Lessons from a 100-billion VND historical film
The crown - an important part of the costume of the actor playing King Dinh Bo Linh appearing at the Hoa Lu Festival 2026 - caused controversy right after being broadcast live on television. On social networking platforms, many opinions expressed that the crown was designed incorrectly, not in accordance with the Binh Thien crown of the Dinh king era.
Back 16 years ago, the historical film "Ly Cong Uan: The Road to Thang Long Citadel" could not be released on schedule because the costumes were considered too similar to Chinese historical films.
In which, the image of King Ly Cong Uan (played by actor Tien Loc) wearing a bình thiên hat was reacted to by the audience, who thought it was like... Qin Shi Huang.
Faced with fierce controversy from the audience, the movie "Ly Cong Uan: The Road to Thang Long Citadel" was stopped from airing right before the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long. Previously, this historical film project was approved for screening during the celebration of the great festival.
To this day, "Ly Cong Uan: The Road to Thang Long Citadel" is still considered a typical example of mistakes in the production of historical films. The film was heavily invested, more than 100 billion VND in 2009.
All costumes of the film were researched and created by Vietnamese designers but were transferred to processing and tailoring in China.
Sharing from designers, they have also researched and studied very carefully about patterns, motifs, costumes of the 3 dynasties Dinh - Tien Le - Ly, however, historical documents are very few, it is not easy to specifically imagine the costumes of dignitaries in the court.
In addition, despite putting in effort to design, when going to China for processing - there have also been certain changes in costumes.
Finally, when it was released, the movie "Ly Cong Uan: Road to Thang Long Citadel" was entangled in countless prolonged controversies, and the result was that it had to be stopped from airing. By the end of 2025, after 15 years of production, the historical film "Ly Cong Uan: Road to Thang Long Citadel" was newly broadcast on VTV5 after many revisions.
Creativity and limitations
After the movie "Road to Thang Long Citadel", historical costume films are rarely produced in Vietnam. They are almost non-existent on television.
Director - People's Artist Trong Trinh explained: "There are many reasons why we are hesitant to make historical films about dynasties. The biggest difficulty is the scarcity of materials and images. Investment in historical projects is very large. The setting must be built. Costumes must be completely re-sewn, costing a lot of money, but just a small detail mistake - may not be broadcast. Historical films are also very easily drawn into controversy.
Films are also very rare historical projects. Most recently, there are 2 films being invested in, "The Last Queen" and "Guardians: The Mystery of King Dinh's Tomb".
Ho Linh Trang Si: Mystery of King Dinh's Tomb" is based on a script based on the mysterious folk legend about King Dinh Tien Hoang's tomb. The producer shared that to avoid possible controversies, the film crew had to study and ask experts for very detailed advice on fabrics, patterns, and culture of each social class at that time to design costumes.
The movie "The Last Empress" built about the love story of Empress Nam Phuong and Emperor Bao Dai also invested heavily in costumes. The producer said that to make the film as realistic as possible, they also made efforts to apply for permission to film in the Hue capital setting.
Both film crews are very aware of how accurate the details, scripts, costumes, and settings in historical projects need to be, how easily controversial they are, and how controversial the film can be when released in theaters.
