A new "dish"
In Vietnam, Son Tung MTP is considered the pioneer of music documentaries with Sky Tour Movie released in 2020. The film recreates Son Tung MTP's performances in the tour of the same name at 3 locations in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City. For those who do not have the opportunity to watch the show live, they can still enjoy the male singer's performances on the big screen realistically.
Despite its limitations, Sky Tour Movie is praised for its cinematic camera angles, vibrant sound and high aesthetics, fully recreating shows and behind-the-scenes stories. With a large fan base, the film made its mark and was one of the first artist documentaries to be welcomed in Vietnam.
Immediately after that, the film "Color of the Grass" about the life of "yacht" Tran Tien was also released at the end of 2020. The film belongs to the music documentary genre, telling the slices of musician Tran Tien's singing career from his youth to the present. "Co rau Co Ba" also featured the appearance of family, friends and many singers associated with the male musician.
Next, in 2023, the music documentary genre continued to return to the audience through "Tri am the movie: Nguoi ban gian" directed by singer My Tam herself. The film attracted attention because it is a special project to celebrate 20 years of singing by the female singer and she was the one who edited more than 80,000 files to create a complete product for the audience on the big screen. During the filming period, My Tam also held press conferences and conducted cinetours to meet and interact with the audience.
Anh trai say hi: The villain creates a hero attracted attention when it entered the top 2 highest-grossing music documentaries at the Vietnamese box office. The film is nearly 2 hours long, recording moments from 4 concert nights of 30 "brothers", combined with stage performance and behind-the-scenes practice. Despite the controversy, the film still attracts audiences thanks to its communication strategy and the surprising appearances of artists at the theater.
At the same time, Vietnamese Concert - We are Vietnamese by Hoang Thuy Linh was released, marking her return after a period of absence and celebrating 13 years of her career.
Many challenges
It has started to become a trend but it must be admitted that Vietnamese music documentaries in particular still face many challenges. Usually, documentaries about artists are only shown in theaters in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City - where there are the largest number of fans. The success of Anh trai say hi: The villain creates a hero is thanks to the large audience of 30 anh trai and the echoes of previous concerts.
Despite careful investment in terms of image and eye-catching, "Vietnamese Concert - We are Vietnamese" by Hoang Thuy Linh has a gloomy revenue and is at risk of leaving the theater early.
According to Box Office, the film only earned more than 200 million VND in revenue after 1 week of release. The reason why the work of the singer of "Banh nuoc" failed at the box office was because she did not have a large fan base as well as being in hiding for a long time, causing the name Hoang Thuy Linh to lose some heat.
Not only Hoang Thuy Linh's "Vietnamese Concert - We are Vietnamese" has to deal with the content that is still disjointed and exhausted in terms of final. The film is considered safe, lacking highlights to create an explosion that pushes the emotions of viewers to the climax. The appearance of Hoang Thuy Linh is too much and lacks new details, making the second half of the film gradually "deadly" cold.
Documentary films are a "decorate" dish for audiences, so the fact that artists exploit the new trend, dragging audiences to the cinema to watch this film genre is also a positive sign. However, to make this film genre truly a trend, artists and crews need to have careful calculations and grasp tastes to fully exploit the values of this special film genre.
