{"id":921395,"date":"2026-10-09T03:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T03:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/921395\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T03:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T03:40:11","slug":"vietnams-mockingbird-launches-horror-duo-the-happiest-cell-at-acfm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/921395\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam\u2019s Mockingbird Launches Horror Duo, \u2018The Happiest Cell\u2019 At ACFM"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Mockingbird Pictures<\/a> is launching three new titles at Busan<\/a>\u2019s Asian Contents & Film Market, heading a slate of horror, supernatural mystery, comedy and family drama as the range of genre films emerging from Vietnam<\/a> and Southeast Asia continues to expand.<\/p>\n

\n\tHorror, the bedrock of Southeast Asian genre cinema, features prominently on the slate through two new titles: Indonesia\u2019s The Doll Ghawiah and Vietnam\u2019s The River Demon (\u00dat Lan 2). However, another new title, Bluebells Studios\u2019 The Happiest Cell, is a prison-set comedy drama revealing that Vietnamese studios are moving beyond horror to experiment with different genres.<\/p>\n

\n\tDirected by Guntur Soeharjanto, The Doll Ghawiah is the latest chapter in Hitmaker Studios\u2019 long-running The Doll universe, a franchise that has drawn around 5 million admissions in Indonesia. Set in 1988, this new installment follows a family who leaves Jakarta for Bandung in search of a fresh start, only to be terrorized by the restless spirit of a young girl and her doll, Ghawiah.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Zhang Yimou Teases \u2018Three-Body Problem\u2019 At BIFF Opening; Jury Talks \u2018The Assassin(s)\u2019 Controversy & Competition Impact<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThe River Demon, directed by Tran Trong Dan, pushes Mockingbird\u2019s slate into darker territory with an intense supernatural horror story rooted in Vietnamese folk beliefs. Following the success of The Guardian Demon, the film expands the filmmaker\u2019s exploration of curses, rural legends and buried secrets through the story of a haunted riverside village, where the emergence of a two-headed serpent marks the beginning of a series of terrifying events.<\/p>\n

\n\tDirected by Nguyen Nhat Trung, The Happiest Cell features a star-studded cast headed by Tuan Tran (Leaving Mom), Ma Ran Do (Hijacked) and Luong The Thanh (Betting With Ghost). Scheduled for release in Vietnam on November 20, the film is described as a \u201cstory that finds humor, friendship and humanity inside one of society\u2019s harshest environments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Maggie Gyllenhaal On Telling Women\u2019s Stories; Casting Ellen Burstyn & Dakota Johnson In \u2018Flesh Impact\u2019 \u2013 Busan<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, some of Mockingbird\u2019s older titles are finding success at the box office and through international sales. Zero Meets Hero (Ngh\u1ec9 H\u00e8 S\u1ee3 Ngh\u1ec9 H\u01b0u), directed by Huynh Lap, recently closed its domestic run with nearly $8 million (VND207.7BN), making it the third highest-grossing Vietnamese film of 2026. Blending comedy, family drama and supernatural elements, the film revolves around the relationship between a Gen Z grandson and his war-veteran grandfather.<\/p>\n

\n\tLuck For Sale (L\u00ean H\u01b0\u01a1ng), directed by Khuong Ngoc, is set for U.S. theatrical release October 9 across AMC, Regal and Cinemark theaters, accompanied by special screenings and a promotional tour with the film\u2019s director and cast. The film is built around themes of family, mortality and generational wounds.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are not looking for one single formula for Southeast Asian cinema,\u201d said Phong Duong, Business Director of Mockingbird Pictures. \u201cWhat excites us is the range \u2013 established franchises, box office performers, culturally rooted genre films, emotionally driven dramas and major star-led productions. Southeast Asia is producing increasingly diverse commercial cinema, and our role is to help each film find the international audience and market where it can connect most strongly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to international sales, Mockingbird is also a distributor of local and international films in Vietnam, handling around 60 theatrical releases and more than 100 post-theatrical titles annually.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Mockingbird Pictures is launching three new titles at Busan\u2019s Asian Contents & Film Market, heading a slate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":921396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[104648,64,63,140671,134,367397,344,5611],"class_list":["post-921395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-acfm","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-busan","tag-entertainment","tag-mockingbird-pictures","tag-movies","tag-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}