OI VIETNAM 25
“His first script was Lost Secret (Bí Mật
Lại Bị Mất). He was co-director with his
friend, the actor Nhat Cuong, before he
went on to produce his first solo feature,
Face Off (Lật Mặt). At first it was very
hard, we went everywhere and we talked
to everybody and no one helped us. He’d
changed to a new career that people
thought he didn’t know anything about,
and no one helped us. We had to invest
our own money into the first movie,
and then it became a blockbuster and
had a very good profit, and so after that
time we just did the work ourselves, We
don’t need anybody else. Now we have a
lot of investors who want to join, it’s a
different situation.”
Hai went on to enjoy
considerable success with his film
career, setting up his own film
company Ly Hai Production in
2014, through which he wrote
and produced his popular
Face Off series, as well as
composing and recording
the films’ OSTs. Face Off was
named the most popular
online movie in the 2016
WebTV Asia Awards, while
Face Off 2 won him the
award for Best Director in
the Korean Culture & Global
Entertainment Awards 2016.
Face Off 3: The Imperfect Trio
was in top five local films with the
highest GBO in 2018, and Face Off
4: The Walking Guest is currently
among the top four local films with
the highest GBO of all time, recently
becoming the second Vietnamese
film to achieve a general cinematic
release in the USA, also being
released in Australia.
According to Hai, the secret to
his success is always staying ahead of
the trends.
“Web dramas, for example,
are now a hot trend—but
I did it 10 years ago,” he
smiles. “That’s one of the
reasons why I’ve been
successful. There are many
things that people are
doing in their web dramas
that imitate my Life With
Yo u series. I was also
the first to release a free
album online in 2009,
earning money from
ringtones. At that time,
DVDs and CDs weren’t
selling well because of
piracy, so singers had
to change to another
way of making money
from music, which was ringtones and call
waiting tones. After few years, another
emerging trend was earning from YouTube
views, and I was also a pioneer in this.”
As a successful filmmaker, Hai remains
optimistic about the potential of the
Vietnamese film industry. “They filmed
the King Kong movie in Vietnam,” he is
quick to point out. “Vietnam has so many
beautiful views and a beach that extends
from north to south, as well as mountains,
waterfalls, and so on. Foreign filmmakers
should really be encouraged to come and
invest in Vietnam. There may be some
disadvantages, as people still don’t know
about us and we’re still poor in technique
and post-production. But we have to try
to show them what we have, and it’s
best if we can cooperate with foreign
resources.”