Asian Film Festival screens four Vietnamese movies

The three others are horror ‘Bac Kim Thang’ (Home Sweet Home), comedy drama ‘Tiec TrangMau’ (Blood Moon Party) and crime drama ‘Rom.’

‘Bac Kim Thang,’ released in 2019, is about a 20-year-old man who returns home after an accident-triggered coma. He finds his family acting weirdly as his grandfather’s health deteriorates, his girl cousin vanishes into thin air, and spooky events start to occur around the old house.

‘Tiec Trang Mau’ is about four childhood friends who go into different professions like journalism, plastic surgery and teaching.

‘Rom’ won the grand prize at the 2019 Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. Developed from the critically acclaimed short film "4:30 p.m.", which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013, "Rom" is about a teenage boy named Rom who lives in a slum in Saigon and buys lottery tickets for people in the neighborhood. His aim is to collect enough money to find his parents, who had abandoned him as a child.

A still cut from "Bo Gia". Photo courtesy of the movie.

‘Bo Gia’ recently reached a milestone as the first Vietnamese flick to collect $1 million at the U.S. box office. It tells the story of Sang, an old motorbike-taxi driver who lives in a low-income neighborhood in downtown Saigon, who struggles to earn enough money to care for his family.

This year's Asian Film Festival will screen 28 feature films and two short films from 11 countries, including Japan, South Korea and China.

Held in Rome from June 17 to 23, it includes two special events focusing on South Korean and Vietnamese movies.