After an excrutiatingly long wait of many, many months, Ròm has FINALLY passed the censorship in Vietnam. Pass meaning that some parts of it will have to be deleted and replaced, although Huy has managed to find a way to more or less keep the essence of the film, even if the political and social background of the narrative had to be dramatically toned-down. Months ago, as we were about to present the film at the Busan Film Festival, the Censorship Comnittee had asked Huy to change 70% of the story, add a happy ending, because "poverty, gambling and misery do not exist in Vietnam" (sic), and because it was unthinkable to show human misery and poverty in such a manner on screen - whence the candy coated comedies that are just remakes of Korean or Japanese successes made palatable for the Vietnamese audience...

However, I'm still very happy for Huy, all the actors, crew and people who who worked, fought, supported and gave all their energy to this film. At some point we had started to resign ourselves that the film would be killed in the egg - in Vietnam, that is.
This is one happy piece of news for me after all these past dreadful months. I don't know if there is a reason to joyfully celebrate yet, as all the festivals are on hold now, and the film has to begin its journey all over again. 

But yes, that's a relief.