The Last Secret of the First Emperor, the most expensive Vietnamese film ever made with a $3.8 million production budget, is now at risk of becoming the country’s biggest box-office loss.
According to its producer, The Last Secret of the First Emperor cost about $3.8 million to make, with a production scale unprecedented in Vietnamese cinema. Once considered a major contender for the Sept. 2 holiday movie season and expected to follow the success of last year’s Red Rain, which grossed more than $26.6 million, The Last Secret of the First Emperor carried enormous expectations even before reaching theaters.
A film with “chaotic swordplay” and “emotional confusion”
A scene from the film.
The film received an extensive publicity campaign before its theatrical release and became the subject of heated debate on social media as soon as it premiered and in the days that followed. Unfortunately, the attention failed to translate into strong ticket sales for director Nguyen Phan Quang Binh’s production.
The Last Secret of the First Emperor is one of the rare films to undergo an urgent re-edit by another director after its theatrical release, cutting its original 155-minute running time to 135 minutes within just a few days. Even that unprecedented rescue effort failed to reverse its fortunes, as audiences continued to discuss the film far more than they bought tickets.
With a production cost of about $3.8 million, the film needs to gross at least $6.8-7.6 million to break even after revenue is shared with cinemas. As of Sept. 7, however, after 10 days in theaters, The Last Secret of the First Emperor had earned only about $1.25 million.
Its chances of turning the situation around are now slim, with two new Vietnamese films due to hit theaters this weekend, while Huynh Lap’s Zero Meets Hero remains popular with audiences.
Responding to fans, director Nguyen Phan Quang Binh said he “might not make films anymore” following the enormous box-office disappointment of his passion project.
The film has attracted sharply divided opinions on online forums. Even actor Johnny Tri Nguyen, who plays a role in The Last Secret of the First Emperor and was also involved in its action sequences, revealed that he had suggested several times that the story needed to be reshaped to work better cinematically. But the director’s “stubbornness” in his storytelling approach, he said, ultimately cost the film in terms of narrative cohesion.
“I do not deny the criticism of the screenplay. But to be fair, it should also be understood that some of its shortcomings did not come from carelessness, but were the price of a creative choice,” he wrote.
Film critic Le Hong Lam acknowledged that the producers of The Last Secret of the First Emperor had “gone all in” and praised the dedication of its crew. However, he was equally candid about the weaknesses of the $3.8 million production.
“The finished product is a film of ‘chaotic swordplay’ and ‘emotional confusion.’ It constantly breaks the viewer’s emotional connection because it is difficult to understand what the director is trying to say. The film’s biggest problem does not simply come from the editing, but from the director’s convoluted and long-winded storytelling,” he said.
According to Le Hong Lam, the film’s tragic and epic premise - seven warriors taking 99 coffins belonging to King Dinh Tien Hoang in seven different directions to mislead the enemy -is almost “swallowed up” and “disappears” within the protagonist’s romance-heavy adventure.
The film also lacks a sufficiently formidable antagonist, while even its visually impressive close-combat sequences fail to provide the excitement needed to energize audiences and give the finale an explosive payoff. In his view, Johnny Tri Nguyen is the film’s saving grace.
A regrettable screenplay, and sympathy for the filmmakers
Johnny Tri Nguyen’s performance as the Right General has been described as one of the film’s highlights.Do Thi Hai Yen as the empress dowager.
The film received an extensive publicity campaign before its theatrical release and became the subject of heated debate on social media as soon as it premiered and in the days that followed. Unfortunately, the attention failed to translate into strong ticket sales for director Nguyen Phan Quang Binh’s production.
The Last Secret of the First Emperor is one of the rare films to undergo an urgent re-edit by another director after its theatrical release, cutting its original 155-minute running time to 135 minutes within just a few days. Even that unprecedented rescue effort failed to reverse its fortunes, as audiences continued to discuss the film far more than they bought tickets.
With a production cost of about $3.8 million, the film needs to gross at least $6.8-7.6 million to break even after revenue is shared with cinemas. As of Sept. 7, however, after 10 days in theaters, The Last Secret of the First Emperor had earned only about $1.25 million.
Its chances of turning the situation around are now slim, with two new Vietnamese films due to hit theaters this weekend, while Huynh Lap’s Zero Meets Hero remains popular with audiences.
Responding to fans, director Nguyen Phan Quang Binh said he “might not make films anymore” following the enormous box-office disappointment of his passion project.
The film has attracted sharply divided opinions on online forums. Even actor Johnny Tri Nguyen, who plays a role in The Last Secret of the First Emperor and was also involved in its action sequences, revealed that he had suggested several times that the story needed to be reshaped to work better cinematically. But the director’s “stubbornness” in his storytelling approach, he said, ultimately cost the film in terms of narrative cohesion.
“I do not deny the criticism of the screenplay. But to be fair, it should also be understood that some of its shortcomings did not come from carelessness, but were the price of a creative choice,” he wrote.
Film critic Le Hong Lam acknowledged that the producers of The Last Secret of the First Emperor had “gone all in” and praised the dedication of its crew. However, he was equally candid about the weaknesses of the $3.8 million production.
“The finished product is a film of ‘chaotic swordplay’ and ‘emotional confusion.’ It constantly breaks the viewer’s emotional connection because it is difficult to understand what the director is trying to say. The film’s biggest problem does not simply come from the editing, but from the director’s convoluted and long-winded storytelling,” he said.
According to Le Hong Lam, the film’s tragic and epic premise - seven warriors taking 99 coffins belonging to King Dinh Tien Hoang in seven different directions to mislead the enemy - is almost “swallowed up” and “disappears” within the protagonist’s romance-heavy adventure.
The film also lacks a sufficiently formidable antagonist, while even its visually impressive close-combat sequences fail to provide the excitement needed to energize audiences and give the finale an explosive payoff. In his view, Johnny Tri Nguyen is the film’s saving grace.
A regrettable screenplay, and sympathy for the filmmakers
Behind the scenes in Ninh Binh, where the production completed a record 83 days of filming.
Audiences are not the only ones debating The Last Secret of the First Emperor. Members of Vietnam’s film industry have also offered their views after watching it.
Screenwriter Nguyen Thi Hong Ngat praised the film’s beautiful visuals, elaborate costumes and music, as well as a cast filled with prominent names from acting, martial arts and filmmaking. Its greatest weakness, she said, was the screenplay.
“If the film had been more coherent in its structure and storytelling, audiences would have understood it better. The historical story seems to receive less attention from the filmmakers than the martial arts. The beautiful empress dowager is also given too little room to perform,” she said.
Director Pham Hoang Nam said that after watching the film, he took his hat off to the producers and felt sympathy for the filmmakers, who, driven by an immense love and passion for cinema, had dared to tackle one of the most difficult subjects imaginable.
It is a historical martial-arts fantasy genre that demands not only significant financing and production capabilities while carrying substantial financial risks, but is also particularly vulnerable to scrutiny over history, culture, language, costumes and locations, he wrote.
According to Pham Hoang Nam, The Last Secret of the First Emperor tells the story of a dynasty and a historical period but lacks wide establishing views of a royal court or a village - two of the most important social settings needed to create the atmosphere surrounding the story.
Such elements, he said, can only be achieved on professionally designed film sets capable of meeting a wide range of complex technical and artistic requirements.
Director Trinh Lam Tung, meanwhile, said the film had taught him many lessons he could carry into future historical film projects.
“As a producer, I admire the enormous amount of work the crew accomplished. Any producer would dream of having such a team and such tremendous resources in every respect. In terms of distribution, this is truly a highly unusual case in the history of Vietnamese cinema,” he said.
A painful lesson for the producers of The Last Secret of the First Emperor
Johnny Tri Nguyen with actors Thien Tu and Hai Yen at the film’s premiere.
With its enormous production cost, The Last Secret of the First Emperor is now at risk of becoming the biggest money-losing film in Vietnamese cinema history.
Film critic Nguyen Phong Viet told VietNamNet that extensive discussion of the film’s investment, locations, pre-production and production process had generated enormous audience expectations for what was positioned as one of Vietnamese cinema’s biggest historical and legendary blockbusters in decades.
“But clearly, when the film reached theaters, things did not meet audience expectations. The gap between what the producers expected and what audiences expected led to the first failure,” he said.
“Second, although the film received blockbuster-level investment in its cast, locations and meticulous pre-production, the core element of a quality film remains its screenplay. The Last Secret of the First Emperor tries to pack in too many plotlines and stories without explaining them sufficiently for audiences to understand. As a result, viewers are disappointed by a screenplay that leaves them feeling little when they leave the theater.”
Nguyen Phong Viet said the most important reason for the failure of The Last Secret of the First Emperor lies with today’s audience.
For major Vietnamese films, young audiences have become increasingly demanding and their expectations are extremely high. If a film fails to meet those expectations, their reaction can be much stronger than that of previous generations of moviegoers. As a result, unnecessary situations created by the film ultimately contributed to its box-office failure.
He said The Last Secret of the First Emperor should serve as a lesson for producers and investors who are making, or preparing to make, historical and legendary films in the coming years. They must give the screenplay careful consideration, he warned, or risk failure.
Vietnamnet.vn
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