"Cam" directed by Tran Huu Tan was inspired by the famous Vietnamese fairy tale "Tam Cam". However, the film does not stick to the original but innovates most of the plot.
The scenario is both familiar and strange.
The film is set in the early 19th century, the family of village chief Hai Hoang (Quoc Cuong) has a secret deal with the devil in exchange for peace and prosperity for the clan.
After his first wife died giving birth to Tam (Rima Thanh Vy), Hai Hoang married his stepmother (Thuy Diem) and gave birth to a second daughter. However, Cam was born with a deformed face, becoming a disgrace to the family. She lived in the coldness of her family, only Tam truly loved and protected her.
When the two sisters grew up, Mr. Hai Hoang was faced with the choice of offering one of his two biological daughters to the evil forces. Cam fell into despair when her father schemed against her, and eventually followed the path of "blackening", taking revenge on those who had caused her suffering.
"Cam" has a script that is both familiar and strange when it incorporates many details from the original fairy tale, but explains it in a completely different way.
The first part of the film is quite fast, crammed with a lot of information that is not in the original fairy tale "Tam Cam". That is the story of Bach Lao in Huong village, the background of Tam - Cam and how the two sisters are treated differently in the family...
However, the time allocation of the scenes is not really reasonable. Some important details are shown quickly, without dialogue, giving the audience the feeling of watching a music video.
Meanwhile, many unimportant scenes are described quite thoroughly, even lengthy, making viewers bored and not understanding the director's true intentions.
In particular, the ending of the film was done hastily and hastily. Although the producer announced a second part of the film right after its first release, that did not change the audience's disappointing and unpleasant experience with the... animated ending.
Strengths in main character's appearance and acting
Like "Tet in Hell Village" or "The Soul Eater", "Cam" has a thorough investment in the setting and character creation. The crew has been quite meticulous in recreating the ancient Vietnamese village in fairy tales, spending nearly 1 billion VND on the main character's makeup, bringing about quite good visual effects.
However, continuing the shortcomings of the two previous works, "Cam" only scares viewers with bloody, dirty scenes and ugly images of the characters. In many segments, the director chooses to narrate and explain instead of showing through the actions and dialogue of the characters.
The film lacks sensational jumpscare scenes. The script is weak, without a plot that is thrilling enough or layered enough to make the viewer curious or have to pause and think.
The sound effects do not help much in creating the dark, eerie atmosphere in the film. In many scenes, the characters' dialogue is stiff, unnatural, and the voiceover does not match the mouth movements.
In return, Lam Thanh My's performance as Cam is a highlight of the work. Especially, after the shock that makes Cam accept to carry the soul of a hateful devil, every gesture, look or cold mouth twitch is well expressed.
Besides Lam Thanh My, the performances of the secondary roles such as Mr. Hai Hoang (Quoc Cuong), Tam (Rima Thanh Vy), and the stepmother (Thuy Diem)... were just enough and well-rounded. Meanwhile, the supporting characters such as Bom (Tran Doan Hoang) and Thai Tu (Hai Nam) had immature and weak acting and dialogue.
On the other hand, the film incorporates many redundant 18+ scenes, causing controversy. The plot still has many flaws such as only requiring Cam to "voluntarily" pay tribute to the devil, the chicken head necklace in the Crown Prince's hand, some scenes using unrealistic special effects...
Despite the weaknesses in the script, "Cam" is still of interest because of its interesting "dark" film idea, bringing a new experience to viewers.
