Cinema in Vietnam

Movies! Hollywood! Bollywood! Nollywood! Is Vietnam going to be the next great cinema capital? Will there be a Vollywood, or Saigollywood? [Ed - I would go with Saigollywood.]

CINEMAS IN VIETNAM IN 2017. SOURCE; B-COMPANY

The Vietnamese would like to make “culture” (pronounced properly as “kultchah”) a priority according to this article. It is going to develop a modern film studio on a big plot of land and invest in other types of cultural products. Obviously the Vietnamese government is not immune to the pull of the Korean wave. That’s the big push by the Korean government over the past two decades to increase Korean cultural exports and Korean soft power (South Korea, of course). You can see in the figures from this paper how significant the exports have become. Korea is now a brand, and not just an Asian one, a global one. And this has helped the economy of Korea, and probably helped the global support it has generally.

I can see the Vietnamese government looking at that success and saying, "we should do this too.” Vietnam already has a somewhat successful export with its food, and the government is taking some steps to promote it. The Thai government did this, and it increased the number of Thai restaurants globally from 5,500 back in around 2001 to more than 15,000 as of last year. This has probably helped increase people’s understanding of Thailand, increased tourism to Thailand and may have even helped it geopolitically.

The Vietnamese government would do that with culture generally. Specifically for film, it would like to have 40-45 feature films a year by 2020 plus more animation, documentary, and other types of films. By 2030, the feature film figure is supposed to reach 55-60 per year. This seems eminently achievable, given that 40 feature films were produced in 2015. Total revenue was $105m back in 2015, and it has probably done more than $25m already in 2019.

And local films are actually doing quite well. The number one movie ever in Vietnam is Em chua 18 (Jailbait) that beat imports like Kong: Skull Island (which benefited from being shot in the country) and the Fast & Furious movies. This interview with a American-Vietnamese producers is very interesting. One thing that she says is that:

I mean, you know, before when I first came, if a movie, you know, was able to have a box office of one million dollars, that’s sort of like this far-fetched dream, you know. And then now it’s kind of, like, kind of average if you get a million. That’s sort of like maybe you’ll be okay depending on your budget, but you’re really aiming for like 4 or 5 million.

That’s a big change and should allow for much larger canvases for film makers.

Now, moving from a local product to one that can appeal abroad is going to be difficult. Indonesia was somewhat succesfull with the Raid franchise, but that was directed by a Welsh man. Thailand has success with art films and some action movies, but it really hasn’t made too much of a wave. Korea is really the best example, with lots of Korean movies crossing over.

Generally, I think it is good to promote local culture even if it never makes it globally. It is a way to preserve local culture and also reflect people’s world back on themselves, something no American movie is going to be able to do. In the West, people talk about representation and telling one’s own story, usually in the context of minorities that haven’t been able to do that. That is just as important for less rich countries that have only now started to have the ability to do the same. Let’s hope Vietnam is able to capitalize on this.

* Accidentally put the wrong date (March 14) on this post. Corrected to the actual date.