Vietnamese film or Chinese film?

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Film Ly Cong Uan -- The Road To Thang Long Citadel
A big-budget television series about the king who founded Hanoi will not be shown during the city's millennium
celebrations after concerns were raised that it looks too Chinese.
"We cannot launch it on the millennium celebration, especially when the film is controversial," said Le Ngoc Minh, a deputy director with the government's cinema department.
Ta Huy Cuong, a Vietnamese director for the controversial series, said censors asked the producers to cut scenes that looked similar to Chinese films and "may easily cause misunderstanding."
"We are sad as this film is not ready to be shown at this point in time," said Cuong, who confirmed that he was working under a Chinese director.
The series entitled "Ly Cong Uan -- Duong Toi Thanh Thang Long (Ly Cong Uan -- The Road To Thang Long Citadel)" was shot mostly in China for about 100 billion dong (5.3 million dollars), people involved with the film said.
Ly Cong Uan, whose royal name was Ly Thai To, moved the capital of Vietnam from Ninh Binh to Hanoi in 1010 and called it Thang Long, or "soaring dragon".
Cuong said he felt a passion to make the series "on this important occasion" to promote understanding of the city's history.
He said he wanted it shown on the state Vietnam Television, which broadcasts nationally.
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A float passed Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi yesterday during a 1,000th birthday celebration for the capital.
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Motorcylists ride past the main venue of the celebrations for the city's millennium with a statue of King Ly Cong Uan (C) in Hanoi on September 2010.
Asked why a key television series about Vietnamese history would be shot in China, he suggested production facilities in his homeland were not developed enough.
"If you organise a wedding and your house is small, without seats, I think it's understandable that you have to borrow your neighbour's house," said Cuong, who works for a private production company.
"Some have blasted the serial as a 'Chinese film in Vietnamese'," an editorial in a state-linked Vietnamese newspaper said.
"Projected as one of the main productions celebrating Hanoi's millennial anniversary this month.... it should have been Vietnamese all the way through, from the cast to the production team."
The editorial said the series "has attracted a lot of controversy and criticism since its trailer was revealed on the
Internet last month."
Cuong said people have been too quick to judge.
"They made comments after watching the trailer, while we haven't finished the film yet," he said.
Many comments to online news sites in Vietnam have expressed concern about the Chinese style of the production.
Minh, of the cinema department, said that although the main actors and actresses were Vietnamese, some Chinese people and scenes were used.
"The public had some reaction so the film must be fixed and some of the scenes must be removed," he said, adding that historians and religious researchers should be invited to help change the film before its likely release after the millennium festival. (From AFP)
Are Vietnamese too sensitive to Chinese things?