After the failure in box office of various home-made films, domestic filmmakers are looking for new gems from scriptwriters in other countries including South Korea and Thailand.

A scene from Ban Gai Toi La Sep

Increasing numbers of foreign film concepts are being looked for after the success of Vietnamese remakes. The film Yeu which is a remake of the Thai film, The Love of Siam or Em La Ba Noi Cua Anh which is a copy of the South Korean film, Miss Granny, have all recorded great box office results.

The 200 Pounds of Beauty which had great success in South Korea several years ago is also being remade.

Film producers are increasingly turning to remakes to ensure box office success following the failure of domestic films to make much money.

Director Nguyen Phuong Dien said, "South Korea has many good scripts and ideas for both TV series and films. Vietnamese filmmakers are searching for scripts from South Korea as well as other Asian countries that have similar cultures with Vietnam. After that, the scripts will be tweaked for Vietnamese people."

Dien said even if Vietnamese scripts were good, they weren’t in a position to make producers feel confident enough. 

Depending on the fame of the original films that the foreign scripts can have different prices. For example, the script for the Thai film ATM Er Rak Error which will be remade into Ban Gai Toi La Sep, cost around VND100m and its re-write into Vietnamese won’t cost much. If the film successes, it will bring in high profit.

Writer Chau Tho said the audience were paying more attention to the quality of the scripts but Vietnam actually has few film writers. Audiences now prefer to pay for something with new concepts, angles and a tight plot.

In addition, Tho went on to say that Vietnamese scripts often need multiple rewrites, which could take a long time, while demand is high. "The prices for the scripts are also higher too. Good scripts are sold for VND500m (USD22,000) to VND600m," Tho said.

Producer Ly Khai Nghiep said one of the reasons that they look for foreign scripts was because many Vietnamese had seen and loved these foreign films so they would go and watch the remakes, even if they only want to watch to compare.

Nghiep said there were many other factors that lead to the success of a film, but they had a guaranteed audience and a good script so investors were confident.

Meanwhile, writer Do Thi Thanh Huong said the franchise trend was badly affecting local scriptwriters. If they just have to follow foreign trends they could lose the edge in their own work. The remakes must also closely resemble the original films so there's not much room for creativity.

"The writers try to bring Vietnamese culture into the foreign scripts but it still looks fake," she said. 

Many people raised the spurious concern that young people may only know about Vietnamese culture via foreign films.

On the other hand, there are opinions that the local entertainment business is developing well. Currently, audiences love the remakes so inevitably that is where investments will go. When the audience gets tired, the trend will change.

Actor Mai The Hiep thinks that remaking foreign films will stimulate the local business and push local writers to be better.

Most writers only work for TV. For films, the ideas usually come from the directors and producers. They then hire the writers to write out the ideas. That's one of the reasons for the weak scripts and lack of professionalism in the film industry. Moreover, film universities incredibly still lack courses for scriptwriters.

Dtinews