Director Khai Hung has been at the helm of the Vietnam Film Company for years and successfully maintained it as the country’s leading studio. He spoke on the current situation regarding TV serials made in Vietnam.

Director Khai Hung has been at the helm of the Vietnam Film Company (VFC) for years and successfully maintained it as the country’s leading studio. He has directed the best of Vietnam’s TV serials like Curse of the River and My Mother-in-law, been the executive producer of the branded Criminal Police and in charge of the well- established Sunday Art show on the Vietnam Television. Hung spoke on the current situation regarding TV serials made in Vietnam.

The fact that private studios have been allowed into the TV serial race has prompted a dramatic surge in the number of episodes made and broadcast. Certain studios can up to 300-400 episodes a year. Do you find this positive or negative?

Yes, it’s true that TV serials are booming, as if anyone could make a film. I do not want to offend my colleagues, but have to acknowledge that most of the these works are barely passable. On the bright side, viewers now have more choices. However, on the dark side, the quality is deteriorating.

How is it that the quality is deteriorating, given the framework to which the studios is confined and that projects are strictly examined?

Examining film projects is a very difficult job given the unclear criteria. There is a distance from the approved scenario to production. Only one bad actor can affect the whole project, let alone a sloppy director.

You used to raise concern over commercial serials for which the stations get the broadcast rights in return for commercial sports. Can you elaborate?

It’s a good thing, if a serial does well enough to attract numerous commercials. Nevertheless, producers have to bite the bullet, and have sponsors getting too deep into their work. For example, placement of inappropriate products in the scenes or replacement of actors at their discretion. This kind of interference obviously infringes on directors’ role and impacts his work.

But ultimately, it is producers, not sponsors or advertises, to blame for bad works, isn’t it?

That’s not the case, if sponsors brought their projects to the directors, in which the sponsors have a large influence over the making of the film. I myself have declined such invitations. In the meantime, some directors do not have the courage to turn down a lucrative offer or defy the whim of the sponsors. Directors must not sacrifice artistic values for pragmatic purposes.

What do you have to say about the fact that private studios are pushing out State-owned studios from coveted timeslots?

I can say that they [private studios] are not up for competing with us, given our poweful team of dozens of talented directors, equal number of cameramen, lots of support staff and extensive experience in making TV series. So far, we’re still dominant. However, we’re undergoing a brain drain and it’s important that we improve our renumeration policies in order to retain what belongs to us.

VietNamNet/VNS