This film begins in the past with a tale of Huynh, who at first was a shaman and then later part of Kumanthong, which is a harsh fanatic cult, and his love affair with Soi, an earless dumb girl that culminated in bloodshed. After some years pass by, a gang comprised of young people; Linh and Tam as one couple, Kim who seems to have something going on with Tam and Long, who has blonde hair that is believed to be attracted to Linh; there are also two influencers: Cuongs Mushroom head whose girlfriend is Ha. They eventually get affected by their pasts when they begin having conflicts in their group as well as experiencing the consequences of what happened on the island.
If I must say something about this film called “Jackpot Island”, from its outset I have gotten mixed feelings. To start with, when it dwells on the events of the past which make up for less parts of the narrative yet quite interesting combining true story telling methods, ritualistic horror elements and grotesqueness like nothing else does for this movie. The same could be said about its visuals since desaturated ones were among others also works very effectively including dark or sometimes red hues that were best captured by Trang Cong Minh DOP.
However, when the movie moves past the past into present, things start to get really hairy. First off, the characters are flat and so it’s hard to empathize with any one of them and their relationships are just like those in a teenage flicks possibly the most clichéd way ever. There is no sense at all making in this story that brings up so many issues connected with its past and therefore does not develop such topics as the youth ignorance or social media impacts on people today. Moreover, once crime is introduced into the plot, it only gets worse, especially in how the story develops; almost every scene seems artificially arranged to correspond with a typical Hollywood film. At some point though long after closing this gap between now and then but it’s already too late because by that time we have lost all interest we may have had about any such thing.
“Jackpot Island” is also predictable in its acting, whether it comes to the performance of the actors or the way they are characterized. There are a few people who come out with a bit of credit like Tieu Vy as Kim and Trang Nghia, who portrays Long always being on an offensive mode that does make it one of the few good things about this movie but there is nothing else to cheer about. The beauty of the two girls Lara Linh (Sam) and Hai Tam (Tran Phong) is commendable, but Cuong (Minh Du) is just stupid.
Finally, this portion has almost no SFX; with even an amateurish drug trip sequence.
Le Binh Giang proved with his previous titles that he can work wonders even on a low budget, but unfortunately in the case of “Jackpot Island” we see that commercial cinema has got him badly for a film which is not just hard to watch for most of its duration.
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