Miu Lê's drug arrest buried 'Đại tiệc trăng máu 8' mid-release

Miu Lê was one of Vietnam's bankable movie stars, and early 2026 was her big-screen comeback: 'Đại tiệc trăng máu 8', directed by Phan Gia Nhật Linh and produced by Charlie Nguyễn, cast her as the female lead beside comedian Vân Sơn. The film took its classification licence on March 30 and opened on April 24. By the morning of May 10 it had grossed over 32 billion dong but had slid to eleventh in the daily box-office chart, and reports already spoke of a looming loss in the tens of billions. The release was wounded — and that same noon its lead actress walked into a bigger story.

Police found a group using drugs at a beach guesthouse on Cát Bà island, Hải Phòng; all six tested positive, Miu Lê for methamphetamine, ketamine and MDMA. On May 11 the head of Vietnam's Cinema Department said the film would be assessed under the 2022 Cinema Law and the culture ministry's code of conduct for artists once investigators reached a conclusion. On May 16 the investigation police agency of Hải Phòng charged her with organising the illegal use of narcotics and detained her. That evening her agency, KIM Entertainment, apologised to the public and said it respected the legal process.

The unwinding took three weeks. KIM Entertainment promised to settle contracts with partners, then began erasing her: on May 19 its fanpage quietly edited a 2025 post to delete her name from the exclusive-artist roster, and by late May her face was gone from the cover photo. In cinemas the film stopped selling — on June 1 it sold zero tickets, ran two token screenings, and left theatres on June 4 with a final gross of 33 billion dong, short of the 40-to-70-billion break-even range cited in the press. The arrest converted a recoverable flop into a total loss.