The wide spread of Bui Doi Cho Lon or Chinatown film and rampant sales of pirated discs of this cut have gone a long way to proving the ineffectiveness of the ban on the film over a month ago.
Pirated discs of the film sold in the market
Many members of the public have worried that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s request to revoke pirated discs of the film would also be irrelevant due to sophisticated operations of traders.
In addition to the sales of discs, traders have devised some other ways of operating such as selling soft copies of the film. Prices for these are calculated based on the number of copies bought.
Another devious ploy by the traders is to double the price of these "rare" copies to current VND20,000 (USD0.95).
Right after the draft of the film was "mistakenly" uploaded to the Internet, the fate of the film was said to be out of the authorities’ control. Despite nationwide efforts by the Ministry and Departments of Culture, Sports and Tourism to locate and seize pirated discs of the film, many said there's little hope of success in this regard.
While the police have yet to make public the name of the person suspected of leaking the film, an official from Thien Ngan Studio, the film’s producer, said they can do nothing but continue to wait for the investigation results.
In the past two weeks, since the film made its illegal appearance, the Cinema Department blamed the film's producers for the incident but they--the producers-- have continued to deny responsibility. Meanwhile the rampant trading of the film in the unofficial market continues.
Charlie Nguyen, the film’s director, said, “If the Cinema Department was really serious about this, I think they could easily find the person, or persons, responsible, and treat them accordingly. I can’t understand why it’s so difficult to find the culprit and why the culprit has yet to be held accountable.”
In response to a rumour that an employee of the film production company was the culprit, Charlier Nguyen said, “Why haven't the police arrested the culprit if they’ve already identified him?”
Several other film directors said any decisions to ban films should be effectively implemented in order to ensure a legal deterrent. A regulation that fails to do so only creates a bad precedent and fosters ignorance of legal regulations in the future.
