The director of ‘Underground Storm’ revealed the behind-the-scenes and unexpected ending of the movie

“Underground storm“Having gone near the end of the journey, how do you feel when you look back at your brainchild? Is there anything you still regret?

– First of all, I would like to especially thank the nationwide drama-loving audience. Up to this point, the movie “Underground Storm” has still received a large number of views and support from the audience. This is a joy for me and the entire crew as well as fellow artists.

Every film project has more or less force majeure arising, leading to regret after filming, so does the movie “Underground Storm”.

Although I controlled a lot of the wrong dialogue, I still let it happen in one scene.

The second is having to voice the North for some Southern actors, especially the female lead Cao Thai Ha, which is also out of my control.

The film was originally intended to be set in the Central Highlands, a province bordering Cambodia, not a province bordering the Northwest. At that time, Cao Thai Ha’s character was originally a Southern accent, keeping the original voice. But after shooting 10%, the producer changed the whole scene.

We were forced to accept dubbing because the character’s household registration had been transferred to the North, which also led to the disadvantage that the speech and language of the two regions were different. Although the voice actors tried their best, there were some sentences that were too different to match. During the filming, Cao Thai Ha also tried to use sentences from the North, but while playing the role, the actor could not always concentrate to control the words, easily affecting the acting emotions. Although Ha’s voice is very good, I can’t hold it back. This is quite unfortunate for the movie, for me and for Cao Thai Ha.

Another thing that makes me especially regret is the inspection stage, there is a huge difference between the screenplay and the film shown to the audience to this day.

I think this is a lesson for me to have experience and be more careful for the following films, especially films that exploit sensitive issues like “Underground Storm” is reflecting.

That said, surely the ending of the movie will also change and be different from the original script?

– Right! Surely the end of the film is not what I and the crew wanted as originally in the script and will also bring different reactions to the audience.

The movie “Underground Storm” up to this point has had to be edited, especially in the last 3 episodes, from 75 episodes to 72 episodes, equivalent to 600 minutes of content compared to the original submission, this is the length of time being cutting in a TV series is pretty big. So the movie is only a week away from the end.

When it was adapted from a novel to a screenplay, the ending on the script itself was far different from that of the novel. So editing while the movie is filming and broadcasting will completely change the ending of the movie. As for how else, I ask for permission not to disclose to ensure the element of surprise.

It is known that “Submarine Storm” was filmed within 3 years, an equally “underground storm” journey. Can you share memorable behind-the-scenes stories and “storms” that you and your crew had to go through?

– The “storms” that I and the film crew experienced were really memorable. The film had to be filmed in the North, but the crew was mainly from the South, the first time going out to the North, it lasted from the dry season, summer to winter, all brothers had to adapt to the climate and living environment. to work.

So, during the 6 months of filming in the North, I had difficulties in terms of personnel. The brothers for different reasons have taken turns to leave and replace many new ones. A crew therefore, in addition to the rest of the main body, had to patch things up to try to finish filming the scenes in the North.

Our biggest “storm” was the Covid-19 epidemic, which greatly disrupted the filming, production, and completion schedule of the film to air. This incurs more footage and costs. That’s something no one wants, especially the manufacturer.

With the movie “Underground Storm”, the producer’s expense was doubled compared to the original estimate.

However, in the midst of the storm that we have to face, in return we still receive encouragement from the companions of manufacturers and investors. The film producer is willing to share with the difficulties as well as the costs incurred by the crew so that we can complete the film to the final stage.

When the show aired the first episodes until now, “Underground Storm” besides the compliments, still received a lot of criticism about the content and the movie’s comments later on. What do you say?

– Up to this point, I admit that the comments of the audience and film critics are grounded. Because as I said above, the movie from the script to the finished product and the review to broadcast on VTV1 has changed a lot.

This is the first movie I made that had to be edited and changed so much. The editing does not happen only once, but it is parallel to the broadcast of the film. Whenever there is an opinion of the audience or public opinion about something that is a bit negative, we have to review it and force it to cut off all the parts related to it.

Perhaps the movie “Underground Storm” is about the police, so from the beginning, the audience may assume that the film only talks about criminality and police operations.

In fact, “Underground Storm” is a criminal, psychological and social drama. The “underground storm” in the film is not only present in the crime-solving journey, the dangerous moments, the balance between the police force and the criminal.

Those are also the “storms” in the thought and bravery of the people’s police soldier before the mission, love, temptation, and crime. The “underground storm” within the police ranks. There are also “underground storms” in the family life – behind the scenes of police soldiers.

If the audience looks at the film from that angle, I think they will have a fairer view. From the very beginning, we determined that the film must reach a large audience, so we incorporated many stories into the film.

Until the censored version, the film oriented to a lot of editing in the direction of focusing on the police breaking the case, less emotional stories, less negative internal, criminal world life while the sentences That story is intertwined, forming the link and progression of the film’s circuit.

When it edits and celebrates the positives, the film will inevitably have problems that I myself are beyond my control. However, this is a rather sensitive film, we have listened and changed but still keep the sound of praise and honor throughout the content of the film.

After the movie “The Judge” there was an opinion that the situation of gangsters appeared a lot. “Underground Storm” is also a film with such a theme. As a director, what do you think from such a comment?

– This is a statement that has caused mixed reviews, from the perspective of directors and filmmakers, I think that the overall view of each film is towards a positive message, honoring the good and criticizing the good. evil.

With any topic, the film also needs an attractive conflict and antagonism, to keep the audience sitting in front of the screen. At the end of the movie, the right and the good will conquer the wrong and evil convincingly. From there, the audience self-reflected, drawing for themselves an experience of life through the film. If you do one-sided or too dogmatic, the audience will be bored, change the entertainment channel right away.

The movie “Underground Storm” exploits the drug crime segment, but it is the background for the main lines of the people’s police force. The film’s story is a crime-solving journey of a drug detective, who must infiltrate the lair of criminals to investigate and untie each link until the truth of the final boss is revealed. The criminal world only opens up according to the detective’s case-breaking process and completely serves to honor the temperament, bravery, loyalty, and even the disadvantages and silent sacrifices of the people’s policeman who is currently fighting. do the misson.

He used to make movies. If you were to make a movie in the near future, what genre of film would you prefer?

– Making movies is also my desire. I’m currently preparing for the pre-production of the movie, which is scheduled to shoot next summer. As for the genre, I can’t reveal yet.

(According to Dan Tri)