This highlights a key challenge in creating cultural products in Vietnam more broadly, where there is a mismatch in what the government wants cultural messaging to be, what filmmakers want to make, and what the public is willing to pay for.
Vietnam’s Cinema Department has raised concerns with film producers and distributors that a growing number of horror films rely heavily on violence, gore, superstition and shock value rather than artistic quality, according to reporting from Dan Tri.
The agency urged filmmakers to demonstrate greater social responsibility by promoting works with stronger artistic merit that highlight Vietnam’s history, culture, and people.
This comes amid a push to promote Vietnam through its cultural industries.
Back in January, the government issued Resolution 80 on the development of Vietnamese culture, framing the initiative as vital to the country’s forward progress.
“The resolution affirms that culture and people are the foundation and a vital endogenous resource, a powerful driving force… for the country’s rapid and sustainable development,” the Vietnam News wrote at the time.
As part of this move, a new “Vietnam Culture Day” public holiday was announced for November alongside key targets, including seeing the sector account for about 7 percent of Vietnam’s GDP by 2030.
This latest development, however, highlights an interesting paradox with respect to these cultural development goals.
Where horror films have become popular cultural outputs, this has largely been driven by the returns. Local media reporting notes that horror films this year have performed exceptionally well at the box office, with one film, Ma Xo, grossing VND 135 billion (US$5.2 million) since its June 5 release, placing it among the best-performing Vietnamese horror films of all time.
But what the government seems to be suggesting is that the content of these films is more important, putting the emphasis not on the financial returns but rather on the opinions of the Cinema Department officials.
This highlights a key challenge in creating cultural products in Vietnam more broadly, where there is a mismatch in what the government wants cultural messaging to be, what filmmakers want to make, and what the public is willing to pay for.
This would then suggest that, though on the face of it Resolution 80 seems like a promising development for Vietnamese creatives, the reality is, less than six months in and cracks are already beginning to show.