*Note: This article contains spoilers for the movie.
Tran Thanh is showing his overwhelming power at Tet theaters as usual. The number of tickets for “The Four Guardians” is many times higher than “Love by Mistake” or “Billion Dollar Kiss”.
Despite the obvious advertising scenes, even though it is a purely entertaining film, not creating any controversy about Tran Thanh's "quality" or "filmmaking skills" like "Mai", "The Four Guardians" still shows its own calculations when it is released in theaters.
“The Four Guardians” brings a new main cast, beautiful appearance, is an interesting unknown to the audience about acting ability. In which, Miss Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen is considered Tran Thanh’s “trump card”, when Karen is the role with the most screen time in the film.
Roles like Karen are familiar on the world screen, especially in America and Korea. These are the types of women that make men go crazy after a crush. It seems like it's just a fleeting moment, but the consequences are unpredictable.
When Tran Thanh announced the cast of "beautiful men and beautiful women" including Quoc Anh (as Quoc Anh), Tieu Vy (as Quynh Anh), Ky Duyen (as Karen)... All three were questioned about their acting ability.
Quoc Anh was once loved when he participated in the TV series “We of 8 Years Later” but his diction was still a limitation of his. When acting in movies, the actor’s diction is even more obvious.
Tieu Vy has acted many times but is not strong enough to carry a main female role throughout the work like Quynh Anh. Tran Thanh's cleverness and calculation in Tieu Vy is to let the beauty queen play a role with many personality and qualities similar to her in real life.
Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen is of course the biggest question about her acting, because only appearing on entertainment game shows, Miss Vietnam 2014 has always had to face public pressure about her stiff face and lack of expressive ability.
However, Ky Duyen created a surprise in “The Four Guardians”. Compared to Tieu Vy, Ky Duyen had many more roles to play, as the role of Karen was complex and had unpredictable psychological developments.
It is the complexity of Karen that helps Ky Duyen show her ability. Tran Thanh's wisdom lies in choosing actors for the character, from Quynh Anh to Karen, all have the same appearance and features compared to Tieu Vy and Ky Duyen in real life.
In many scenes, the two beauty queens revealed their acting and had to "strain" to transform, but from a comprehensive perspective, Tieu Vy played her role well, and Ky Duyen showed surprise for the audience.
Up to now, when “The Four Guardians” swept the box office, Ky Duyen is considered Tran Thanh’s “trump card”. The spooky, calculating, and somewhat “perverted” character Karen has created a wide space for Ky Duyen to both show off her physical beauty and gain depth and diversity in psychological development.
In her first film role, Ky Duyen must thank Karen and Tran Thanh for creating a huge space for Miss Vietnam 2014 to overwhelm the acting of many characters in "The Four Guardians".
With Tran Thanh, his ability to choose actors for his film characters is always praised. Even in a purely entertaining work like "The Four Guardians", in addition to being suitable for the role, Tran Thanh also shows his calculation so that the film has maximum appeal when it is released in theaters.
