Vietnam seemed a little unusual in 2025. The national flag gave streets and buildings a vibrant splash of red, and nearly every cultural happening would reflect, and revere, significant historical events like the 50th anniversary of the country’s reunification and the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution
Red Rain (Mưa đỏ) was especially attuned to this atmosphere. Directed by Lt. Col. Đặng Thái Huyền and produced by the People’s Army Film Studio, the film adapts both Chu Lai’s well-known novel and historical accounts of the gruelling 81-day battle in Quảng Trị in 1972 between U.S.-backed ARVN forces and local PAVN soldiers.
The film also benefited from an ideal release window, arriving after the anniversary of the August Revolution and before the National Holiday, as well as access to real military equipment and more intense pyrotechnics. It was hardly surprising that Red Rain would take first place at the local box office, rising to the top of the all-time theatrical earnings chart with 714 billion VND (approximately USD27 million), and receiving the country’s highest level of cultural and sociocultural recognition. It was equally unsurprising that the film would be selected as Vietnam’s submission for the Best International Feature category at the 98th Oscars, even though it did not make the shortlist.
The success of the film and its accolades encouraged the idea that government-supported productions, whether fully or partly funded by the state, can still achieve commercial appeal. In other words, such films can generate profits and even gain a competitive edge, both financially and artistically, once completed, and also travel to some international venues. They do not have to remain mere “occasional creations” made to support a particular cultural event and then “placed in storage” (cất kho), to use the industry’s own expression. That said, the prison drama Sound Across the Ocean (Thanh âm vượt đại dương) would still end up following precisely that fate.
A different government agency, the People’s Public Security, also made an impression on local audiences in 2025. With its tense close-quarter combat sequences, Hijacked (Tử chiến trên không), inspired by plane hijackings in post-1975 Vietnam, proved a treat for action fans. Directed, co-written, and co-produced by Hàm Trần, the film marked the first time these incidents had been brought to the big screen. It went on to become the year’s third-highest box-office hit, earning 251.8 billion VND (USD9.5 million).
The People’s Public Security scored again at the end of 2025 with the drama-crime-action title Bloody Heaven (Thiên Đường Máu), centred on the highly topical issue of locals being trafficked into scam centres. At one point during its release, the film notably sold more tickets than Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Then came a striking anomaly. One of the year’s biggest hits, Tunnels: Sun in the Dark (Địa đạo: Mặt trời trong bóng tối), was funded entirely by private entities despite both its subject matter and its strategic release window. Bùi Thạc Chuyên’s film follows the lives of fighters in the Củ Chi Tunnels during the gruelling Operation Cedar Falls in 1967. Made on a reported budget of 55 billion VND (USD2 million), it earned 172.4 billion VND and went on to collect numerous awards. It also screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival, which had selected Chuyên’s last feature, Glorious Ashes (Tro tàn rực rỡ), three years earlier.
How did other genres fare in 2025? Action deserves a mention, even if relatively few titles were released. Alongside Hijacked, Dương Minh Chiến’s action-comedy Fish, Fists and Ambergris (Truy tìm Long Diên Hương) also performed strongly and gave local stunt players the visibility they deserved. Grossing 206.7 billion VND (USD7.8 million), the film follows a ragtag group attempting to recover a village’s revered titular treasure. It also marks the feature directorial debut of Chiến, himself a stuntman and founder of the Action C team. One of its members, Hoàng Tóc Dài, also known as Trầm Mình Hoàng, played a key character that evolved into a fan favourite.
Drama remained stable and reliable, with some notable developments. The Vietnamese industry continued to show itself open to international collaboration, with Korea, for example, in Mo Hong-jin’s Leaving Mom (Mang mẹ đi bỏ), which split cast, crew, languages, filming locations, and promotional activity in a near “50-50” arrangement, and with India in Rahat Shah Kazmi’s Love in Vietnam (Vạn dặm yêu em), which placed the vistas of Đà Nẵng front and centre.
There were also filmmakers willing to go against the grain of market trends, and even against the advice typically associated with box-office success, in order to create more distinctive cinematic experiences. Nguyễn Quốc Công, also the producer of Hijacked, emphasised sound design as a storytelling tool in his adaptation of A Crooked Heart (Trái tim què quặt). Leon Le, best known for Song Lang, chose to shoot Ky Nam Inn (Quán Kỳ Nam) on 35mm film. More surprisingly, even major commercial names such as Trấn Thành and Lý Hải found that the follow-up to a major success did not automatically translate into another blockbuster. The 4 Rascals (Bộ tứ bảo thủ) earned 219 billion VND, or USD8.3 million, falling short of Mai, while Face-Off 8: Embrace of Light (Lật mặt 8: Vòng tay nắng) grossed 251 billion VND, or USD9.5 million, less than the total for the seventh Face-Off film.
Horror, by contrast, was marked by a series of dips and stumbles, especially in the second half of the year, after local media began saying that audiences were “feeling glutted” (bội thực) by the genre, or had the impression that cinemas were offering nothing but scare-driven titles. Perhaps audience fatigue stemmed less from horror itself than from the repetition of similar scare tactics and subject matter, but “horror is bad” probably made for a catchier and more viral phrase.
It was particularly disappointing to see Production Q suffer not one but two misfires: the urban-legend-inflected The Lake (Dưới đáy hồ) and the more ambitious, mystical period adaptation The Demon Prince (Hoàng tử quỷ) both failed to reach even 30 billion VND (USD1.13 million). It was equally unfortunate that a more original effort such as Antithesis of Gemini (Thai chiêu tài), reportedly the first installment of Trần Nhân Kiên’s planned universe of sinister and eternal forces, also fell short commercially. Even so, Kiên told me that the response to the film had been far more enthusiastic than that to his previous three works, and was enough for him to begin a creative redemption of sorts.
As for the hits, the numbers speak for themselves. The grisly The Corpse (Quỷ nhập tràng), directed by Pom Nguyễn, who turned out to be Nguyễn Thành Nam of two previously panned zombie films, took in 149.6 billion VND (USD5.68 million). Victor Vũ’s period procedural Detective Kien: The Headless Horror (Thám tử Kiên: Kỳ án không đầu) earned 249 billion VND (USD9.45 million). Both films generated sequel talk not long after release. For a time, it was impossible to discuss Kien without entering the debate over whether the April 30 holiday slot was truly “reserved” for Hải and his Face-Off franchise. The Vietnamese film industry has its own shorthand when making such decisions: “The first day of Tết is for Trấn Thành, the 30th of April is for Lý Hải.”
But another issue was beginning to emerge, one that demanded more attention than release windows, genre trends, star talent, or even box-office performance. Yes, AI. Unsurprisingly, as the global subject du jour, the technology became the local industry’s latest amour, to a degree that was both fascinating and unsettling. Around mid-April, the production company Chánh Phương hosted its first AI Film Competition for short films created entirely through platforms such as Midjourney and Gemini. Teaser posters and concept art for new projects could scarcely appear without provoking suspicions of AI involvement.
Even so, all of this paled beside the case of Chốt Đơn (“Deal!”), from the filmmaking duo Bảo Nhân and Nam Cito. This slice-of-life drama, which some viewers compared to The Intern, used deepfake and AI technology to replace its lead actress Thùy Tiên after she was charged and jailed for “deceiving customers,” specifically as one of the spokespersons for a candy promoted as a substitute for greens. The film ended its theatrical run with a meagre 5.12 billion VND (USD194,000), and the response to Tiên’s virtual replacement was generally cold. It was, without question, a rock-and-a-hard-place situation for the production. One suspects, however, that the marketing team lost sight of that reality when it opted for a breezy “Guess our new Actress!” campaign, complete with the new character’s name, “Hoàng Linh,” and even her bust-hip-waist measurements.
Many industry players seemed more intent on perfecting their use of AI than on fast-tracking a film commission, streamlining policies related to exhibition (including retrospectives and travel to overseas venues), and gaining a firmer grasp of the fundamentals of cinematic storytelling. Perhaps I missed the memo, assuming there was one, declaring this a necessary priority for Ho Chi Minh City to live up to the UNESCO Creative City of Film status it received in November.
Looking ahead, how might AI interact with the fast-growing and increasingly in-demand field of animation? There is every reason to pay attention, especially after two fully 3D productions, Little Scholar Quynh: The Legend of the Golden Buffalo (Trạng Quỳnh Nhí: Truyền thuyết Kim Ngưu) by Merited Artist Trịnh Lâm Tùng, and Cricket: The Adventure to the Muddy Hamlet (Dế mèn: Cuộc phiêu lưu tới Xóm Lầy Lội) by Mai Phương, won awards at DANAFF III, and after Vietnam, for the first time, gained a presence at the renowned Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France.
Before all that, everyone would like to hear news of the second Ho Chi Minh International Film Festival, which was pushed back to 2026. According to a press release, the organisers decided to move the event “to 2026” so that all the historically significant celebrations could be observed in full.
Top-Earning Vietnamese Films in 2025 (Ranked)
1. Red Rain
2. The 4 Rascals
3. Hijacked
4. Detective Kien: The Headless Horror
5. The Ancestral Home
6. Face Off 8: Embrace of Light
7. Money Kisses
8. Fish, Fists and Ambergris
9. Tunnels
10. Leaving Mom
Nguyên Lê