Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

You know nobody likes pretty things more than I do! When I saw pictures of this project, I was thoroughly impressed with the colors, sets, and cinematography. On the shallow side, the pretty actors and actresses did kick my interest up a notch. Dubbed as the next most anticipated action fantasy film, Tam Cam: The Untold Story, is a Vietnamese fairy tale, very similar in story structure to Cinderella. Our heroine, Tam, is a beautiful child, daughter to the first wife. However, after her mother died, her father married another woman and she gave birth to a baby girl named Cam, whose looks is always deemed as inferior to Tam. Stepmother is always jealous and teams up with her daughter to bully Tam. But kindness pays off, allowing Tam to meet the handsome Prince. Happily Ever After…? The story is long so if you want to read, feel free to follow this link.

Stills:

Our heroine Tam, played by Ha Vi. They picked the right actress for this, she has that kind, hard-working face down already. Lol.

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Her smile. 😀

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The evil stepsister played by Ninh Duong Lan Ngoc.

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Stepsister and stepmom.

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Stepmom played by Ngo Thanh Van, also the producer and this is her directorial debut!

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Our handsome prince, played by Boy band 365’s leader, Isaac. He’s handsome and that glorious armor!! 365 is a boyband created by Ngo Thanh Van, hence it makes sense she’s promoting them in this movie.

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Our OTP in gold. SO PRETTYYYY.

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365’s S.T., a cold-blooded killer with an arrow and bow!

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365’s Jun. An eunuch, promising to leave a deep impression on you.

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365’s Will. A sword-wielding general and friend of the crown prince.

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Actor Ngoc Trai, the prince’s right hand man and good friend, providing humor for the audience.

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Trailers:

Instead of a fairy tale godmother, we have a godfather.

Beautiful scenery!

Produced and directed by Vietnamese actress Veronica Ngô Thanh Vân, Tam Cam: The Untold Story premieres on August 19th.

Via: 01

  1. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    Did they get the same costume/graphic designer from Prince of Lanling (or maybe Monkey King 2015)? lol

  2. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    I have never seen a Vietnamese drama before. Where is the best place to see this with English subs? You tube ? looks interesting! ?? Thanks for posting?

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      This is a movie, Gail. Will be out in theaters in 10 days. Viki has a Vietnamese dramas section too. Maybe others can point you to other sources.

  3. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    ohhhh the boys are handsome!! will and St are my favorites.

    the main girl is beautiful. love the grand sets they have. would love to watch it with subs too. 😀

  4. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    I’ve never seen a Vietnamese historical/costume drama before. Did the ancient Vietnamese royalty really dress like that?

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      I’m no expert on this, but as with other countries, everything will be modernized and spiced up in terms of colors and details.

      This user has a collection of Vietnamese clothing from many centuries: Click To Read.

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      The girls are wearing ao tu than, literally four-piece dress. That’s a northern style. So besides the guys’ armor, costumes look pretty authentic.

      • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

        Right, the girls are wearing the rightful historical Northern Vietnam attires, but the guys I’m not so sure lol. This movie has the full cast of idols. I’m not even sure if they all can act. And I’m so surprised to see Ngo Thanh Van in the role of a mother figure since to me she’s forever young, but she’s actually in her late 30s.

        I feel like the film is trying to make it all epic, but what I love about Vietnamese’s film is the true nature of keeping the geographic beauty of Vietnam. The countryside, rural beauty of Vietnam. Classic, historical Vietnamese kingdom has this rural beauty to it that this film has made it look like some, like one of the comment mentioned, some Lord of the Ring franchise.

        VIetnamese’s films have this short film filming style that I love so much, but this film is doing too much. I hope the actual film will be better than the trailer because I’m not impressed at all.

        And another thing, there is a mixture of both Northern and Southern dialect in the film. If they’re going for the Northern historical representation, then they should have all actors speaking in the Northern dialect, both all the female actresses are speaking in the Southern tongue. It’s okay in modern film since Vietnam is now mixed with all the different dialects, but in a historical film it’s a little weird, especially with the given history of the country.

        • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

          Agree with you 100%. Vietnamese films are actually good on their own without any of that knock-off epic stuff if directed right. The trailer here sounds like someone just translated a Hollywood superhero trailer word for word. Jeez…at least change the wording around a little.

  5. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    I’m so used to the ao dai & I don’t know what traditional/ancient Vietnamese clothing looks like. Looking at the pictures, I can’t help but think the producer/director took a leaf out of Go Princess Go, LOL.

    Thanks for the article, Kap! It’s always interesting to see something from my region, especially when they feature ancient traditions or set during the kingdom eras. Speaking of which, what happened with the Vietnamese Hua Qian Gu?

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      My knowledge is just like you too Lenje! Lol. A bit surprised when I googled and saw the evolution of their styles. Check out the link I posted above for Lyra. =D

      I never checked back with the Vietnamese Version to be honest. XD

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      The dress that tam,cam and her evil stepmother are wearing which is calling “áo tứ thân” one of traditional dress of vietnammese before. But nowaday it is only used in tradition festival in north viet nam

  6. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    I’m part Vietnamese and part Chinese; I’m so glad to get the both of best worlds on your site 🙂 Always a fan

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      This ship has no boundary when it comes to pretty. Mixed kids do have the best of both worlds. *wink*

  7. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    If she’s born of her father, they are not stepsisters but half-sisters. I’ve always have a soft spot for all versions of Cinderella. But this version ends with Cinderella getting her revenge through the death of her half-sister. Will you be uploading the movie here?

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      If I find it with English subs, Aryael. That area I haven’t dipped in very far yet. Lol.

      • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

        I can do segmenting and translating for this movie. But I don’t know how to get the raw version. Anyone helps?

        • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

          The raw version has not release yet. You can find another film. Ex the rebel,clash, the lady assasin. That is quiet good for me. For more information just reply or email me

  8. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    After reading the whole story, it kinda remind me of a Hmong story. It started out like Cinderella and then turn very dark. The main girl starts out as this hard working kind girl but loses herself along the way after desiring and carrying out her revenge plot. The main girl trick the half sister into cooking herself in boiling water. The OTP then lure out the stepmother and made her eat her daughter. The OTP gave the stepmom a basket with “packed food”, and when the stepmom looked at it it was the halfsister’s two breast. The stepmom threw one breast north and another south(or something like that). She cursed the OTP and at this point the OTP already had a baby. Because of the curse, the earth split and trees grew up to separate the OTP. The main guy tries to hammer them down but it doesn’t work. In the end, the OPT along with their child die and turned into butterflies to be together. It turns super grotesque and creepy. I think the morale of the story centered round how the main girl went about to get her revenge. Like yeah, the stepmom and haldsister were evil and mean but the main girl didn’t need to stoop down to their level and actually kill someone in that way that she did.

  9. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    I see a lot of influence from Chinese costume dramas

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      I don’t think it’s just “influence”, it’s like they take a little here and there and put it all together to make this film.
      Let’s see: Yang Kang’s hairstyle for the prince, Lanling Wang’s armour for the prince, superhero’s style trailer, Lord of the Rings’ sceneries instead of Asian sceneries with farms and all. Let’s make the prince and the girl meet before the ball when he’s doing horse riding cause Cinderella 2015 does that, and while we’re at it, let’s make the king die too.
      As great as this craftwork is, they’ve forgotten to copy the most important thing successful movies do: specifying a target audience. After seeing the trailer, I’m not sure if it’s a kids-friendly Cinderella film or a PG-13 historical film. The godfather scene looks pretty cute but might be boring for serious audience. Battle scenes and villains look too dark and serious for kids.
      All being said, I guess the weirder it looks, the more people will want to see it.

      • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

        Because all of vietnammese people learnt by heart “tam cam” so the diector want it more funny so the godfather act the humor role not like the original of Tam Cam version. Anh about the custom. Our vietnammese people in history is attack anh rule by the chinese people for over 1000 year so the custom í “influene” just like that. We đin’t not try to copy anything. I don’t know tam cam or cinderrela which is release first but i think tam cam is still one of the most fairy tales that so viettnam. Thank for reading. My eng is bad. Don’t judge that. Lol

  10. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    I’ve never liked any version of Cinderella, just for the fact that she needs a prince to save her from being abused by her stepmother and sister. Sure, I understand the moral of the story but I’m probably just too cynical. =P

    The visuals for this movie are definitely gorgeous. I’m loving the color schemes.

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      Actually, Cinderella doesn’t need the prince to save her if you think about it. It’s the prince who needs her to make his life complete. The prince’s the one who goes all crazy after spending a few hours with Cinderella and over a little slipper she drops behind 🙂 *Girlpower*

      • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

        I can see where you’re coming from but I’m a cynic when it comes to these types of fairy tales. It’s useless to convince me otherwise. =P Love at first sight is usually just lust at first sight but no one really wants to call it that way lol.

        I’ll show myself out now. XD

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      I think this version is a darker version doesn’t focus so much on the princess being saved by her prince charming, rather, it’s going to add more plots into it like how the prince’s kingdom is overtaken by the prime minister and how Tam will get her revenge in the end.

      • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

        That the untold version bro

  11. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    WOW, this looks nice. Never watch a Vietnamese movie/drama before, but this looks promising. Out of all of them, the step-mother looks awesome. I’m not the evil type ofc ;), but they only show her face for like a sec at the last clip, and OMG, she looks cool.

  12. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    I really like the costumes even though many vietnamese netizens have been saying it looks chinese inspired and too mordernized. But I think the director knew exactly what she’s going for. Ha Vi is really pretty and she looks so much like Betty Sun Li.

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      Yep, the director’s going for the “let’s take a little from Hollywood, a little from Chinese drama, a little from Peter Jackson, etc” style, which is going to get $ out of moviegoers’ pockets regardless of the quality. 😀
      I do think the Ha Vi is pretty though. I think for the first time in Vietnamese movie history, they have picked someone with the right facial features for a period film.

      • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

        yup haha but the sad part is that Ha Vi is hated by Vietnettz lately after being caught in a relationship with a rich, married man. Technically, he’s not with his wife anymore and his wife is actually caught in a third party relationship with another rich man. What a mess. But that didn’t really help Ha Vi since she’s now viewed as a gold digger.

        • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

          Ha Vi probably wouldn’t be viewed as a gold-digger if the guy was a little better looking =P

  13. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    i read the synopsis and it sounds dark.. they way they kill each other and all.. not very fairy tale if you ask me.. though maybe the adaptation will have some differences..

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      The original Cinderella folktale had the step sisters cut their toes in order to fit the shoes. Most of the original folktales are very dark and grotesque. In fact, when they (Cinderella and Tam Cam) are turned into adaptations, those gory parts are not mentioned to become “fairytales”. That’s why I’m looking forward to this one because it tells the story of what’s “untold”. I hope they show Tam evil in the end. I read an analysis somewhere that explains the difference between the motif of Cinderella and Tam Cam, whereas, Cinderella focuses on “good people get good ending”, Tam Cam’s actually “karma gets you in the end”. Hence, Tam Cam extends to the story of post marriage between Tam and the Prince and how the stepmother and stepsister got killed.

  14. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    Wow…I didn´t expect such a morbid story…the trailer looks really promising and I am really curious if they will follow the storyline.
    The story reminded me a lot of a a short Mordvin folktale called “The Birch Girl”…here the girl was also killed..later on became a tree..then a fiddle and then emerged later on out of flames when the fiddle was thrown into the fire.

  15. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    I’m not sure if I’ve ever commented here, but hello 🙂
    This is the first time I came across on this site with a post about a Vietnamese movie/film lol 😛
    Probably one of the most expensive films because I’ve read 22 billion Vietnamese dong is this film’s budget. Agree with the other commenters that director took inspiration from various films. The first two posters of Tam are pretty realistic compared to everyone else’s outfits. The two headbands from Tam (first two posters) are the more realistic one compared to Cam and the stepmom. Stepmom has the most variant and fancy type of ao tu than. The stepmom’s and Cam’s headbands though, so puffy lol. The metal headband (supposedly khan dong) from Tam in the last poster with everyone does not exist during that time. It would be super heavy to wear it …

    The yellow poster of Tam reads: “I only have to uphold a promise. You have to uphold the whole country*.”
    The “I” is the wife address herself to her husband (male counterpart) while the “You” in here is addressing her husband. I’m highlighting those two because we specifically use those terms back in the day to address wife to husband and vice versa.

    * To be more specific, this can be translated as rivers and mountains (jiang shan … ) , indicating the entire country or world if you want to be more dramatic.

    The male (crown prince) poster: “It’s the gods’ will that has determine an opportunity for (this) fate.”

    The english translation for the trailer makes me cringe. Queen-in-waiting? I don’t remember such term or maybe I suck at remember vocabs … Anyhow they could have translated it as prince’s wife… same status as Zhang Peng Peng from Go Princess Go.

    All the actresses in this film can definitely act. Can’t say the same for the guys (the warrior ones). 365 band ceased any band activities for a while now. However, I heard this from my cousin so I’m not sure how accurate it is or if the band decides to get together again.

    The evil ? looking warlord and the fairy godfather are both veteran actors. The fairy godfather is a great comedy actor (he starred in a parody of Tam Cam playing as Tam lol)

    As for the story itself… it’s pretty dark, but I often watched the parody versions or ones that have comedic tones when I was a kid so happy memories somewhere in there lol… recalling it now this fairy tale is bloody (very much like the actual fairytales and not the Disney version ones).

    I would not hold any of these things against the movie, seems like an aesthetic pleasing and entertaining movie to watch 😛

    http://lilsuika.deviantart.com/art/1-000-Years-of-Vietnamese-Clothing-300093773

    ^ you can see the king’s outfits

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      She wrote the vietnamese films before, the one called yellow over green grass and forever young drama with the korean actor and Vietnamese actress.

      Thanks for the detailed translation!

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      Tbh, I get this Zhen Huan Zhuan inspired color theme from the posters between Tam and Cam with the gold being a prominent color to indicate royalty, the big head embroidery, and Cam in red -indicating power yet of anger- and Tam in gold – ultimate power yet of goodness. It just screams Zhen Huan and Niang Niang.

  16. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    Damn, while the whole vietnam were aggressively commenting on Victoria Song’s instagram (the 9-dash line map post has reached 3 million comments setting world record), their cinematographers produce these kind of china entertainment rip offs lol

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      Stop. You haven’t watched this movie yet to call it a rip off. Second, there are a lot of asian countries that were heavily influenced by Chinese culture in the historical period due to its imperialisms on its bordering countries. Look at Thailand, Laos, and even Korea and Japan. Those countries still reserve a lot of culture influences from China to today. Just because China currently has tensions with other SEA countries doesn’t mean those countries cannot make entertainment that stay true to history.

      • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

        Yes, please stop calling this movie a China entertainment rip-off while It’s clearly also a Hollywood, and Disney rip off.

        Joke’s over, my point is we dont know if the movie content is a rip-off, but what we see in the trailer is not exactly original in terms of creativity.
        I think anyone with a teaspoon of knowledge of Vietnamese ancient costume knows that the bamboo conical hat played a big part back then. The imperial guards wore it, soldiers wore it, etc. Why not take what’s traditional and bring it to the next level instead off making these guys wear armors that are part Crusade, part Troy, part Three Kingdoms, I don’t even know what to call it…
        And the lead girl’s headdress in the poster, they might as well get Zhen Huan’s headdress and cut it in half.
        Lastly, because most movies from so-called high rated directors from Vietnam have turned out to be rip-offs (thanks to Victor Vu), it’s hard to get rid of the prejudice.

  17. 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

    Lol i happen to be Vietnamese myself and honestly to me the language sounds so awkward, i cringed every time the actors were yelling at each other and omo… i dont know maybe its just because i like korean and chinese language better. Also the costumes for the girls are beautiful but why do i feel like they didn’t even try with the males? Its like the same quality as go princess go aha. Anyways i don’t think ill be watching it as hearing my own language cringes me for some reason.

    • 43 thoughts on “Vietnamese film Tam Cam: The Untold Story creates buzz with stunning locations and camerawork

      lmaooooooooo. i’m the same way & i’m also Vietnamese.
      However, after viewing the trailer I might just give it a shot. lol, wouldn’t hurt to try. XD

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