The Guardian

May con nay nhin giong nhu dong ho nha Annabelle.

I swear to god this is one of the biggest piece of crap that I have seen. This director should stick to drama. It's like he took an intro to horror filmmaking, learned some basic elements, dropped the class, and made this amateur movie.

After the first hour I basically checked out. The second hour was just suffering hoping this trash would end as quick as possible. No it didn't end quick.

A cringe fest in almost every aspect: acting, dialogue, horror, pacing, everything.

Overall, a crappy version of Annabelle, which is already crappy. 1/10.

I didn't expect much after seeing the written reviews here and a failed rating. Frankly, after watching this film, I am shocked. It was evident from the opening frame that this production sets a gold standard for production and story telling. The production values were exemplary and the production designer is worthy of a world class award such as an Academy Award.

The story itself is obviously challenging to some due to some of the unfamiliar religious and cultural practices enshrined by the movie. However, intelligent viewers should have no more difficulty with these concepts any more that viewing stories encompassing Voodoo or Catholicism (and related elements such as religious symbols like the cross or storey extensions such as Dracula).

In spite of it's billing's, this is not a horror. It's a who done it/drama/criminal investigation that only seems to have supernatural elements.

The cast was excellent, especially Truc Ahn, ably supported by Amee and Salim.

Under the direction of Victor Vu, this story is masterfully inventive, supremely entertaining, and tremendously well crafted. It appears to have been shot in 4K and the sets are frankly beautifully put together. The sound design and performances by the actors are immaculate, especially the singing and dancing sections. Eye candy all around!!!

I would have given this review a higher rating had lit been reduced by 15 or 20 minutes. Still, I have absolutely nothing negative to say about it. I am very impressed by this Vietnamese outing. It really makes me wonder what other gems from there that are out there.

I must admit that during the first 30 minutes I wasn't enjoying it from a movie perspective. I found the doll obsessed girls creepy and I wasn't sure what direction the movie was going in. However, the charms and beautiful singing voice of Amee kept my interest.

The story got more interesting as the twists unfolded and I actually ended up really liking the movie.

The music is first class, the story interestingly different, the acting pretty good and the production very good.

Do you need to watch a whole film to know whether it is good or bad? Well, that depends on the film. Sometimes a well-made yet bad film will only reveal itself to me upon reflection after the end credits, this however, is clearly awful. Let's start with the opening scene, a woman unconvincingly committing suicide - I immediately found myself exclaiming "down the street, not across the road!", the lack of blood and consistency between shots just made it all the more unconvincing. In our next scene, we see a young woman singing possibly the worst lyrics I have ever seen, accompanied by an out-of-tune ukelele. That's really all I, or anybody else, needs to know.

After the commercial hit that is Dream Eyes (2019) followed by a dreadful year of the rampant Covid-19 pandemic, Victor Vu finally returns to his roots with the third unofficial installment of his famous Scandal franchise title The Guardian (2021) with yet, another tale about superstitious in the Vietnamese show business to little success because this is no doubt the most run off the mill movie he ever makes. The writing of The Guardian down to its characters beat and development is just a weak rehash version of the first Scandal movie only with a bigger budget now and although the first Scandal movie was ridden with plot holes it still accomplished what it set out to be while The Guardian strength relies on how much you know this famous guest star singer or care about the V-pop genre, to begin with. The movie got some nice spooky moments that will scare off the general audience who looking for a cheap thrill so watch it with caution.