Film production of Vũ Trọng Phụng’s famous novel in progress

Pop singer Mono will play the lead role of Red-Haired Xuân in 'Số Đỏ' (Dumb Luck), a movie adapted from a novel of the same name by Vũ Trọng Phụng. Photo courtesy of the singer

HCM CITY Film production of Số Đỏ (Dumb Luck), a movie adapted from a novel of the same name by Vũ Trọng Phụng, one of the country’s greatest 20th-century writers, is in the works.

The movie is written and directed by Phan Gia Nhật Linh, who has produced several blockbusters such as Em Là Bà Nội Của Anh (Sweet 20), Cô Gái Đến Từ Hôm Qua (The Girl from Yesterday), and Em và Trịnh (You and Trịnh).

The film is set in the semi-feudal colonial period in the 1930s and 40s.

The work revolves around Red-Haired Xuân, a vagabond who makes money and tries to join the upper class by cheating. Through his story, love, betrayal, family issues and the moral degradation in society are highlighted.

The film will star pop singer Mono as Red-Haired Xuân.

Mono, whose real name is Nguyễn Việt Hoàng, debuted in 2022 with the album Waiting for You. His hits include Waiting for You, Em Xinh (You Are Pretty), and Chăm Hoa (Beautiful Flower).

The 24-year-old singer was named the New Artist of the Year at the Cống Hiến (Devotion) Awards 2023, an annual event sponsored by the Vietnam News Agency's Thể Thao & Văn Hóa (Sports and Culture) newspaper.

The film is a joint production of Anh Tễu Studio and its partners, Fremantle and Beach House Pictures.

The novel Số Đỏ was first published in 1936 in Hà Nội.

The work was published in the US by the University of Michigan Press in 2002, and then was named by the Los Angeles Times as one of the 50 best books of 2003.

In 2021, it was published in China by the Sichuan Literature & Art Publishing House, and in Germany by the Tauland Publishing House.

Writer Phụng (1912-39) began his literary career with his first novel Dứt Tình (Breaking Up) in 1934.

He published a series of realistic novels, such as Số Đỏ and Kỹ Nghệ Lấy Tây (Foreigner Marrying Industry), focusing on the negative lives of local snobs and social issues in the semi-feudal colonial society before the First Indochinese War.

He also worked as a reporter for several newspapers in Hà Nội in the 1930s. VNS