Young and successful film director Ken Ochiai is from Japan, but his career is truly international. After graduating high school in Tokyo, he went to the US to study filmmaking, and ended up in the in the prestigious film production program at the University of Southern California. In 2016, he became the first Japanese director to helm a Vietnamese feature with his comedy “Saigon Bodyguards.” Now he has followed that up with another Vietnamese comedy, “Daddy Issues,” which was screened on Thursday, April 18 at the as part of the Special Invitation Section of the 11th Okinawa International Movie Festival.


The story told in “Daddy Issues,” also has an international background. It was first turned into a Japanese TV series in 2007 with actors Hiroshi Tachi and Yui Aragaki. In 2017, it became the South Korean film “Daddy You, Daughter Me” with Yun Je-Mun and Jung So-Min.


The latest version stars highly popular Vietnamese comedian Thai Hoa as a childish and irresponsible single father and rising star Kaity Nguyen as Chau, his serious daughter who is the best student at her school. When the spirit of Chau’s late mother sees that the two are not getting along, she casts a spell that forces them to change bodies for seven days. Soon, the father is struggling to balance studies with ballet practice, and the daughter is learning that life is the real world is not so easy.


Ochiai, who also has a small role in the film as a Japanese businessman, appeared at the Sakurazaka theater to speak after the screening. He said that in the past Vietnamese families tended to be quite large, but recently people are having fewer kids and the families are about the same size as those in Japan. He explained that meant the time was right to take this Japanese story about a family of three and change the setting to Vietnam.


There was also an appearance by Yoshimoto comedy duo Double Wish, which is based in Vietnam as part of Yoshimoto’s “Entertainers Living in Asia” project. They said by living in the country, they have seen some Vietnamese parents make their kids eat a lot to gain weight or spend a lot of money on their education. They added that if a lot of parents see the film, they may be able to put themselves in their children’s shoes. And a lot of people are seeing the film! In the first week of its release it was seen by a quarter of a million people—a huge number for a Vietnam.

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