Vietnamese martial art film comes to Netflix

The film centers around a group of young people with a passion for traditional martial arts.

It stars Nguyen Tran Duy Nhat, a five-time muay Thai world champion and four-time SEA Games medalist.

In January 2021 “The Battle of Pupils” was withdrawn from cinemas by its producer because it was not being given enough shows by the distributors.

Director Thai Ba Dung and producer Ba Cuong claimed that though it was appreciated by critics, distributors and cinemas gave it the cold shoulder because the cast and crew were newcomers.

So the movie was screened at odd hours like early morning and lunchtime, when few people would come to watch, they said.

According to Dung, the movie was shown at non-peak hours like 8:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.

In the event, it only collected VND1 billion ($42,660) while it reportedly cost VND24 billion to make.