Vong Nhi

The film was good. I cried several times but after watching it, it didn't leave me any strong emotions. I mean it was great but not special. The plot was common, it didn't stand out at all. I'm not a horror movie girl so it was understandable that I didn't feel head over heels with it. But the plot twist at the end was criminally predictable. Everyone who paid attention to the movie would know immediately whiteout a second thought. So the plot was okay. The actors I think they did a great job showing the characters's emotions. So 5 out of 5. All of the characters were loveable. They had flaws so they seemed real to me. GOOD.

I was never into Vietnamese movies. But after watching it, I think I would change my mind soon.

Overall, 8 out of 10.

When I sat down to watch this 2023 Vietnamese movie titled "Vong Nhi" (aka "The Unborn Soul"), I thought I was in for a horror story. However, director Hoang Tuan Cuong delivered something that was more of a drama laced with some light horror elements.

The storyline in "Vong Nhi" was adequately written and proved to be entertaining enough for what it was. However, the narrative was rather slowly paced, and with a play time of 118 minutes, the movie felt long, very, very long. Some more roundhanded editing would have done wonders for the final end result of the movie.

I wasn't faniliar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but the actresses and actors actually put on good enough performances and brought the movie to life - pardon the pun - on the screen in a good way. But the movie's slow narrative was sort of working against them.

Visually then "Vong Nhi" is okay. It is not a movie that relies heavily on special effects, and doesn't need an abundance of special effects to bring its story to the screen. Most of the few effects used were fair enough, aside from the rather horribly rendered CGI fetus that crawled around on the screen.

"Vong Nhi" is not a traditional horror movie, so don't sit down to watch it with such intentions, as I did, because it will be a bit of a disappointment. While I managed to sit through all 118 minutes, then I have to say that this is not a movie that warrants a second viewing, nor does it actually have enough contents to do so anyway.

Ultimately, a watchable movie, but not a memorable or outstanding viewing experience. And director Hoang Tuan Cuong is somewhat preachy with the storyline about abortions.

My rating of "Vong Nhi" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Sometimes we find a middle-quality film that has so much to say and the message it wants to deliver is so precious, especially to our society these days. That's why although the film is not without flaw, those flaw can be looked over for the movie theme itself is so important and deserve respect.

I began watching it, expecting to see another horror film, but no. The movie is more honorable than that. It deals directly with the subject of abortion and it shows the causes and consequences of it in both physical world and spiritual world. It shows how people view those poor dead babies as just cot of blood while the fact is that they are poor innocent babies intentionally killed. The spiritual consequences or "Karma" of those who aborted their child and those who persuaded others to abort their child are to be seen in this film in many respects. Yes, there are ghosts in this movie because babies aborted are already human beings when they are killed although the law doesn't grant them this right. They can be angry and sad and can do a lot of things to the lives of the mother and those involved in killing them. But there are elements of forgiveness at the end of this film.

I respect how the film doesn't have to use too much gore to show how disgusting and extremely frightening abortion process is. I respect how it tells the truth that teenagers these days repeatedly abort their child, some even did it more than three times. I respect that the film shows how women aborting their children are in dire situation and needs compassion from those around them, but killing innocent babies should not be the solution. There are other ways. It also shows the consequences of such sinful act, which in reality, they really do happen if you get to closely watch the lives of women who aborted their children. They can't have babies, their children died young, business goes down the drain, haunted by children ghosts, etc. These are not something the film invents, but it is based on the truth, on the fact that abortion is an act of killing babies. It is a grave sin. You commit an act, you must face the consequences.

The movie tries to mix the elements of comedy into it. Sometimes it work and sometimes it doesn't work. There are details that can be cut off to make the film shorter and more direct to the point. The performance of the cast is ok. No problem with it. Some of the CG graphic look fake, and the horror moments are standard, not much outstanding. However, there are moments that get you to think, to feel, and to have compassion. So I say it again, the movie-making quality is average, but this film deserves so much respect and touches hearts.