Vietnam's “Karaoke Murder” opens on four continents the same weekend, a first its backers are claiming
The Vietnamese whodunit “Karaoke Murder” will open in cinemas across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia on the same weekend, which its backers call a first for a film from Vietnam. At home, where it is titled “Án Mạng Karaoke,” it bows nationwide on Oct. 30.
The film is set on a mountain pilgrimage taken by a group of neighbours, and follows a former journalist who has to put her old investigative skills back to work after a widely loathed, karaoke-obsessed tycoon is killed overnight. Cut off from the outside world, the group turns its suspicion on everyone.
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Karaoke is a sharper engine for a mystery than it first looks. The producers say they built the story around the pastime because of the place it holds in Vietnamese life: singing sessions are part of weddings, birthdays and Lunar New Year, as well as ordinary Sunday afternoons, and nearly every household owns a speaker and microphone. Put a killing inside a room almost everyone already has at home and the audience walks in half-way invested.
That cozy reading carries a lot of weight. The same pastime causes friction, per the producers: Vietnam penalizes noise after 10 p.m., karaoke ranks among the most common causes of rows between neighbours, and news outlets report karaoke disputes ending in tragedy every year. Borrowing the shared habit for suspense also means borrowing a real neighbourhood grievance.