The most prominent highlight of the season and the most promising candidate for the Golden Lotus is Red Rain by director Dang Thai Huyen. The film is produced by the People's Army Cinema, in collaboration with Galaxy to release.
It is this coordination that has helped a war film with a theme that is not easy to expand to the public become a cinematic phenomenon, mentioned with a series of records, especially the revenue of over 700 billion VND is certainly a record that is unlikely to break for many more years.
"Red Rain" recreated 81 fierce days and nights in Quang Tri ancient citadel and was treated with modern, strong visual language, in line with contemporary cinematic standards. From sound, fire and explosion to battlefield restoration, the film shows serious and scientific investment. The filming technique is high, the film is restrained, not focusing on illustrations but focusing on the true emotions of soldiers.
Among the strong candidates for the Golden Lotus, the two films with the strongest potential to break out are Tunnel: Sun in the dark by director Bui Thac Chuyen and The War in the Air by director Ham Tran.
geopolitical: Sun in the dark impressed because the way of implementing geopolitical space was very difficult but carried out in depth, evoking a stuffy, tense and vitality-filled atmosphere of the Cu Chi group during the war. The narration is quite attractive, the cast plays a consistent cast and the ability to recreate history through emotional points of view are clear strengths.
Meanwhile, The War in the Air is produced by Galaxy in collaboration with the People's Public Security Cinema, which creates an interesting blend of professional production processes according to market standards and materials of historical events.
The film has a great advantage in aerial combat simulation techniques, a field that Vietnamese cinema rarely reaches due to high costs and complex requirements. The plane simulation scenes and the close-up action scenes were handled quite perfectly, attracting the audience from start to finish.
This is the reason why The War in the Air has become one of the strongest candidates for the Silver Lotus, because it is both entertaining and commercial, both artistic and shows the ability of Vietnamese cinema to advance far in the action film genre.
Therefore, this year's Best Director award is an exciting race, "one-on-one ten" between the two faces of Bui Thac Chuyen and Ham Tran. With Tunnel: Sun in the dark, Bui Thac Chuyen tells the story of restraint, controlling the language of cinema and the ability to lead the flow of emotions, making the film in depth, while also revealing the directors strictness in each frame. As for Ham Tran's way of narrating, it is vibrant and modern, he chose the most suitable actor, Thai Hoa, who handles close-up scenes in a narrow, very talented space, creating an attractive, energetic film equivalent.
This year's cast cast is quite rich, especially in the male role role role in war films. Some young faces in "Red Rain" such as Do Nhat Hoang and Steven Nguyen have shown the ability to express genuine, profound emotions, both the characteristic strength of soldiers and the emotional and humane elements in the moments of life and death.
The War in the Air also has an advantage in acting with characters having to express many complex emotions, even opposing each other such as Loi Tran, Thanh Son, Thai Hoa...
As for the actress award, commercial and market films have outstanding advantages. The female leads such as Phuong Anh Dao in Mai and Viet Huong in Chi dau are considered to have a lot of screen time, many emotions, from family conflicts to urban life conflicts... Next is Kaity Nguyen in The War in the Air.
The overall film season this year shows a positive trend in Vietnamese cinema. Traditional studios are no longer stand alone but have begun to coordinate with private distribution and promotion units, creating films that both retain their identity and catch up with modern production standards. Private companies are also not only following the market but have also begun to include in art projects with depth and rich messages. And the success of many films with "huge" box office revenue really shows that Vietnamese cinema is entering a period of strong development with the diversity of film genres.
