnamese folk culture are recreated.

In fact, The Ghost Lamp has a very interesting plot, the way the director decided to only take inspiration and then renew the story of the Nam Xuong girl by depicting the image of the underworld is also worth looking forward to. However, the way of development, the details, images and even the character setup do not solve the story, making the very interesting plot become a hollow whole.

The topic sounds big and bold, but the way it is resolved and implemented is not satisfactory, disappointing the audience. The underworld setting is an extremely valuable detail because it has not been exploited much on Vietnamese screens, and it is also something that Vietnamese people are very curious about, creating a feeling quite similar to many classic films of international cinema.

Believing in a review on TikTok, Ms. Mai Phan (32 years old, Go Vap district) immediately bought tickets to see "The Ghost Light" by director Hoang Nam. Her excitement was extinguished when she watched the movie in theaters. After 15 minutes, she decided to leave and not continue watching because "the movie was disappointing with a clumsy, predictable script, fake special effects and disastrous acting".

"Who will pay me back the 130 thousand VND for the ticket and the time I spent going to the cinema to watch the movie? From now on, I will not go to the cinema to watch Vietnamese movies anymore. I feel like I am a victim of movie PR tricks. When the quality of the movie is contrary to the PR articles and reviews online," she was upset.

Like Mai Phan, tens of thousands of customers have "fallen into the trap" of Vietnamese films' media tricks. The hashtag #noikhongvoitruyenthongban... has appeared on social media platforms in recent days.

While the "victims" were upset and disappointed, posting reactions on social media, the filmmakers, distributors and the team behind them breathed a sigh of relief because their revenue skyrocketed. Even the directors and producers continuously boasted about revenue milestones of hundreds of billions, several hundred billions.

In fact, all 3 Vietnamese films shown during Tet this year are not highly rated for their scripts (in the case of Love by Mistake for a Best Friend, it is a remake script that does not create curiosity for the audience, and the original script is not excellent either).

From the outside, Vietnamese cinema is flashy and very attractive. Especially the number of films with revenue of over 300 billion VND is increasing every year with the appearance of directors with billions like Ly Hai and Tran Thanh. However, in reality, not everyone is lucky enough to enter this field.

Ghost Light: 10 days of release, 'picking up a basket' of controversy, actual revenue is surprising Lan Chi17:05:58 18/02/2025According to Box Office Vietnam, at 11:30 p.m. on February 17, the film "Holy Light" reached the 100 billion VND mark after 10 days of release. Previously, on February 13, the film also recorded the achievement of selling 1 million tickets after 7 days of release.