Directed by director Nguyen Huu Hoang, "Cam Trich", "Ma Da" inspired by Vietnamese folk horror legend in the river.
The film revolves around Ms. Le ( Viet Huong ), a woman who works as a drowning body in a small village near Nam Can mangrove forest. After her husband unfortunately passed away from drowning, Mrs. Le had to raise her daughter Nhung (Da Chuc) alone to study.
The incident occurred when Ms. Le picked up the body of Hoang (Hoang Meo), a villager who was good at swimming, practicing fishing for a long time. The strange death caused the villagers to spread the story of "Ma Da pulled rolls", related to the "red shirt girl" hugging the river and jumping in the past, becoming a devil to find ill -fated goals.
At this time, on the way to school, little Nhung accidentally picked up an old doll left behind on the riverbank. From here, a series of strange phenomena and drowning incidents continuously occur, Nhung's mother and daughter became the object of chosen by ghosts to borrow the body of the soul.
At the beginning of the film, "Ma Da" was impressed by the Fly-Cam camera covering the space of the beautiful mangrove forest area that was Presidential, hidden full of risks. In particular, in the thick black night, the image of the person who worked on the small boat with the lighting light became smaller and lonely among the immense rivers.
Inherent strength in the thriller series (thrilling, sensational), the director successfully creates a scary, thrilling atmosphere right from the beginning of the film, making viewers both scared and eagerly waiting for details next story.
Besides the background, makeup, and character design are also a plus point for the film. The work depicts quite clearly about the lives of the people of the western river, with simple roofs, old frayed costumes, dark skin, fibrous roof because of the rain and sun.
In terms of acting, Viet Huong is the only bright spot of the movie. Escape from the image of a comedian, the female artist successfully transformed into a flooded woman who had suffered, witnessed the pain of the separation.
Sometimes, the eyes of pain when looking at the space when looking for children, or the panic, desperate to crazy of Ms. Le made the audience both merciful and unable to shudder in fear.
Along with that, the sound effect is well adjusted, creating a horrific rhythm throughout the work, jump-scare shots (combined with sudden changes with creepy, sensational sound) that makes The audience was heartbroken.
But that's all.
As time goes on, "Ma da" reveals its simple, superficial content, especially in the last third of the film. Overusing predictable jump-scares makes the audience bored and no longer as scary as before.
The film only includes a handful of characters. However, apart from Viet Huong, other characters appear quite faint, not much acting land and not impress. In particular, Cam Ly and Thanh Loc - which was widely promoted before the film aired - only appeared in a few frames, could not express their acting ability.
Although the script is thin, the film still has many flaws and holes in the plot. The effects and cinematography in some scenes were not good, leaving the audience unsatisfied.
Especially at the end, the way to confront Ma da is too simple and easy to predict. The work almost failed to create a climax.
The final "twist" (turning point, direction of the story) causes disappointment, making the film lose its humanity. Despite knowing this may be the director's intention to let the work through the censorship round, the audience still shook his head bored because the ending lost all obsession, causing the whole story ... as a joke.
