The latest film from Vietnamese director Le Hoang is packing cinemas in Ho Chi Minh City with its tale of sex, drugs and murder.
The film, Gai Nhay, or Bar Girls, is set in the southern commercial capital. It tells the story of a group of young dancers and a journalist who sets out to explore their lives.
She perseveres even after the young women beat her in a back alley, and watches as they slide further into prostitution, drug abuse and, eventually, murder.
For several weeks, a handful of cinemas have packed in big crowds to see the film. The Diamond cinema shows it six times a day and the manager, Byun Sang-Gil, said it was the first time his theatre had shown a Vietnamese film.
'Many Vietnamese don't know about the life of these people and they learn about it through this film,' he said.
'I know it's realistic,' a tearful housewife, Nguyen Hong Phu, 44, said outside the cinema. 'I see the reality in the society I live in now.'
'I hope the film will turn young people away from a life of vice,' the film's director, Le Hoang, said. 'I wanted it to accurately reflect the true lives of these victims of their own lifestyle.'