HANOI, March 16 (AFP) - A potent, homemade cocktail of sex, drugs and HIV/AIDS is proving to be a box office smash in a country more used to a staple diet of staid communist propaganda and Hollywood thrillers.
"Dancing Girl" has played to packed houses across the country since it opened in the southern business capital of Ho Chi Minh City on February 8.
By the end of its first week, the film had pushed Phillip Noyce's adaptation of the Graham Greene classic "The Quiet American" of its perch at the top of the city's box office charts.
Produced by the state-run Liberation Film Company, the movie has grossed more than 260,000 dollars from its nationwide run, an impressive return on modest production costs of only 78,000 dollars.
"These are the biggest takings ever for a Vietnamese film. 'Dancing Girl' hits all the right spots by dwelling on the most pressing but exciting aspects in our society," said Le Duc Tien, the company's director.
"People are suffering from indigestion from watching too many foreign films and Vietnamese movies about war, and so they are happy to watch something more real and closer to their everyday lives."
Directed by the internationally-acclaimed Le Hoang, "Dancing Girl" probes the dark and seedy underworld of Ho Chi Minh City through the eyes of two young and beautiful prostitutes, both of whom are HIV positive.
Hoa, played by My Duyen, one of Vietnam's most popular actresses, is an 18-year-old hooker and heroin addict from a rich family, who lives her life with reckless abandonment before succumbing to an overdose.
Her best friend and fellow prostitute is played by top model Minh Thu, who struggles to come to terms with the killer virus and then embarks on a crusade to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS among sex workers.
A graphic gang-rape sequence and close-up shots of Hoa injecting heroin into her slender, pale arms provide a gritty taste of urban reality and the often fatal consequences of drug abuse and prostitution.
"This was a really emotional film. It was the first time that I have seen such dark scenes in a Vietnamese movie," said Le Thu Hoai, a 23-year-student in Hanoi.
"The film had the perfect balance between being too haunting and overpowering and on the other hand being enjoyable," she said.
"It had all the rights ingredients for success. It was colorful, easy to follow and starred famous actresses. Vietnamese cinema should continue to cash in of such kind of movies," she said.
The success of "Dancing Girl" could not come at a better time for the Vietnamese film industry, which is struggling to be heard above the din of Hollywood, Japanese, South Korean and Hong Kong movies.
In an attempt to encourage the development of Vietnamese cinema, the government in January announced that private companies could make movies independently without having to work through state-run production houses.
However, the new policy, which also abolishes the pre-filming censorship of scripts, has yet to convince sceptical entrepreneurs that the industry can provide a healthy return on their investment.
Although it is still too early to talk about the impact "Dancing Girl" will have on the local industry, its phenomenal box office success has proved that audiences will not turn their backs on quality home-produced movies.
"I carefully studied my audience before I made the movie," said director Le Hoang. "People have come to watch 'Dancing Girl' because its cinematography is beautiful and it is a snapshot of reality."
Movie reality to Hoang and to many of Vietnam's younger generations, means no war or political propaganda.
"We should produce films that people are interested in. They after all are our target audiences," he said.
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