Camellia Sisters (2021) User Reviews

Eye-candy shots, but poor character development and lame twist

[weed_308-325-568297 · 5/10 · 3 March 2021]

Fortunately had an invitation to the premiere show. To be honest, this movie will be really good if you are Vietnamese. The set up was mostly in Hue, a very ancient city in the middle part of Vietnam. Rich cultural research and historical facts of Cung An Dinh (old heritage building) brings back memories and very well-shot. Pretigious actors such as Le Khanh, Hoang Dung, Hong Van with proven acting experience gave sastifying perfomance. Kaity Nguyen did an amazing job as always. So did arising actor Khuong Le. However, the only thing that wasn't good about the film, to me, sadly was the plot. Set up in a family/drama theme, poor character development with unclear backstories, I can not relate to any of the characters. Ok, so the two older sisters want to protect their family traditions. And then they both destroyed them because of loneliness. But how about the last sister Kaity? How about the only-real artifact? First the artifact was lost, then it was found very quickly (returned by the second sister). Ok so later in the movie we knew how it became Ly's. But now? Will it be still treasured? What's the backstory for? What matter did it solve? The movie was like a combination of many short stories, rather than a big one. Events and characters (like the wife of Vinh Nghi) just jumped into the plot without any introduction. Too many characters with little to no details about their matters and roles in the big story. Vinh Thuy had potential to be a mysterious, key-hooked character in the movie, turned out to be really bland. In the end, if he disappeared nobody would notice. Le Ha confirmed to suicide, why did she appear in the church without any explaination? Thanks for the production value, the movie had its own value and still worths watching. But unfortunately the storyline was very shallow. If not for the acting, it became illogical, inconsistent and cliche to watch.

Decent acting performance ruined by shallow plot line and lazy story telling

[qnn-97669 · 2/10 · 21 June 2021]

I was told this movie was some serious attempt to attract Vietnamese to cinema during pandemic, and the director was very commited to it with a well known casts and large investments to showcase shots made in exquisite and glorious palaces. Although I was attracted by the big name, with Hoang Dung, Le Khanh, Hong Van and the young promising Kaity Nguyen, the experience came up short even though I have tried to keep my mind open not to expect it too much. But still the following facts came true: "Beautiful shots and talented casts cannot save a poorly written story". At the end, i was speechless at the lazy attempt from this movie. It seems to be made with the sole intention to get easy cash from audience who came to movie for just the names and the visual shots, and a place to date each other, with no regards to story telling. The followings will mention briefly my thought of the movie.

Le Khanh and Kaity Nguyen are the stars, carrying so much weights on their shoulders. Character of Hong Van was so annoying, she tries too hard to force comedic elements to me, and pushes me to the point of despite. Le Khuong was good looking, but felt flat of expression and voice. There is no chemistry and love between him and Kaity. Almost everyone tries so hard to talk in a sophisticated and cinematic ways , using big words which seem totally out of places and lack authenticity. The cast was quite talented to carry many meaningless, annoying conversations into some acceptable scenes, however, it all collapses due to terrible writting at the end. How can an important character be killed off , forced some tears out of another and then being saved miraculously with no explanation, just to have a happy ending as fake as possible.

I feel sorry for all the casts in this movie flop, they worked hard for this but there's no way they can save this ship which have big holes right there in the blueprint. Another disappointment on vietnamese cinema, a fake attempt on the advertisement it promises but fails to deliver.