Exploiting the treasure trove of folk tales
The movie “Cam” became the domestic horror film with the highest opening revenue in the history of Vietnamese cinema. The film marked the second time the fairy tale Tam Cam was told in the language of cinema. “Cam” with its horror-tinged color was arranged to show about 5,000 times per day, quickly approaching the milestone of 100 billion VND and becoming a hotly discussed phenomenon.
In fact, Vietnamese cinema has had many films adapted from fairy tales and folk tales. One of the first films to use this material was “Da Trang Xe Cat Bien Dong” released in 1995. Since then, many works have been inspired by fairy tales such as Thach Sanh, Son Tinh Thuy Tinh, Trang Quynh, Thang Bom, Bac Kim Thang... but have not left an impression.
Folk tales have the advantage of having a place in the spiritual life of Vietnamese people, but that advantage is also a challenge.
Before “Cam”, the most prominent film adaptation of a fairy tale was “Tam Cam: The Untold Story”. The film attracted a strong cast of stars such as Ngo Thanh Van, Ninh Duong Lan Ngoc and Isaac, but was criticized for being too adapted, straying from the original. How to preserve the value of the original story while still creating a new and attractive plot for a movie is a difficult problem to solve.
New direction for Vietnamese movies
One of the limitations of the film genre adapted from fairy tales is the quality of special effects and the level of investment in settings, costumes...
Discussing this story, critic Nguyen Phong Viet commented that spending little but wanting to make a lot of profit is impossible at this time. With a production budget of 24 billion VND, the special effects, post-production, and makeup of "Cam" have had remarkable investments. Compared to before, the scene where the Prince fights the monster in "Tam Cam: The Untold Story" or the scene where Thach Sanh fights the ogre in "The War with the Ogre" used fake VFX (graphic effects), likened to an old-time video game.
Mr. Nguyen Phong Viet commented: “The movie “Cam” is an example showing that the level of investment in Vietnamese horror films is no longer the same as in the past, with little money, few settings, few actors… to ensure high capital recovery. The appropriate level of investment for the film will greatly determine the quality when it is released in theaters. Spending nearly 1 billion VND on masks to make up Cam, or investing reasonably in costumes for the cast in the movie “Cam” shows that the producer has closely followed market tastes. A big game is difficult to succeed if the initial calculations are trivial.”
Behind the revenue race is the never-ending story of the Tam and Cam sisters, from each perspective, good and evil are seen from a different angle. Critic Nguyen Phong Viet said, "Cam" chose a different angle to retell the story that the audience already knows by heart.
“Nothing is right, nothing is wrong, no one is completely good and no one is completely bad. Just like when I first read the story of Tam and Cam, I was a bit confused, in the end, is Tam or Cam the scariest person in that story? And when you choose Tam or Cam, you do not represent right or wrong, good or bad, but that choice only explains one thing, at that moment, when you choose, which direction your consciousness is leaning towards.”
Looking at the initial success of “Cam”, it can be seen that exploiting fairy tales and folk tales in Vietnamese cinema is a potential trend. However, to conquer the audience, works need to have a creative vision, balancing between preserving the fairy tale color of folk culture and finding a way to tell it to gain a foothold in the fiercely competitive Vietnamese cinema market.
