From singer “encroaching” to director “exploding” the box office
In the early 1990s, Ly Hai was a famous singer with modern songs and dances – he was dubbed “Golden Legs”. In 2000, the series Lifetime With You was born. The 90-minute scripted music videos for each album made Ly Hai a phenomenon. At that time, it can be considered that Ly Hai was a pioneer in the musical filmmaking movement with investment products, which received much love from the audience.
Ly Hai has been successful for many years with 10 albums Lifetime With You and many other solo albums. In particular, the Lifetime With You series also helped him achieve many records such as: The first person to fly and explode a car – something that Vietnamese cinema at that time had not done; cascadeur jumps from the 8th floor of a high-rise building in Lifetime With You 7; The first person to release an online album on Zing MP3 music site with Lifetime With You 9. During his illustrious music career, Ly Hai has released up to 600 songs, penned and composed 20 songs. Many of his songs are famous, and his lines in musical films have also become the mouthpieces of the audience.
At the peak of his singing career, in 2015, Ly Hai left the stage to fulfill his bigger dream: Film director and release his first movie, Flip Face. Many people mistakenly believe that Ly Hai is a “hands-on” director, but the truth is that Ly Hai originally came from the School of Dramatic Arts 2 (now Ho Chi Minh City University of Theater and Cinema). In photography, Ly Hai constantly studies how to make films, write scripts and cinematic effects.
Taking advantage of the knowledge and experience after the hit music movies, in 2015 Ly Hai hit the cinematic lane with his debut work – Flip Face. Receiving enthusiastic support from the public, earning 72 billion and becoming the momentum for Ly Hai to launch 4 more works in a row with revenue increasing over time: Flip Face: Film Studio – 80 billion VND, Flip Face: Three Missing Guys – 85 billion VND, Flip Face: The house has guests – 120 billion and the action blockbuster Flip Face: 48H – more than 150 billion.
After 5 movies, Flip Face is recognized as the movie series with the fastest revenue growth, and at the same time, the movie series is always in the top of the movie series with the highest revenue. of the history of Vietnamese cinema.
After 8 years, Ly Hai has become one of the most successful producers and directors in the film industry, opening the trend of making brand films (franchise) on Vietnamese screens.
Passion for innovation, challenge yourself
One of the reasons why Flip Face continuously conquers increasingly demanding audiences is due to director Ly Hai’s spirit of “playing big” and his willingness to explore new limits.
Right from the first movie, he was ready to “sacrifice” a car when filming the scene for the car to go down a cliff and explode. To the second part, Flip Face: Film Studio, Ly Hai invested in destroying 2 cars and a large displacement motorcycle for the chase scene between police and smugglers. To Flip Face: Three Guys With Disabilities, the filmmaker continued to “play out” when he bought 4 brand new cars and then demolished them for the scenes. In Flip Face: House With Guests, the film crew built a giant windmill. And in Flip Face: 48h, Ly Hai again marked a milestone of “burning money” when spending more than 3 billion VND to mobilize more than 100 employees, 7 cameras and 10 ships, building many Cham houses. for a month just to pull it down in one scene.
Ly Hai and the Flip Face series are always reinventing themselves and experimenting with different genres to attract audiences. His films all have separate content, genres ranging from action, comedy, psychological, horror, sensational, emotional, creating a strange “mouth” for the public.
In the near future, Ly Hai will renew himself once more with the project Flip Face 6: The Ticket of Destiny with completely different content from the previous parts. This is also the first time that Ly Hai tries his hand at thriller, psychological, comedy mixed with action.
The director is full of love and always goes back to the roots
The name Ly Hai is always associated with the love of his homeland, he always wondered how to bring beautiful images of Vietnam to the screen. In the whole Flip Face brand, each film has extremely diverse backgrounds with many famous landmarks, spanning all parts of the country. For example, Flip Face 1 and 3 have places in Da Lat, Dak Lak, in Flip Face 2 are areas in Phan Thiet, Vinh Hy (Ninh Thuan).
Not only bringing to the screen the beautiful scenes of his homeland, but Ly Hai also designed and restored the traditional cultural beauty of Vietnam. As in The Face 5, he brought the image of a house on stilts with the beauty of the previous Cham village. The heart” of the director who loves the West is also shown in the scene of the buggy racing in Chau Doc (An Giang), the scenes at Cai Rang floating market, or the details of the character using the rice tattoo tree which is a familiar objects with the people of the West as weapons.
In particular, in the latest movie Flip Face 6: The Fateful Ticket, he restored the traditional village of Dinh Yen as the main backdrop. And Ly Hai promises: “I will return to the West, but it is not the same as the image of the West of my predecessor, Flip Face: 48H, but a very different West.”
Flip 6: The Fateful Ticket is expected to premiere on April 28, 2023 (the holiday of April 30).
