A scene from Trạng Tí (Child Master), a comedy produced by movie star, film director and producer Ngô Thanh Vân.  The film will be postponed until February next year due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Photo courtesy of Studio68

HCM CITY Trạng Tí (Child Master), a film about Vietnamese folk stories, will be postponed until February next year due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the producer Studio68 has announced.

The film was scheduled to be released in cinemas on May 1. Its teaser trailer was released on YouTube in December and has attracted more than 202,000 viewers. Its distributor is CGV Vietnam.

Trạng Tí is the latest film by movie star and producer Ngô Thanh Vân, owner of Studio88, a private film and entertainment agency.

It features four child characters called Tí (Mouse), Sửu (Buffalo), Dần (Tiger) and Mẹo (Cat), who live in a remote village and use their intelligence to protect their villagers. 

Filming was shot in Ninh Bình Province, home to Tràng An Scenic Landscape Complex, around 100 kilometres to the south of Hà Nội.

Vân’s agency and its partners spent US$1 million on the production.     

Trạng Tí  is part of Vân’s new project based on a comic series by young artists from Phan Thị Company.

The comic series, titled Thần Đồng Đất Việt (Vietnamese Prodigies), features historic events and famous characters from different periods in Việt Nam’s history, such as Lê Quý Đôn, a poet, encyclopaedist and government official who lived in the 18th century.

The first of the 200 parts, released in 2002, was w publishing phenomenon. More than a million copies of Thần Đồng Đất Việt have been printed.

Filming of Trạng Tí was shot in Ninh Bình Province, home to Tràng An Scenic Landscape Complex, around 100 kilometres to the south of Hà Nội. Photo courtesy of  Studio88

Producer Vân signed a copyright deal with the publisher Trẻ and Phan Thị Company to adapt the book to film.   

Vân invited blockbuster director Phan Gia Nhật Linh to capture the Vietnamese spirit through the film. The soundtrack is composed by Đức Trí, a graduate of the Berkelee College of Music in the US. Trí uses folk music from people in the northern and southern regions to highlight the film’s theme.    

“We decided to delay our film’s release because we wanted to guarantee the success of ticket sales,” said a representative of the film’s producer on Thursday. 

According to Vân, Trạng Tí reflects her dream to bring Vietnamese history and culture to film.

“I hope audiences, particularly children and teenagers, are proud of their country and culture after watching,” said 42-year-old Vân in an interview with media before launching her project in HCM City.  

Vân is also working on three films based on popular myths, called Thạch Sanh (The Story of Thạch Sanh), Thánh Gióng (Saint Gióng) and Sơn Tinh-Thủy Tinh (Mountain-God of Water).  

Sơn Tinh-Thủy Tinh explains the origin of storms and floods and highlights the will and intelligence of the Vietnamese who battled natural disasters thousands of years ago.

Thạch Sanh tells the story of an orphan who grows up to be a brave woodcutter and defeats monsters to save a princess.

Thánh Gióng portrays a young hero named Gióng who becomes a giant and rides on an iron horse leading his villagers to fight against northern invaders.

The films are expected to be in cinemas next year.

Vân’s previous film, Hai Phượng (Furie), was distributed by Lotte Entertainment Vietnam and earned VNĐ200 billion ($8.6 million) one month after its release last year. It is distributed on Netflix. VNS