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How many Vietnamese films have you seen before? Or even heard of it? For a heavily populated country that was controlled for roughly the first half of the 20th century by one of the most cinematically advanced nations, France, it’s surprising that Vietnam has such a slim history when it comes to cinema. The only Vietnamese director to ever establish himself internationally is Tran Anh Hung, who in the 1990s made a name for himself as an author with films such as The Scent Of Green Papaya and Cyclo.
Deadline But now, a new film has suddenly opened in the United States (via 3388 Films) that is being promoted as the number one Vietnamese box office champion of all time. With a budget of $ 1 million, Dad, I’m Sorry (Bo Gia) has made over $ 17 million in his home country since its release on March 12. And, after two weekends dominating the US specialty box office, it has now grossed $ 820. K. The film premiered in 19 theaters in its first week, rising to 38 in week two, and will drop to 45 this weekend.
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The story originated in Vietnam in the form of a five-part web drama that drew some 90 million viewers and was designed by Tran Thanh, a hugely popular comedy actor and television host. Tran wrote the play, co-directed with Vu Ngoc Dang, and also stars as a besieged middle-aged man who tries, and largely fails, to preside over a dysfunctional and unusually argumentative family in a poor neighborhood of Saigon, a city now marked by a number of skyscrapers. It is a controversial dramatic comedy with a strong sentimental streak.
If Tran values a comparison to any American comedian, it could be Rodney Dangerfield, not at all physically or in style, but due to the fact that his character, named Ba Sang, is massively under siege and seething with complaints. Living with countless relationships – whether they live there or not seems like a moot point, as they are still there – in a slum called The Alley that is always bustling with activity, the ineffective Ba is constantly the target of criticism from its various. relationships, none of which seem to contribute much themselves.
The level of comedy served is a sitcom in spades – or maybe just jokers: a little boy always running with his pants down and his butt visible; pixelated action is fast-paced and slowed down to capture the most awkward and crass characters; a woman never removes blindingly shiny plastic curlers from her hair; a little girl complains that “rice is boring”; Ba’s supercharged sister is mean to everyone, while her brother is a wandering drunken hole who can be relied on to disrupt everything. Worst of all, Ba owes money to the local mobsters, who stop to start chopping off his fingers if he doesn’t start paying off his debt. All of this discord is grounded in the most manipulative laugh track style musical score you can imagine; each joke is punctuated with a silly and emphatic musical explosion.
For a moment, it seems that dad is positioning himself to become a modern version of French “neighborhood” or “street” films of the 1930s, where the vagaries of the inhabitants are everyone’s business. No chance. The main concerns of the characters are material when they do not complain or are not virulent; exasperation is the dominant feeling.
Ba’s problem is that he’s a chronic intruder, and his interference invariably makes matters worse; emotional fractures run through the family in every conceivable direction. This is especially true when it comes to Ba Sang and his tall, lanky son YouTuber Woan (Tuan Tran), who thinks he’s a hipster with a future in showbiz when in fact he has an illegitimate child to deal with. .
It’s possible that one of the keys to dad’s great local success is for him to confirm that whatever problems you have, someone else has them much worse than you. The extreme situations that family members face get quite thorny and probably go beyond what most people face in real life – or at least they’re exaggerated here in a way that makes them particularly onerous. The change in tone the film goes through in the second half is pretty serious – the kind of family shortcomings that can be laughed at at the start are nothing compared to the pretty appalling circumstances that end up trapping family members.
After the gross comedy of the first act, one is by no means ready to expect a climax that includes illegitimate offspring, treacherously high blood pressure, dialysis, hemophilia, pacemaker and a necessary kidney transplant. from a family donor. “My family is a mess,” Ba admits, and he’s not kidding. The moral of the film would seem to be, love is never having to say you’re sorry, even when your whole family would do well to apologize profusely for blundering belligerently from one crisis to the next. .
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