Hanoi - Despite giving more artistic freedom to filmmakers, Vietnam continues to produce films that bomb at the box office, state-run media reported Saturday. Of the 17 films Vietnam made last year, not a single one was a commercial hit even though the industry benefits from "substantial" government investment, according to Thanh Nien newspaper.
Instead, moviegoers in Vietnam are flocking to foreign films in record-breaking numbers. Vietnam's relatively staid productions, notably "Hai Binh Builds a Hydropower Plant," are no match for blockbusters such as the James Bond movie "Quantum of Solace."
In the past, Vietnam's propaganda films had a captive audience. But after the country became a member of the World Trade Organization, the floodgates were opened.
"Following Vietnam's WTO accession in 2006, we had to lift the quota imposed on the rate of foreign films imported each year that had previously been stipulated in the cinematography law," Lai Van Sinh, head of the film department under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism told Thanh Nien.
But Vietnam's moribund film industry, where all movies must toe the Communist Party line, has been trying harder to compete. In 2003, the government decided it was time to put some pep into scripts in order to attract larger audiences.
While scripts must still carry a moral message, the government is encouraging films that have popular appeal. Censors have even allowed racy films to be made - ones that show a little skin - as long as the message is party-approved.
