From advantage to familiar formula
At the age of 34, Tuan Tran is one of the most sought-after male faces in Vietnamese cinema. "Parental", "Southern Forest Land", "Mai", "Making Rich with Ghosts", "Taking Mother Gone"... help him build a series of notable box office achievements.
Separately, "Dad" reached more than 420 billion VND, "Mai" more than 550 billion VND, "Dat rung phuong Nam" more than 140 billion VND. Adding to "Làm giàu với ma", "Làm giàu với ma 2", "Mang mẹ đi bỏ" and "Báu vật trời cho", the total revenue of the films with Tuan Tran's participation has exceeded 1,600 billion VND.
This achievement proves the attractiveness and ability to choose commercial projects of the male actor. But if revenue is separated from acting, one point worth discussing can be seen: many of Tuan Tran's characters have quite similar personalities.
In "Dad Father", Quan is an impulsive young person, somewhat arrogant, often confronting his father, but behind the indifference is affection for his family. In "Dat rung phuong Nam", Ut Luc Lam has a liberal, eloquent and somewhat cunning appearance.
Mai" brings Tuan Tran to the role of Duong - a young man with energy, with a nonchalant way of speaking, proactively pursuing a woman older than him. Different backgrounds and fates, but the character's way of creating sympathy still relies quite a lot on youthfulness, humor, sometimes flirtatious and then gradually reveals the feelings and hurt behind.
This is also the acting region that Tuan Tran has become very familiar with: the ordinary guy, with a bit of indifference, speaking naturally, full of energy and carrying a love or family wound.
Tuan Tran is versatile but his acting style is repeated
Ho Linh Trang Si: The Mystery of King Dinh's Tomb" should have been the clearest opportunity for Tuan Tran to step out of that image.
For his first time acting in a legendary and martial arts film, he played Nguyen Phong, who lives in the mountains and forests, is good at martial arts, liberal and does not want to be bound by rules.
The shaping, costumes, setting and genre are all very different from "Dad" or "Mai". Tuan Tran also had to perform many action scenes, showing efforts to expand career choices.
However, Nguyen Phong is still built with humor, freedom, and somewhat indifference. Therefore, in many everyday scenes, Tuan Tran's familiar acting style still easily reminds the audience of the guys he used to play.
The problem therefore does not necessarily lie in the fact that the characters are completely the same, but in the fact that "Tuan Tran's quality" is sometimes more prominent than the character's own identity.
Mai" and "Ho Linh Trang Si" clearly belong to two different worlds, but if viewers still recognize the same speaking rhythm, nonchalant style or familiar way of creating humor, the change in image is not enough to create a feeling of a major shift in acting.
Mang me di bo" is a case that shows that Tuan Tran can go further than a safe zone. Hoan is a child who earns a living as a sidewalk barber, has to take care of his mother with Alzheimer's and faces the choice of taking his mother to Korea for his older brother to take care of. The character contains more torment, inferiority and psychological weight.
Although Hoan still maintains a cheerful look to hide his hurt, the scenes with Hong Dao give Tuan Tran more space to restrain himself and deepen his inner self.
Box office success is a big advantage but can also become a trap for an actor. When a type of character is continuously welcomed by the market, both producers and actors easily return to a safe formula.
It cannot be said that Tuan Tran is not versatile, because he has tried his hand at family, romance, survival, comedy and most recently legendary history - action movies. But genre diversity does not mean diversity in acting.
After the trillion-dong film series, Tuan Tran's next challenge is probably no longer to prove his ticket sales ability, but to make the audience forget "Tuan Tran" when he appears on screen and only sees the character.
