Joyce

I don’t understand how some people can praise this movie for having a good plot. Is she even in the same room as us? The dialogues are robotic and unnatural, with a mismatch of Vietnamese dialects that feels completely out of place. The movie is set in Ho Chi Minh City, yet the son speaks with a southern accent, the mother with a northern one, and the main character, Mai, has a mix of city and countryside accents. The storyline doesn’t provide any context or reasoning for these differences, even if the director intended to explain each character's origins. And let's not forget the most clichéd and awkward mix of English and Vietnamese in the conversations between Sau and his mother. It seems like the director was trying to showcase the family's high status, but it just ends up reflecting a superficial understanding of 'wealth.' Despite attempts to give the son a personality through his music taste and the mother's house a Western, old-money vibe, everything about their speech, dress, actions, and mindsets came across as fake and try-hard. The movie also tries to be cinematic with its use of meaningful quotes, effects, varied framing, dramatic lighting, sound effects, and classical music. But these elements feel out of place, awkward, and overly dramatic. For example, the scene where all the villains turn into zombies attacking Mai so she can rise and fight back lacks nuance and depth. Plot twist after plot twist is thrown at the audience in an attempt to heighten tension and evoke emotion, but they’re predictable and poorly executed, turning the whole experience into something mundane and pointless. As for character development, there’s virtually none. Every character remains unchanged throughout the film, achieving their goals by making the most obvious choices. Some might argue that this was the point—to subvert expectations—but I would say they failed at both. The film doesn’t allow its characters to evolve naturally; instead, they’re trapped within the director’s rigid plot. It’s clear that the writing process went like this: first, the director created the plot, second, he cast the same actors he’s used in past projects, and third, he directed them to act according to his vision, limiting their creative input. As a result, the story plays out exactly as he originally envisioned, without any genuine character-driven moments. Take the mother, who remains the main antagonist. She gets what she wants: her son marries someone else, she bounces back from any setbacks, and she doesn’t even feel guilty because Mai ends up wealthy and successful. Meanwhile, everyone at the apartment who mistreated Mai also wins because she leaves. Even the father’s death conveniently removes the last obstacle in the story. The whole thing just feels pointless. dở khùng luôn