Buffalo Boy
by Minh Nguyen-Vo
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Huu Thanh Nguyen, The Lu Le, Thi Kieu Trinh Nguyen, Van Be Truong, Zan Sram KraDirector: Minh Nguyen-Vo
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-03-21
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: FIRST RUN FEATURES
Movie Reviews of Buffalo Boy
Movie Review: In the Mekong
Summary: 5 Stars
"Buffalo Boy"
In the Mekong
Amos Lassen
"Buffalo Boy" takes place in the 1940's along the southern coast of Vietnam during the French occupation. Water is everywhere both bringing life and decay. Kim, a 15 year old boy, lives with his mother and father and two buffalo. They are rice farmers but it is the rainy season and there is no grass to feed the animals. Kim volunteers to take the buffalo inland to find something for them to eat. This is his coming-of-age journey. He sees a lot--the mistreatment of women by men, men fighting with each other and taxation by the French that is hurting the poor. But Kim matures on this trip especially when he goes to work for Lap whose own past is intertwined with the past of Kim's parents. He is lucky enough to make friends with those who will guide him to his place in the worldly scheme of things.
One would think that watching the lives of the poor would be depressing and it is but there is a lyrical beauty here. There are also important themes in this film. There is the mixture of Buddhism and Christianity and the rule of the French in a country which in no way resembles its own land. There us the theme of life and death and how we flow those who came before us.
We are given insight into the culture of a people we do not know much about. We see the value of the buffalo which is a necessity for the tilling of rice. We also learn about the disposal of bodies when the ground is flooded. Here is a film about a life we will not know and how a teenage boy becomes a man. The performances are powerful and chief among them is the water which is responsible for life and for death.
Here is a culture far removed from our own; a culture of savagery. We see lapses in moral character but above all else we see dedication to the animals and to the humans who encourage Kim on his journey. Here is an honest portrayal of moral conflict and honor. The images will linger with you long after the lights come up.
Summary of Buffalo Boy
A beautifully shot feature from director Nguyen-Vo Nghiem-Minh, BUFFALO BOY is a powerful and nuanced coming-of-age story about 15 year old Kim (Le The Lu), the son of a poor family struggling in 1940's Vietnam. Set in C?-Mau, the last frontier at the southern tip of Vietnam where the low land meets the sea, the people survive by following the cycles of the flooding and dry seasons. Every rainy season, lasting about six months, water covers the entire land and the farmers must take the buffalo on a long journey to the mountains in search of food. When Kim is sent by his ailing father to find grass for their two starving buffalo, he takes up with a rough and dangerous band of buffalo herders. On the journey, he discovers an adult world of brawls, alcohol, and pillaging-- one that, over time, gives way to friendship, love and the joy of freedom.Inspired by the classic short story collection, 'Scent of the C?-Mau Forest' by Son Nam, one of the Vietnam's most distinguished writers and a native of C?-Mau, BUFFALO BOY is a journey of self-discovery that also gives witness to the exhausting cycles of life under colonialism's poverty.
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