The Department of Cinema’s decision to ban the film “Bui doi cho lon” or “Chinatown” lacks clear legal foundations, leaving the creators and crew of the film at a loss, said director Nguyen Quang Dung.

A scence of "Bui doi cho lon"

In an interview with DTiNews, the director commented that, although there are many countries with stricter regulations on cinema than Vietnam, the industry here is still largely under the control of authorities.

“Take the restaurant industry as an example. If a restaurant closes, the reason is never that some person in authority arbitrarily deemed that the food did not conform to Vietnamese traditional cuisine. Most likely, the restaurant closed because people didn't like the food. On occasion, however, restaurants have to be shut down because they don't meet up to health standards," said Nguyen Quang Dung said.

He added that the film industry in Vietnam should be regulated by the Law on Cinema, which should provide clear grounds for prohibiting movie content.

“If the law we have now prohibits scenes involving close-up killings, shoplifting and torture. This forces producers to cut such material. But the law is too vague concerning other content, which causes misunderstanding for writers, producers and directors, who may not know which scenes to exclude. The law prohibits films from showing a 'lack of humanity'. What does that actually mean? It really depends on the subjective judgement of censors," he added.

Director Nguyen Quang Dung

In his opinion, the laws regarding film should take note of those enforced in developed countries as well as the opinions of experts, and be clearly defined in order to avoid unfortunate and avoidable situations. He recommended that the law be changed so as to create a cinema culture appropriate to Vietnam instead of one which sets producers at odds with authorities.

The banning of the film, “Bui doi cho lon" was not surprising to him, as he said that many other movies had suffered the same fate.

According to Nguyen Thi Hong Ngat, Vice Permanent Chairwoman of the Vietnam Film Association, one member of the National Film Review thought the film contained gratuitous violence between rival gangs without intervention from local authorities, as well as using HCM City as a setting without accurately portraying the metropolis.