The article reveals part of the movie’s content Mail is the third film project Tran Thanh director, after The Godfather (2021) and Mrs. Nu’s House (2023). The film attracted attention when it gathered a cast of famous actors such asPhuong Anh Dao ,Tuan Tran
People’s Artist Ngoc Giau, Hong Dao… promise a boom in revenue at the 2024 Tet film race.
The work also shows Tran Thanh’s efforts to change, but the limited script makes the story unfinished and lacking weight.
The script is comprehensive
The movie begins with the main character Mai (Phuong Anh Dao) moving to live in an apartment. She quickly meets Duong (Tuan Tran) – a passionate musician but still single.
Tran Thanh is greedy and flamboyant |
Mai (Phuong Anh Dao) and Duong (Tuan Tran) fell in love in an old apartment building.
Mai’s story was created by Tran Thanh and developed with Binh Bong Bot – screenwriter of many famous films such as Blood Moon Party (2020), Adventure of Trang Ti (2021), You and Trinh (2022)…
Through the main character, the crew wants to emphasize the fate of vulnerable women who suffer many social prejudices.
Moving to a new place, Mai was not welcomed but received estrangement from her neighbors. Every day, she is also envied and bullied by her colleagues. When falling in love, the character faces many challenges because of his age and uncertain career.
The story is somewhat reminiscent of the Japanese series Call me Chihiro (2023). Both works portray portraits of sensitive professionals. They always desire love and happiness but do not have as many opportunities as other people.
The idea of the film is quite interesting, but the way the script is exploited is not good and is heavily contrived. Towards the end, the crew tried to add more details to heighten the drama. The relationship between the characters becomes more confused, creating a feeling of forcedness.
The movie is crammed with too many messages, from the “sister” love of Mai and Duong, generational conflicts, class differences, family tragedies to the hidden corners of the massage profession…
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Tran Thanh is greedy and flamboyant – Picture 3 |
From Mai’s love story, the film explores the hidden corners of her life and many other tragedies.
Tran Thanh is greedy
It is Tran Thanh’s latest film, but in reality, Mai was cherished for a long time, announced before Mrs. Nu’s House.
The director is also not afraid to reveal that this is a work with a lot of enthusiasm and a budget of up to 50 billion VND – the highest in his career.
In his third time in the director’s chair, Tran Thanh devoted a lot of effort to his brainchild. Right from the beginning of the film, he included many cinematic camera angles in the work, showing off his skills in exploiting lenses and arranging frames.
Some scenes were also inspired by international works, such as films by Wong Kar Wai or Oscar-winning projects such as La La Land (2016), Parasite (2019).
Tran Thanh wanted to create an emotional “roller coaster”, taking viewers from happiness to sadness, fear to anger. Many movie segments quickly change tone from one genre to another, even some scenes are created in a horror and sensational style to scare the audience.
However, Tran Thanh’s efforts gradually turned into greed and technical exaggeration. Sometimes the director’s arrangement is not smooth, making the film unnatural.
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Tran Thanh is greedy and flamboyant – Picture 5 |
Some images in the film.
Mai also has familiar segments, reminiscent of previous projects labeled Tran Thanh. For example, arguing scenes and swearing lines. Even though the duration is not much, they still make the work noisy, a bit like a web drama, reducing the artistic value of the movie.
Tran Thanh’s greed is also shown in taking on many roles. He not only directed and created the story but also participated in producing, editing and playing a supporting role in the film.
The overwhelming script and unrestrained director make the film’s length long (131 minutes). Many segments are also a bit redundant and can be deleted, typically hot scenes or horror scenes.
Phuong Anh Dao saved the movie
Incarnating Mai, Phuong Anh Dao proves that Tran Thanh did not choose the wrong person. The actress born in 1992 understands the character’s inner feelings and fully portrays Mai’s emotions on the big screen.
In many scenes, Phuong Anh Dao’s diverse acting helps the film retain its appeal, and the story also makes it easier to reach the hearts of viewers. In particular, she really shined when the film reached its climax at the end, leaving a beautiful impression when handling the character’s complex psychology well.
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Tran Thanh is greedy and flamboyant – Picture 6 |
Tuan Tran is somewhat inferior when acting with co-star Phuong Anh Dao.
The remaining actors are at a good level. Only Hong Dao is the most prominent among the supporting cast. She appeared in many scenes and created sympathy for the character of a loving mother. However, the role is still simple compared to the bravery of a veteran actor like Hong Dao.
Tran Thanh’s two previous films both won big at the box office, in which Mrs. Nu’s House set a record as the most popular Vietnamese film of all time (more than 450 billion VND). Therefore, Mai is also expected to explode in this year’s Tet film season.
On the first day of release, the film earned more than 26 billion VND according to statistics from Box Office Vietnam (an independent box office monitoring unit). If this form is maintained, it is likely that the work will soon surpass the VND 100 billion mark in the next few days.
Despite its limitations, Mai is still a project that has investment and creates emotions. This is also the best quality work in the Vietnamese film series shown during Tet this year.