Cold Sun' makes the audience "overwhelmed" by the film's color: Aesthetic or wrong?

Broadcast during prime time on VTV3, Cold Sun, a highly anticipated Vietnamese TV series, is gradually becoming the center of discussion, not only because of its content or acting, but also because of a seemingly secondary element: the film's color.

In recent episodes, the audience has continuously commented on the visual aspect of the film, where every frame is covered with a layer of glossy light, sweet color tones, and smooth effects to the point of... almost no visual highlights. For many careful viewers, especially those who love cinematic aesthetics, this is not a clever choice, but rather an "outdated" way of thinking about images. Some people even compared: watching Cold Sun is like going back to the time of Korean romance films in the early 2000s, when everything was glittering in an... idealized way.

Compared to contemporary films such as The Jade Bracelet or My Father, The O Lai, where the color tones are carefully processed, emphasizing light and dark to create spatial depth and emotion, Cold Sun is clearly going in a completely different direction. Different but not new. The film's color system is spread out, lacking color transitions, almost flat from beginning to end, making scenes that need to be climaxes also become blurred in terms of visual emotions. It is worth mentioning that the filter changes in the film do not follow the emotional flow or content context, but occur randomly, sometimes causing viewers to "drop the mood" and not understand why the frame changes color.

Of course, to be fair, the Cold Sun crew still shows serious investment in content and acting. Many segments are highly appreciated for their psychological depth, the storyline is tightly led and the script avoids many old ruts. However, in an era where audiences, especially Gen Z, are accustomed to high visual standards from platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or Netflix, the visual element is no longer a decorative element, but becomes an important tool to tell stories, lead emotions, and express the spirit of the work.

Film color, therefore, is not just "beautiful". It needs to serve the story. A layer of glittering filter may be suitable for a sitcom, rom-com or music video, but for a film with a deep psychological and tragic content like Cold Sun, the audience has the right to expect a more harmonious and profound visual language. A beautiful film color must be "beautiful for a reason" because it helps to portray the character's emotions, increase the visual rhythm, and at the same time open up hidden layers of meaning for the viewer to explore.

The issue isn’t technical, as the post-production team clearly has the tools to do a better job of color grading. The question is: what kind of story is the crew trying to tell visually? And does this aesthetic choice actually enhance the spirit of the film, or does it inadvertently “glossify” an otherwise remarkable project?

In a rapidly changing television market, viewers’ tastes are also increasingly improving. Not only does a compelling story or good actors need to be present, a modern television series also needs convincing visuals so that each frame is not just a backdrop, but a part of the actual storytelling language.

Will the Cold Sun crew adjust the color scheme in the next episodes, or was this a visual choice that was "locked in" from the beginning? The answer remains open. But one thing is clear: audiences are no longer as easy-going as before. As Vietnamese television dramas increasingly enter the fierce competition not only with foreign films but also with the strict expectations of domestic viewers, every aesthetic detail, even as small as a layer of color, becomes a factor that needs to be carefully considered.

A film color may not make the whole film successful, but it can certainly affect the way viewers perceive the emotions, story, and spirit of the work. And when that choice is considered "out of place", it is enough to pull the audience's emotions out of the film's rhythm, which is something no serious production team wants.

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