"Dan Ca Thuong" is a rare Vietnamese film released in theaters with a duration of only 29 minutes. The ticket price for the movie is only 39,000 VND but is ranked at 1,595 screenings, more than the blockbuster "Superman 2025".
According to Box Office Vietnam, the film brought in more than 3.2 billion VND in revenue. On July 15, "Dan Ca Thu" attracted attention when it had 1,800 screenings per day, with a revenue of 1.5 billion VND, more than double the blockbuster "Superman 2025".
It can be said that "Dan Ca Thuong" was released in theaters thanks to the viral success of the soundtrack song "Phec Trang". This hit surpassed Bac Bling to top 1 on Billboard Vietnam.
The gentle melody and lyrical lyrics of the soundtrack brought "color" to the short film directed by a young face.
The film won the 2024 Golden Kite Award in the short film category, and is also a graduation work of the Hanoi University of Theatre and Cinema by director Nguyen Pham Thanh Dat.
"The Wood Fish Union" tells the story of Cuong (Quoc Hung) - a young man from the coastal region who chose to stay in his hometown to fish and go to the city to pursue his dream of making music. Cuong's passion for music was supported by his wife, but he chose to keep his boat to support his wife and children.
Many audiences pay attention to "Dan Ca Thuong" because the film is very short, the ticket prices are easy to access and the curiosity about the story is more complete than the MV "Phep Hoa".
However, the 29-minute film was commented to be disjointed and confusing, like a long music video. The acting of the cast is not uniform, Lanh Thanh plays the role of Cuong Tran but the remaining characters still limit their expressions and dialogue.
Some conflictive scenes were not made because the actors had not been able to push the emotional climax.
The film is advertised as "not special, not stunted", however, the scene where the male lead falls into the sea, playing a musical instrument with a herd of fish in the ocean is said to have been edited with technology, using special effects to intervene.
After being embroiled in controversy, the fanpage of a theater cluster edited the post to "Not acting. Only the real sea and a young person go to find the real passion".
With a price of 39,000 VND, "The Wood Fish Team" will find it difficult to break through in revenue when competing with foreign blockbusters. The 29-minute duration was commented by many people as "the film is over before they know what happened".
However, a new rookie director's short film that could be released in theaters with more than 1,500 screenings has been an encouraging journey.
From a music video, short films have reached audiences and topped the box office, attracting many young people to the theater. For the "Wod Fish", those numbers are a miracle.
