Detective Kien: The Headless Horror

I didn't expect much but this is an incredibly excellent movie. Beautiful cinematography, tight script, and a charming blend of horror and detective elements. You have to go to the theater and see it right away.

I've always been a picky person, and I didn't think Vietnam would have such a well-shot movie.

If it was an english language movie, it could stand up to the best movies. Hope you feel the same way.

The film does a great job of combining entertainment and art. And it deserves, as I said, to be the best Vietnamese film in years. I hope to see Detective Kien in many more films to come. This best Vietnamese movie in many years.

It's been a long time since I've experienced such an outstanding Vietnamese film. The movie was excellent, resolving all its issues neatly, leaving no unanswered questions by the end. Visually, the film was stunning - the color palette, costumes, and sound design were flawless. Overall, the actors delivered incredible performances, especially the ones portraying the antagonists.

In terms of horror, the film didn't evoke as much fear as Qua Tim Mau (another movie by director Victor Vu). However, I've always felt that there's a very modern message in Victor Vu's horror films: that there are no real ghosts or demons in this world - it's humans who harm each other.

This film was truly excellent and absolutely worth the price of admission.

This film plays it so safe that it teeters on the edge of mediocrity.

My biggest complaint lies with Dinh Ngoc Diep's performance-she overacts in nearly every scene. Her delivery is so unconvincing that even the child actresses come across as more natural and compelling.

Beyond that, the characters are forgettable, the villains aren't nearly detestable enough, and the victim's presence is too passive that she fails to earn our sympathy.

Oddly, the film reveals its twist at the halfway mark-likely because the writers couldn't come up with a more creative way to sustain suspense. From that point on, the ending drags on for too long. I would've enjoyed it more if it had been trimmed by about 30 minutes.

One saving grace is the cinematography and the effective horror elements, both signature strengths of Victor Vu. Still, I wish the film had made better use of Northern Vietnam's breathtaking landscapes.

When the young "Nga" (Doan Minh Anh) goes missing, her aunt "Miss Moon" (Ngoc Diêp) can't get the local authorities to investigate, so she writes a pleading letter to renowned judge's detective "Kiên" (Tín Nguyen) to see if he will come and look into things. When he arrives, complete with his official badge of office, he sets the cat amongst the pigeons in the small community that's not without it's suspects. To add to his problems, it seems that this village has an history of troubles, with a legendary water ghost reputedly emerging from the river and terrorising the population then leaving decapitated bodies to wash up all over the place. Now "Kiên" is a man of science, and now (reluctantly) allied with his enthusiastic new sidekick they discover that nobody in this village is quite whom they seem and with the chief, his wife, his daughter, the potter, the shaman, the lover and just about every one else in the mix, he has his work cut out trying to discover the truth. Though I found the production a little bit sterile, there is still quite an amiable chemistry between our detecting duo and with plenty of lies, deceit and red herrings the story carries along nicely until a denouement that's acrobatic, messy and leaves us wanting - whether we want it or not - needing more. It hits the ground running and doesn't hang about for a couple of hours that I though had shades of "Vienna Blood" (2019) to it. Worth a watch.

Let's be real: with a title like Detective Kien: The Headless Horror, I expected a wild, edge-of-your-seat ride. A gripping whodunnit, drenched in suspense, clever twists, and maybe a touch of eerie gothic flair. Instead, what I got felt more like watching someone assemble IKEA furniture with no manual-there's a vague sense of purpose, but mostly it's just confusing, awkward, and painfully slow.

The film follows Detective Kien, a man who is technically a detective, but operates more like a guy who read Sherlock Holmes once and decided he, too, could squint at things and call it deduction. He's our guide into a mystery surrounding a series of headless murders-cue dramatic music and a lot of close-ups of puzzled faces. The premise had potential: horror + detective noir + Vietnamese flavor? Sign me up! But somewhere along the road, the story took a wrong turn... and just kinda sat there.

From the jump, the pacing is sluggish. Scenes drag on like they're trying to reach a word count. Characters talk in cryptic riddles that seem deep at first-until you realize they're saying absolutely nothing. The dialogue is the cinematic equivalent of filler text in a school presentation: formal, stiff, and completely divorced from how humans actually speak. Every time someone opened their mouth, I braced myself-not for clues, but for boredom.

Detective Kien himself is supposed to be compelling. He's got the trench coat, the thousand-yard stare, and the backstory (a tragic one, of course). But charisma? Energy? Emotional range? Unfortunately, those didn't make the cut. Watching him solve the case is like watching someone try to remember their Netflix password: frustrating and devoid of excitement. He stares, he broods, he walks slowly-and somehow, things just happen around him until the case solves itself.

And don't get me started on the "horror" part. For a movie with "Headless Horror" in the title, it's shockingly devoid of actual scares. There's a few shadowy corridors, some generic violin screeches, and maybe one off-screen scream too many. The tension never builds-it plateaus immediately and stays there, like a heart monitor in a waiting room.

The cinematography, at least, tries its best. There are moments-brief flickers-of atmospheric lighting and eerie settings that hint at what the film could have been. But you can only light a scene so well before the lack of substance starts peeking through like a cheap ghost under a bedsheet.

Plot-wise, the mystery unfolds in a way that's less "mind-blowing twist" and more "wait, that's it?" The big reveal is less of a "gasp" and more of a "huh." The red herrings are painfully obvious, and the clues feel like they were dropped in by someone who's never watched a detective movie, ever.

By the time the credits rolled, I felt more relief than resolution. Not because the story wrapped up in a satisfying way (it didn't), but because it finally-mercifully-ended. Detective Kien: The Headless Horror isn't offensively bad. It's just... aggressively average. The kind of movie that makes you check your phone, then feel guilty, then check it again out of sheer self-preservation.

Final verdict?

This movie isn't headless-it's heartless. All style, no soul. A detective story where the mystery isn't "who did it?" but "why should I care?"