Detective Kien: The Headless Horror

Great movie with talented actors and actresses. The story was well written keeping the audience guessing on what will happen next. Sound was well played. Scenery was beautiful which appears to be at Ha Long bay. The detective was well played by Quoc Huy. All the supporting people were well played. The story was set in the olden day in northern Vietnam where a number of people was murdered with the head chopped off! Some scary scenes will make the audience entertained. Well worth watching and hope there will be part 2. The story based on a novel. Many people still believe in ghosts in Vietnam. Well done.

There truly is no single word capable of capturing the exquisite beauty of this film. It stands out as the best Vietnamese movie I have ever had the pleasure of watching! I am particularly impressed with the visual effects; they are incredibly well-executed and elevate the storytelling to an entirely new level. The seamless integration of VFX really enhances the movie's breathtaking scenes and adds a layer of depth that keeps you engaged throughout. Story and Emotion While the setting captures your eyes, the story captures your heart. It is a poignant tale of love, sacrifice, tradition, and resilience. The characters are deeply human-flawed, hopeful, and shaped by the times they live in. Their struggles reflect not just personal conflicts, but the broader socio-cultural tensions of Vietnam's past.

The pacing is deliberate, giving time for moments to breathe and for emotions to unfold naturally. There's a quiet power in the storytelling-it doesn't rely on grand drama or exaggerated twists, but rather on genuine human experiences, conveyed with sensitivity and realism.

Performance and Direction The performances are uniformly excellent. Each actor brings subtlety and nuance to their role. There's a grace in the way emotions are portrayed-often with more silence than words, more gestures than dialogue. The direction is confident and compassionate, with a clear vision and a deep love for the culture being portrayed.

Let's be real: with a title like Detective Kien: The Headless Horror, I expected a wild, edge-of-your-seat ride. A gripping whodunnit, drenched in suspense, clever twists, and maybe a touch of eerie gothic flair. Instead, what I got felt more like watching someone assemble IKEA furniture with no manual-there's a vague sense of purpose, but mostly it's just confusing, awkward, and painfully slow.

The film follows Detective Kien, a man who is technically a detective, but operates more like a guy who read Sherlock Holmes once and decided he, too, could squint at things and call it deduction. He's our guide into a mystery surrounding a series of headless murders-cue dramatic music and a lot of close-ups of puzzled faces. The premise had potential: horror + detective noir + Vietnamese flavor? Sign me up! But somewhere along the road, the story took a wrong turn... and just kinda sat there.

From the jump, the pacing is sluggish. Scenes drag on like they're trying to reach a word count. Characters talk in cryptic riddles that seem deep at first-until you realize they're saying absolutely nothing. The dialogue is the cinematic equivalent of filler text in a school presentation: formal, stiff, and completely divorced from how humans actually speak. Every time someone opened their mouth, I braced myself-not for clues, but for boredom.

Detective Kien himself is supposed to be compelling. He's got the trench coat, the thousand-yard stare, and the backstory (a tragic one, of course). But charisma? Energy? Emotional range? Unfortunately, those didn't make the cut. Watching him solve the case is like watching someone try to remember their Netflix password: frustrating and devoid of excitement. He stares, he broods, he walks slowly-and somehow, things just happen around him until the case solves itself.

And don't get me started on the "horror" part. For a movie with "Headless Horror" in the title, it's shockingly devoid of actual scares. There's a few shadowy corridors, some generic violin screeches, and maybe one off-screen scream too many. The tension never builds-it plateaus immediately and stays there, like a heart monitor in a waiting room.

The cinematography, at least, tries its best. There are moments-brief flickers-of atmospheric lighting and eerie settings that hint at what the film could have been. But you can only light a scene so well before the lack of substance starts peeking through like a cheap ghost under a bedsheet.

Plot-wise, the mystery unfolds in a way that's less "mind-blowing twist" and more "wait, that's it?" The big reveal is less of a "gasp" and more of a "huh." The red herrings are painfully obvious, and the clues feel like they were dropped in by someone who's never watched a detective movie, ever.

By the time the credits rolled, I felt more relief than resolution. Not because the story wrapped up in a satisfying way (it didn't), but because it finally-mercifully-ended. Detective Kien: The Headless Horror isn't offensively bad. It's just... aggressively average. The kind of movie that makes you check your phone, then feel guilty, then check it again out of sheer self-preservation.

Final verdict?

This movie isn't headless-it's heartless. All style, no soul. A detective story where the mystery isn't "who did it?" but "why should I care?"

This film plays it so safe that it teeters on the edge of mediocrity.

My biggest complaint lies with Dinh Ngoc Diep's performance-she overacts in nearly every scene. Her delivery is so unconvincing that even the child actresses come across as more natural and compelling.

Beyond that, the characters are forgettable, the villains aren't nearly detestable enough, and the victim's presence is too passive that she fails to earn our sympathy.

Oddly, the film reveals its twist at the halfway mark-likely because the writers couldn't come up with a more creative way to sustain suspense. From that point on, the ending drags on for too long. I would've enjoyed it more if it had been trimmed by about 30 minutes.

One saving grace is the cinematography and the effective horror elements, both signature strengths of Victor Vu. Still, I wish the film had made better use of Northern Vietnam's breathtaking landscapes.

I didn't expect much but this is an incredibly excellent movie. Beautiful cinematography, tight script, and a charming blend of horror and detective elements. You have to go to the theater and see it right away.

I've always been a picky person, and I didn't think Vietnam would have such a well-shot movie.

If it was an english language movie, it could stand up to the best movies. Hope you feel the same way.

The film does a great job of combining entertainment and art. And it deserves, as I said, to be the best Vietnamese film in years. I hope to see Detective Kien in many more films to come. This best Vietnamese movie in many years.