When Hong Dao and Hong Van stand in the middle of the story
According to box office data updated on September 18, "Len Huong" grossed nearly 60 billion VND. This achievement is noteworthy as the film is not built around a young star who has a large fan base.
At the center of Len Huong are veteran faces such as Hong Dao, Hong Van, alongside Vo Tan Phat, Ha Anh, Quoc Khanh, Meritorious Artist Tuyet Thu...
The film is set in a family engaged in the funeral industry, from which conflicts over money, family affection and life views develop. Hong Dao plays Mrs. Le, while Hong Van transforms into Mrs. Hong - characters who not only serve as a background for young characters but also directly participate in the knots of the story.
Len Huong collected nearly 60 billion VND, thus extending a notable movement of Vietnamese cinema in recent years, which is that middle-aged women no longer only appear as mothers standing behind the main characters. They are gradually becoming the main characters.
Before "Len Huong", "Chi Dau" was a clear case. The film by director Khuong Ngoc puts five women in a family in the center, with Viet Huong, Hong Dao, Le Khanh, Dinh Y Nhung and Ngoc Trinh.
Released at the end of 2024, Sister-in-law surpassed the 100 billion VND mark in just a few days and ended its box office journey with revenue of over 110 billion VND according to Box Office Vietnam data.
The ticket office is not only for young faces
Hong Dao is one of the actresses who clearly shows this shift.
In Mai - a Vietnamese film with a revenue of over 500 billion VND in 2024, the female artist plays Mrs. Dao, a supporting character but with a lot of acting space. After that, she continued to appear in Sister-in-law, Mang me di bo, Len huong and many other film projects.
Hong Van is also a familiar face on the big screen after decades of stage and television activities. In "Len Huong", the combination of Hong Van and Hong Dao became one of the notable factors of the cast.
The common point of these cases is not simply age.
Veteran actors bring stage experience, the ability to handle long dialogue scenes and especially familiarity with many generations of audiences. When the script shifts its focus to family, generational gap, marriage or life conflicts, they have more space to promote their strengths.
More importantly, the market is also showing that a film does not necessarily have to take the love story of young people as the center to be able to generate revenue.
Sister-in-law tells about women at a death anniversary ceremony. Going to the world of a family engaged in the funeral profession. Sets that seemed difficult to become materials for commercial films are put on the box office race.
A long-time gap being exploited
The increasing appearance of middle-aged female characters is also related to a gap in Vietnamese commercial cinema.
For a long time, many films often put young characters in the center, while mothers, aunts or older sisters mainly take on the task of promoting the story for future generations.
When these characters are brought to the main line, the scope of the story is also wider. They have marriage, financial pressure, personal breakups, responsibility to parents and children - issues that can create empathy with adult audiences.
However, the revenue of a film cannot be completely attributed to an actor or an age group. Box office success also depends on the script, release time, media, number of screenings and word-of-mouth reactions.
The nearly 60 billion VND mark of "Len Huong" is therefore not enough to confirm that middle-aged women have become a new "formula" of Vietnamese films.
But when placed next to Sister-in-law and the increasingly frequent appearances of actors such as Hong Dao, Hong Van, Viet Huong, Le Khanh on the big screen, a clear change is that the middle-aged female character is no longer outside the box office race.
