The year 2010 for movie and television sector is closing with some scandals related to television broadcasters, film producers and show hosts.

Films for Hanoi’s 1000^th anniversary fail to meet deadline

A scene from Ly Cong Uan – The Road to Thang Long

Being advertised widely at the beginning and then failing to meet the deadline was the case of almost state-funded films produced for Hanoi’s 1000^th birthday (October 2010).

Nearly ten of television and big-screen film projects were launched but only “Long Thanh Cam Gia Ca” (The Fate of Songstress in Thang Long) was timely completed to attend the first Vietnam International Film Festival 2010.

Since 2007, film producers began preparing scripts for big historical movies to celebrate the capital city’s 1000^th birthday. The investment in these projects was billions VND. Most of them began in 2008.

Among them, there are several films about King Ly Cong Uan, who decided to move the capital from Dai La (Ninh Binh today) to Dai La (Hanoi): Ly Cong Uan – The Road to Thang Long, Thang Long Aspiration, History of Capital City. Other projects consist of The Fate of Songstress in Thang Long, Great Tutor Tran Thu Do, Tay Son Hero, Cross the Shanghai Port and a 3D cartoon entitled “The Child of Dragon”.

When the 1000^th anniversary came, only several projects were completed but their quality was criticized.

Tay Son Hero by Ly Huynh Film was introduced early May 2010 and it was a big failure, though it was advertised as a blockbuster. With investment of VND12 billion (over $600,000), three years of preparation, 20,000 figurants, 100 elephants, over 100 horses, 4000 sets of clothes, 200 Vovinam kungfu masters, the audience imagined Tay Son Hero as a considerable historical movie but they were very disappointed. This movie is full of mistakes, from contents to scenes, from characters to techniques, etc.

Another project which was also advertised as a blockbuster but ended up being strongly criticized even before it came out because it was similar to Chinese films. That is Ly Cong Uan – The Road to Thang Long.

With over VND100 billion (over $5 million – the highest ever in Vietnam), this project was expected to produce a considerable historical film about? Hanoi. The film was shot in China. However, immediately when its trailer was launched, the public strongly criticized the movie, saying that this was a Chinese film but characters spoke Vietnamese language. The film was not broadcast during the 1000^th anniversary.

Some other films were introduced after the anniversary but they couldn’t attract the audience. Among them is Thang Long Aspiration by famous director Luu Trong Ninh.

Once again, historical film producers broke their promises. The plan to teach Vietnamese history through historical films has failed.

These movies are typical examples for the fate of state-funding movies which are produced to celebrate anniversaries in Vietnam. Such movies are highly invested but are not received well by the audience.

Hosts and breakdowns

Master of ceremony (MC) has become a hot job in Vietnam. 2010 will be remembered as a year of scandals for MCs.

The biggest scandal is related to senior journalist Lai Van Sam from the national Vietnam Television Station (VTV), who incorrectly translated the speech of a Hong Kong movie star at the first Vietnam International Film Festival in October.

Another scandal is associated with Miss Vietnam Nguyen Thi Huyen’s mistakes in translation at an international beauty contest held in Vietnam. The audiece was disappointed with Huyen’s English though she studied in the UK for several years.

Monopoly ambition

Football fans in Vietnam have recently united not to cheer the national football team to defend its ASEAN championship but to defend their rights.

Fans grouped up to collect 1 million signatures to protest the exclusive right of K+ in broadcasting the English Premier League (EPL). This scandal was mentioned at the latest National Assembly meeting.

The Vietnam Fans’ Association sent an open letter to the Prime Minister to ask for his intervention. “Since K+ appeared, the monthly television subscription fee has risen from VND45,000 to VND250,000,” the letter wrote.

The association also complained that VTV favored K+ so poor audience and the audience in provinces far from Hanoi have lost the chance to enjoy elite football matches on national TV channels.

While the K+ scandal has not yet cooled down, fans have to face another worry: AVG is to hold the exclusive right to broadcast sports events in Vietnam.

On December 18, AVG, a private firm, signed a 20-year contract with the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) to air V-League exclusively from 2010 to 2030.

AVG Chair Pham Nhat Vu said that AVG will allow other broadcasters to show V-League and AVG would not do business just for money and it would not earn money “at any cost”.

Tran Song Hai, Vice Chair of the Vietnam Sport Fan Association said: “I hope that AVG will not be another K+ otherwise a family will have to buy two TV set box and one TV cable - one to watch international football events, one to watch local sports event and one for news”.

My Hoa