"Behind a Love" just aired its last episode on the evening of October 31, ending at episode 1,909. The first episode aired on VTV from April 1, 2017.
On social networks, the post about the final episode of the movie "Behind a Love" attracted attention, with many people comparing and admiring the 7-year broadcast time of this work.
Many viewers left humorous comments: "7 years ago, the price of gold was only 35 million VND/tael, now it has doubled, tripled"; "To see the cruelty of time, look at the price of gold after 7 years"; "The price of gold after 7 years has skyrocketed, almost 90 million VND/tael"; "Knowing that, when I watched episode 1 of the movie, I started saving money to buy gold"; "My family has changed 4 TVs but the movie has not finished yet"; "I have watched it since college, only now after finishing my master's degree have I seen the last episode"...
The show was originally titled "The Secret of the Old Bridge". The original Spanish version had nearly 3,000 episodes, each 25 minutes long, and took nearly 10 years to finish.
The film revolves around the main character Pepa Balmes and her tragic love. While working for a wealthy family, Pepa falls in love with her boss and is robbed of her child by her boss.
She started a new life and was determined to find her lost child. But then, she continued to have feelings for a married man.
When shown in Vietnam, this film broke the record for the number of episodes of "8-year-old Bride" shown in Vietnam from 2014 to 2017 with more than 1,000 episodes.
"8-year-old Bride" was once the foreign film with the longest broadcast time in Vietnam.
During its run, the show, originally titled "Balika Vadhu," kept changing actors. Actress Toral Rasputra once revealed that she had to stop playing Anandi because she felt tired of the show's length.
There are many movies in the world that last thousands of episodes, have slow plots, are predictable and easy to follow.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the first thousand-episode series in the US were called Soap Operas, because the soap companies sponsored the production, targeting the audience of housewives.
The series “The Guiding Light” aired from 1952 to 2009 with a total length of about 15,700 episodes, or “As The World Turns” with 13,858 episodes, which attracted viewers when entertainment was not diverse.
The content of these films is light and slow. Therefore, the audience can leave it unfinished to take care of children, do housework, or even fall asleep, and still understand the plot.
This type of film is also known as "Telenovela", a combination of the words tele (television) and novela (novel). Telenovelas often revolve around family content, the life of a community, and can be exploited from many angles, making the film's duration seem to last forever.
American producer H. Wesley Kenny once shared with The New York Times: "Soap Opera films open up a space for housewives to relax away from the pressures and boring housework. Therefore, these works often create awkward situations, even excessive ones, to appeal to the audience's emotions."
