The young stars of the football-themed series Vua san co (King of the pitch)

Many of the TV series made for teenagers so far haven’t hit their mark, so will the coming productions be successful?

US channels like Disney draw a great amount of young viewers here with TV series like “Hannah Montana” and movies such as “High School Musical” and “The Cheetah girls.” These offerings are popular with Vietnamese teenagers because they address issues they can relate to. It’s a challenge for the Vietnamese industry to compete, and local directors agree that making teen series is harder than making adult shows.

“I think Vietnamese dramas, especially those for teenagers, are awful,” noted director Le Hoang said.

“Making shows for teens is in-vogue now, but most of show’s concepts are half-baked and don’t convey any meaning to viewers. Besides, there is no real emotion, just puppy love. The dialogue is often too silly or grown-up sounding,” said Hoang, who is shooting his new teen series Nhung thien than ao trang (White-shirt angels).

Casting is also a problem with the established teen actors nearly all found by accident or through some chance introduction. Directing kids is the hardest part, some say. Most of them are amateurs, and the directors have to spend time building a connection before shooting.

Hung Thuan starred as character An in the highly successful series Dat phuong nam (The Southern land) when he was seven years old. Vietnamese teenagers really liked this film. Tuan said in a recent interview that director Vinh Son had to instruct him meticulously for each scene.

“I was too young to understand what ‘uncle Son’ said, so he had to show me very clearly and I had to act every scene many, many times,” Thuan said.

Director Chu Thien said it is his job to link all the teen actors in the cast and to set the parents’ minds at rest.

“Directors use many ways to convince not only actors but also their parents to finish the show. Sometimes when we are shooting far away, even I don’t know what to do when the kids cry because they are homesick,” said Thien.

Thien also recalled the difficulty he had in persuading child actor Quoc Anh to shave his head to play a football-loving monk in the football-themed series Vua san co (King of the pitch) which is being shown on Ho Chi Minh Television’s HTV7 channel.

According to Vu Long who played an eighth grader in the TV series Kinh van hoa (Kaleidoscope), the shooting schedule must be adjusted to fit the school timetable. The show was one of the very few that resonated with teens.

“Director Nguyen Minh Chung of Kinh van hoa was considerate when he arranged the shooting schedule, so it did not affect my studies. At first, my parents were worried, but were soon reassured,” Long said.

Many in the pipeline

There are three teen series being screened on TV at present, Co be phep thuat (Little girl of magic), Gia dinh phep thuat (Magic family), Sieu mau xi trum (The short supermodels). Five hundred episodes of the series Gia dinh phep thuat are planned to be produced and they are already working on 200.

This show, directed by Korean Kim Hy Jung and Vietnamese Chu Thien and produced by Vifa with Chu Thi, has cost VND20 billion (US$1.17 million).

Another expensive VND30 billion ($1.76 million) project is series Tia chop nho (Tiny flash of lightning). Its first season of 52 episodes will be shot in the next six months for airing in summer 2010.

The story with strong moral messages about a group of kids who stand for family values is hoped to attract teenagers.

Another series is Nhat quy nhi ma (Mischievous students) produced by Créa TV and TV Plus. The hotspot of the 30-episode-movie is the presence of leading pop star Dan Truong.

The most anticipated of all the teen shows is Nhung thien than ao trang (White-shirt angles) by director Le Hoang. The Ho Chi Minh City Television’s TFS is also yet to release two student series: Buoc nhay thien than (Angels’ steps) and Ke di tru (The immigrant).

Among projects still on paper are Mau cua tinh yeu (Color of love) and The gioi bi mat (Secret world) from World Star Company, and Con gai lao (Naughty girls) by Viet Film.

Teen films in the past have been largely unsuccessful reaching their audience because they haven’t addressed what teens are really interested in, in the way that Disney shows do for instance. So a change in approach is good.

The shows need to be close to real life and not be inauthentic like the series Sieu mau xi trum (The short supermodels) which was made in Vietnam but looked Japanese. Another example was Nhung ngay he xanh (Green summer days) which was recently pulled from the air because it was said to completely misrepresent a popular student volunteer program. Despite being young, teenagers still know what they want and they are ready to reject anything that doesn’t come up to standard.

Reported by Diem Thu