The last six years have been seen as a boom period for remakes. Do you think ‘Song chung voi me chong’ is the opening of the remake trend and one of a few successful remakes?

In fact, the drama that is considered as the beginning of successful remakes is ‘Cau vong tinh yeu’ (Rainbow of love) which aired in September 2011. The drama, airing for one year, created a new wave of loving Vietnam’s TV series. A lot of forums and fan clubs were organized with many activities. Even the producer of the original product (Family Honor) was surprised about the success of the remake in Vietnam.

What brought amenities to you and what were the challenges when you wrote the scripts for ‘Song chung voi me chong’, a remake of a Chinese TV series?

In my opinion, ‘Song chung voi me chong’ succeeded because it had the topic close to everyone and every family. Most of the audiences were women who could find themselves and their friends in the drama. The drama could arouse sympathy from people.

The other reason behind the success was that the drama had big investments, which allowed the team to have more enthusiasm and conditions for creativity. At that time, there were not many interesting foreign dramas like the ones in the golden days of Hong Kong’s drama, or the South Korea’s Hallyu wave.

So, you can see that ‘Song chung voi me chong’ and ‘Nguoi phan xu’ (The Judge) luckily had all three necessary factors – ‘Clement weather, favourable terrain and concord among people’ as said by Vietnamese.

Is there any rule when writing scripts for remakes and what is the taboo when converting a foreign product into a product purely reserved for Vietnamese audiences? Are there any circumstances in original products which are unsuitable to Vietnamese conditions and need changes?

As a screenwriter who has worked with many South Korean film production teams, I don’t think Vietnam’s dramas are less attractive because of scripts. In South Korea, the entertainment industry is considered an important part of the nation’s image development strategy. They build the entertainment industry with close and comprehensive linkages in order to turn the industry into one of the ways to export images of the country.

Artists in South Korea in general and artists in the film industry in particular can work in an environment with reasonable and major investments. I hope that with the achievements of Vietnam’s films recently and the development of audiences’ tastes, we will have reasonable investments in the near future so as to develop Vietnam’s entertainment industry.

Some people say that Vietnamese screenwriters have poor ideas, so they would rather remake films from foreign products. Meanwhile, other people think screenwriters in Vietnam are poorly paid, which explains why Vietnam doesn’t have good scripts. What do you think about this?

I believe that as creators, Vietnamese film producers certainly have many ideas. But not all daring ideas and unconventional expressions which don’t follow any traditional rules can be accepted by audiences.

Vietnamese producers remake films not because they don’t have new ideas or  lack creativity. This can be seen as an investment in accordance with the integration trend.

I personally think that using original foreign scripts or adapting films from a novel show the audiences’ respect and love. It is interesting if people can watch a Vietnamese version of a foreign film or a novel. In order to possess something, you need to make an investment. When buying the copyright and remaking films, this aims to serve audiences, not just satisfying the taste of filmmakers.

The screenwriter who is in charge of ‘Vietnamizing’ foreign films are under pressure. In general, it is difficult to satisfy everyone's expectations.

What are the most important factors Vietnam needs to have to get interesting scripts for remakes? Is high pay one of the factors?

We cannot say scripts are not interesting because screenwriters receive little money. Script quality depends on the ability of screenwriters. Many factors are needed to create an interesting film. For example, you can have good food, but if you don’t have good kitchenware and spices, you won’t create good dishes.

My Anh