Wishing to convey an educational message to young audiences
"Flip Side 8" has gone through 8 seasons and before that, the films all brought in high revenue for the producer. What are your feelings about this comeback?
- Every year when the "Flip Side" films are released, I get the same nervousness. I don't know if the audience will accept my new film like the previous stories or not? In this part of the film "Flip Side 8", the crew and I researched and explored other film content and actors acted in other aspects to bring novelty to the audience.
This year, director Ly Hai made a film about young idols and their aspirations and expectations for the future. Why did you choose this story to convey to the audience?
- First of all, it comes from my family. Every day I go back to school, I see the daily changes of the children. Every 3 days, I noticed that the children had changes, attitudes, and personalities. There are stories that I could tell at 15 or 16 years old, but now the children are still very young and understand and speak thoroughly. After that, I paid attention to following and discovered that the children had changed and were different from us.
After that, I looked back and saw that young people were exposed to social networks a lot, updating information was always new. Adults like me who don't update will follow the children.
Therefore, I want to make a film about a story that parents and grandparents can watch and understand, sympathize with their children. After that, they sit down and listen to their children, because they are now very good, have their own dreams and ambitions. Sometimes, adults slow down a little to understand their children better, they cannot tell them to do this or that and to follow their own wishes.
Sit back and talk to your children like a friend and give them the right advice. That is the message, the content I want to convey in the film "Flip Side 8".
In the film "Flip Side 8", the crew invested heavily in the wartime bomb and ammunition scene. By including this scene in a modern film, what message does director Ly Hai want to convey?
- It is also a small idea of mine, the character in this family has three generations. Among them, there is a generation born before the liberation period. I want them to tell young people that our ancestors sacrificed to protect the country in the past, now they have lived much happier.
I was born in 1968, before the liberation, I was about 6 - 7 years old at that time, every time I went to school and heard a bomb, the teacher told us to lie on the table. There were days when, after hearing the bombs fall, we sat up to continue studying, but if the bombs exploded too much, the teacher would let us go home to avoid danger.
Each house in our village will have a basement for relatives to climb down every time they hear the sound of bombs and bullets. My family did not have a basement, but there was a set of planks, my parents packed sandbags up like mountains so that when the whole family heard the bomb, they could go there to hide.
Back then, I was sleeping well at about 3-4 o'clock at night, at that time, the bomb crashed into the board to hide. But there was a bomb falling from the roof to the floor, at that time the red brick floor was subsided, the smoke from the bomb was still stewed. Fortunately, the bomb did not explode, not I was now.
I was born at special times in the country, there are people who just laugh and say that but then leave forever. Therefore, I want young people watching the film to understand and love their current life.
Will accept the audience's comments
After 8 seasons of "Flip Side", in each film, director Ly Hai conveys different messages, where did you get the material from?
- I have two ideas, when making a film, I often avoid the theme that people often do. When I see my child outside of school, surfing social networks, surfing the web to collect information, learn, the family will strictly control the information that the child is learning.
From there, adults like us see a lot of negative information. Therefore, I want to make a film with a positive message. Because if everyone makes negative information, it will lack education for the audience.
I want to make an educational story and character. In particular, how to let three generations watch it together. That is really difficult.
If a story is satisfying to viewers, they have to label it as 18+ but so the children cannot consider it. But if we can make films for young people to watch, we have to accept that there are scenes that adults watch that are bland and not satisfying.
Therefore, filmmakers like us all understand that making films for three generations is considered extremely difficult because it satisfies one person but cannot satisfy another.
In my understanding, "Flip sides" is about creating unexpected situations, making it unpredictable for film viewers, while Ly Hai's films have recently been criticized by some audiences for no longer having the "flip sides" element, how do you think about this assessment?
- "Flip sides" can be understood as creating unexpected stories, each story has different ideas. However, in each part of the film, I inserted a surprise element for the audience. In this 8th part, I and the crew will definitely insert surprising details that are "versatile". I hope the audience will see and see that.
For Ly Hai personally, he wants to surpass his own record, such as the film "Flip Side 8" surpassing the 482 billion VND revenue of "Flip Side 7"?
- It is really difficult to surpass the record of "Flip Side 7". I personally came to cinema from the zero number. I only have dreams and ambitions. I did not give myself many numbers to achieve and overcome. Being a filmmaker helps me become better and more perfect.
Every year, the crew and I always hope to make a meticulous product to send to the audience. What I hope most is that the audience watching "Flip Side 8" will see the film touching emotions, not hundreds of billions of VND.
As for the revenue, I emphasize once again, "Flip Side 8" in my opinion cannot achieve the same number as "Flip Side 7".
As for negative comments targeting his film, how will director Ly Hai respond to this?
- First of all, if there are any opposing or negative comments, I have to thank the audience for their comments.
However, I will return to screen again. What are the genuine comments of the audience, whether they are criticism or praise, what are the attacking comments? After that, I will learn from my experience if there are comments that are not good to adjust to suit future projects.
We cannot listen to one turn left, the other turn right, because that way we are no longer ourselves. I myself understand the story best, my brainchild. We are a daughter-in-law of hundreds of families, we cannot please everyone. Like a person who likes to eat popular dishes but some people like to eat Western food, Korean food... Therefore, we can only arrange which dishes to harmonize with each other so that they can eat together but the taste depends on each person.
During many years of working, is director Ly Hai afraid of failure?
- Everyone is afraid of failure, not just me. I myself have also failed a lot, been ashore in the fields, even pushed up and down, and stumbled many times throughout my career. After each fall, I learned a lesson and grew more mature.
What are your ambitions in the film industry?
- To be honest, until now, I have never thought of being ambitious, I just try to make films better and better every day. I hope the audience can accept my works and not dare to demand anything more.
