Thiên Than Ho Menh

After the commercial hit that is Dream Eyes (2019) followed by a dreadful year of the rampant Covid-19 pandemic, Victor Vu finally returns to his roots with the third unofficial installment of his famous Scandal franchise title The Guardian (2021) with yet, another tale about superstitious in the Vietnamese show business to little success because this is no doubt the most run off the mill movie he ever makes. The writing of The Guardian down to its characters beat and development is just a weak rehash version of the first Scandal movie only with a bigger budget now and although the first Scandal movie was ridden with plot holes it still accomplished what it set out to be while The Guardian strength relies on how much you know this famous guest star singer or care about the V-pop genre, to begin with. The movie got some nice spooky moments that will scare off the general audience who looking for a cheap thrill so watch it with caution.

Gave it a chance because recent 'spirit dolls' trend in Indonesia. Not only little scares over long duration, Victor Vu also provided little insights on how these pretty singers get into showbiz easily. Final act and twisted ending were quite interesting tho.

I must admit that during the first 30 minutes I wasn't enjoying it from a movie perspective. I found the doll obsessed girls creepy and I wasn't sure what direction the movie was going in. However, the charms and beautiful singing voice of Amee kept my interest.

The story got more interesting as the twists unfolded and I actually ended up really liking the movie.

The music is first class, the story interestingly different, the acting pretty good and the production very good.

I hadn't heard about this 2021 Vietnamese movie titled "Thiên Than Ho Menh" (aka "The Guardian") from writers Kay Nguyen and Victor Vu prior to sitting down in 2023 to watch it. I stumbled upon the movie by random luck, and with it being an Asian horror movie that I hadn't seen, of course I opted to sit down and watch it.

Well, half of it anyway. Running at 127 minutes, this movie was slow paced, boring and uneventful. I have to say that it was quite a struggle to sit through just more than an hour of virtually nothing happening. Well, nothing in terms of being a proper horror movie that is. If you want to watch a drama movie about pop singers laced with some supernatural folklore, then this is a movie for you. If you watch it for a horror movie, you're in for a sore disappointment.

The storyline in the movie was just lacking drive and force. It took director Victor Vu forever to go nowhere. And I mean that literally. I gave up on watching the movie just after 1 hour into the ordeal. I just simply couldn't take more of the torment that is "Thiên Than Ho Menh", because nothing happened.

The acting performances in the movie seemed good enough. However, I wasn't really buying into what was happening on the screen, given the mind-numbingly slow pace of the narrative, and the fact that the script had zero appeal or horror contents. I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie.

Visually then you're not in for any particular outstanding treat here.

I have zero intentions of returning to waste yet another hour on this movie, because there was nothing to entertain me here. If you enjoy Asian horror movies, do yourself a favor and give "Thiên Than Ho Menh" a wide berth.

My rating of "Thiên Than Ho Menh" lands on a three out of ten stars, and that is mostly based on the production value of the movie and the acting in general.

I didn't expect much after seeing the written reviews here and a failed rating. Frankly, after watching this film, I am shocked. It was evident from the opening frame that this production sets a gold standard for production and story telling. The production values were exemplary and the production designer is worthy of a world class award such as an Academy Award.

The story itself is obviously challenging to some due to some of the unfamiliar religious and cultural practices enshrined by the movie. However, intelligent viewers should have no more difficulty with these concepts any more that viewing stories encompassing Voodoo or Catholicism (and related elements such as religious symbols like the cross or storey extensions such as Dracula).

In spite of it's billing's, this is not a horror. It's a who done it/drama/criminal investigation that only seems to have supernatural elements.

The cast was excellent, especially Truc Ahn, ably supported by Amee and Salim.

Under the direction of Victor Vu, this story is masterfully inventive, supremely entertaining, and tremendously well crafted. It appears to have been shot in 4K and the sets are frankly beautifully put together. The sound design and performances by the actors are immaculate, especially the singing and dancing sections. Eye candy all around!!!

I would have given this review a higher rating had lit been reduced by 15 or 20 minutes. Still, I have absolutely nothing negative to say about it. I am very impressed by this Vietnamese outing. It really makes me wonder what other gems from there that are out there.