The Mysterious Deity

A handful of Vietnamese TV dramas these days focus on teenagers and director Nguyen My Khanh‘s latest project, Luc Lac Huyen Bi is of no exception. But right off the bat, what seems to already set this certain series apart from the others of its kind is the completely obvious fact that yes, the girls are finally retrieving their white student ao dais and shelving the conveniently popular “skirt-and-blouse” concept. Yes, we can also only imagine how hot and sticky and uncomfortable it could get under the Saigonese heat and especially to be filming for long hours in a day, but for what it’s worth: YA’LL LUKIN GEWDD.

The plot of this series is a clever concoction of contemporary life mixed with supernatural elements, both of which will be significant aspects throughout the series. As the story kicks in, we will quickly learn that because the 12 heavenly godmothers are rushing to attend a Spring Festival, an unusual deity, later nicknamed “Luc Lac Huyen Bi/Mysterious Deity”, was created in result of their carelessness. Every other deities in the skies would by all possible means try to avoid this oddball, since he is a classified “jinx” by nature. Saddened by this outcasted fate, “Luc Lac Huyen Bi” would finally descend to the mortal world in hopes of ridding his bad luck. However, whether by chance or mischance, the once social reject will finally realize his worth in a group of 14 spoiled academic flunks, collectively known as class 11K…

Playing the 14 interesting students of Class 11K will be a large cast of fresh young faces, majority ranging from 89-ers to 90-ers. Before the series began production, it is revealed that the crew spent more than 2 months dedicated to casting suitable actors and actresses for the roles and holding press meetings and analysis between director and crew.

It is also revealed that the original name of the series was Thien Than Xui Xeo/Unlucky Angel but due to superstitions that the production would attract bad luck, the name was then changed to Luc Lac Huyen Bi/Mysterious Deity. “With the former name, it was almost impossible to find a school that would let us borrow their campus…they would turn us down right after hearing it. With the name change, we will also likely have to edit the story a bit so that things are still reasonable.” shared Director My Khanh.

Each of the 14 students are also given characteristically unique nicknames:

Dung ba phải (Dung the smartass)
Đăng cầu thủ (Dang the athelete)
Hưng & Thịnh siêu quậy (Hung & Thinh the class clowns)
Lam thầy bói (Lam the fortune teller)
Lộc ba-lô (Loc the backpack)
Ngọc Nữ mộng mơ (Ngoc Nu the daydreamer)
Nhân đầu gấu (Nhan the bully)
Quang đẹp trai (Quang the Handsome one)
Thiên mỏ nhọn (Thien the pointy mouth)
Thủy lù đù (Thuy the slowpoke)
Thư điệu (Thu the girly one)
Tiến computer (Tien the Computer)
Vy siêu mẫu (Vy the supermodel)

Luc Lac Huyen Bi, produced by TFS, still currently plans to launch this summer 2010.