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CRITICS special contributorHuy Vu reviews Victor Vu’s film Cô Dâu Đại Chiến (Battle of the Brides) .
Bạn đang xem: Cô dâu đại chiến 2011
Note: The follow reviews contains several spoilers about the plot of the film.
The Film
Wealthy playboy Thái (Huy Khánh) has finally found the love of his life. Unfortunately he’s also dating four other women at the time, and none of them know about each other. Through a series of “wacky” misunderstanding, he somehow manages khổng lồ propose to every single one of them on the same day. Will he be able to lớn get himself out of this one và marry his true love? More importantly, will anyone care?
Cô Dâu Đại Chiến is not a good film, not even close. Everything in this movie is over the đứng top to the point of being cartoony, và all the “laughs” so forced & belabored that it feels like the film was made by a bunch of 10 years old giggling behind the camera the whole time. It’s pretty clear that director Victor Vũ (he also shares a co-screenwriting credit with Hồng Phúc) is doing this one on autopilot. His direction knows no restraints. All the actors chew through the scenery lượt thích they haven’t been fed in weeks; every line delivery & facial expression is exaggerated to lớn the point of absurdity. A character can’t just look worried, he has lớn look WORRIED, and if somehow you didn’t manage to get it, there’ll be some kind of CG onscreen graphic, musical cue or cartoon sound effects lớn make sure that you do; there’s zero subtlety involved. The jokes mostly consist of slapsticks, “funny” sound effects, sight gags, characters mugging for the camera etc., và most of the time they fall flat. It feels lượt thích the filmmakers are just desperately throwing anything they can come up with at the screen & hoping that something sticks. Even serious moments in the film are marred by the comically overdramatic performances. A basic rule of comedy is if you’re going with an over-the-top approach, there has lớn be at least one “normal” character lớn contrast the craziness. In this film everyone is so insanely off-the-wall that the audience quickly becomes numb to lớn the endless series of gags. Simply having people “act” funny isn’t the same thing as “being” funny.
It was very frustrating watching this film because I knew that director Victor Vũ had already covered this material before, và much better, in his far superior film Chuyện Tình Xa Xứ (Passport khổng lồ Love, 2009). That film has a similar subplot: A hard-partying playboy finds the love of his life và has lớn change his way. Except where Passport khổng lồ Love‘s protagonist is always likeable despite his two-timing ways, Cô Dâu Đại Chiến’s Thái is a smarmy, fast taking A-hole who would barely be believable as a used oto salesman, let alone a “modern day Don Juan” like the film tells us. Everything about this guy is annoying, from the porn mustache lớn the way he keeps turning to the camera khổng lồ tell us his thoughts about relationship và how he likes his women (“good looking, smells good, and good looking”).
Would you sleep with this man? If the answer is yes, how much is he paying you?
Aside from the fact that he’s rich, it’s extremely hard to lớn see how all these these girls could possibly fall head-over-heels for him. As a character, Thái is thinly written and he exhibits no growth at all throughout the film. He wants lớn be in a loving và stable relationship, yet the values that he looks for are shallow & superficial (Is she attractive? Is she willing lớn stay trang chủ to cook và clean for me? Is she ok with me continuing to lớn see other women even after we get married?). Not once in the film does he express concern for someone else beside himself và he never stops lớn ask whether it’s him who needs khổng lồ change. Instead he judges women by how their values fit into his life. The “winner” is the one who cramps his style the least.
It doesn’t help that the film presents the girls he dates as psychopaths with serious emotional issues, and it’s pretty much impossible to lớn tell them apart aside from their job description. Phương, the airline attendant, is desperate for a relationship after a string of failed boyfriends. Quyên, the chef, is a control freak. Mai Châu, the doctor, is a các buổi party girl; and Trang, the actress, is a gold digger. Even Linh, the girl he falls in love with (spoiler alert!), is revealed to be an obsessed woman who has been stalking Thái for TEN YEARS in order khổng lồ get revenge after he dumped her back in high school. I bởi vì give the film credit for that unexpected ending, if only because the character finally gets his comeuppance, but the twist comes out of nowhere in the last 5 minutes of the film and is never even hinted at throughout the previous proceedings. This leads me to believe that even the filmmakers realized that there’s no way to lớn rehabilitate a character this badly written, và so they decided to lớn just go M. Night Shyamalan on us và do something completely nonsensical to over the film on.
Technical
Although shot on a RED One camera, Cô Dâu Đại Chiến simply doesn’t look that good. Most indoor scenes were shot flat with very minimal lighting & outdoor scenes suffer from overcast conditions. Granted, a $500,000 budget is not a lot of money và the weather in Vietnam is often not conductive khổng lồ outdoor shooting, but not much attention seems khổng lồ have been given khổng lồ the look of the film. Shot choices & staging are unimaginative at best, although some crane & dolly shots vày provide some variety. The kết thúc result looks more lượt thích a high budget television drama than a feature film. Khổng lồ be honest I wouldn’t have cared less what the film looks like if the content had been compelling, but the fact that it’s not simply draws attention to lớn the flaws of the cinematography.
The film features numerous CG sequences, & these are of similarly poor quality. In the opening scene the camera tracks a knife as it’s being throw, & it’s immediately obvious when the knife changes from a prop into a fake looking CG counterpart, then back to the prop again. I’m of the opinion that if you can’t afford good CG, don’t use them at all or use them very sparingly. This film uses them all the time và not in a very subtle manner, which often serves to pull the audience out of the film.
The music is a mix of instrumental tracks & Vietnamese songs, và they’re fine if unmemorable. The film appear to lớn not have been dubbed, và the soundtrack is clear, which is nice.
Final Words
I can’t recall another film where I’ve felt so openly hostile khổng lồ every single character on screen, even our supposed protagonist. There is just really no attempt to humanize any of the characters; they’re presented as stereotypes and they stay that way throughout the film. Yet for the story khổng lồ work we’re expected to lớn feel sympathy for them. This film feels very much lượt thích a throwaway production that has been rushed through the door as quickly as possible in order to lớn make a quick buck (and it seemed to lớn have worked, because this film took in more than $1.4 million at the box office, about 3 times its budget). While I’m glad that everyone involved made money, I feel that in order for Vietnamese cinema to lớn evolve and stand on its own, we have to lớn start seeing more sophisticated films than this. The industry has to lớn move away from focusing purely on sex appeal và juvenile humor at the expense of a compelling story and multifaceted characters. Here’s to lớn hoping that the audience will start voting with their wallet, & force all Vietnamese filmmakers khổng lồ elevate their game.
A bay Area native, Huy discovered his love for filmmaking in high school but did not decide khổng lồ pursue it as a career until he entered college. While earning a degree in Chemical Biology at the University of California at Berkeley, he studied cinematography on the side and spent the next four years practicing his craft. After college he continues to pursue filmmaking và hope lớn one day make it a full time career. Lớn date his films have screened at several film festivals in the U.S & in Vietnam including the Vietnamese International Film Festival, the San Diego Asian Film Festival, và the Yxine Film Festival, earning several awards including Best Director and Best Cinematography. You can find out more about his work at www.hiddendreammedia.com.
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In the heart of Saigon, a lovely young couple, THAI & LINH, is getting married. But the wedding is suddenly cut short when four other women show up... Dressed in wedding dresses, bearing weapons, và threatening khổng lồ take the groom"s life. It seems that thai is a bit of a player, & has been dating all five women at once- up until the day of his wedding. As bầu confesses and desperately tries to explain himself khổng lồ Linh, his multiple lovers unleash some furious vengeance with the intent of teaching a lesson he will never forget. The streets of Saigon turn into an outrageous, and often hilarious, battle zone. They say "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned", but in Thai"s case, they"ll need to multiply it- by five.
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