Buffalo Boy (2004) User Reviews

The most original thing I've seen in years

[rooprect · 7/10 · 19 September 2006]

OK, let's have a plot summary: Vietnamese dude leads a bunch of buffaloes in search of grass.

That's it.

(The DVD packagers are going to have a hell of a time selling this one.)

But I assure you that the symbolism, the poetry, and the commentary on the conflict of the human condition is absolutely enthralling. You have to be looking for it, though, because it's quite subtle.

We are shown a land & a culture of savagery. We travel with rogues, rapists and murderers. Even the lead character is vulnerable to lapses in moral character. But through it all, he maintains the utmost dedication to his buffaloes and to those kind humans whom he encounters along the way. To me, it's one of the most honest portrayals of moral conflict in human beings. True, we are savage and brutal, but there is also honor, if you dig down deep enough.

The Vietnamese reverence for water buffaloes is something I never understood, but now I do. Eat your heart out, Francis Ford Coppola (who had a water buffalo slaughtered in "Apocalypse Now" and blamed it on a local tribe. Yeah, right).

If you can find a copy of this rare gem, definitely give it a watch. There's a lot more to it than you'd ever expect.

You Wouldn't Want To Live Here!

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 24 August 2007]

Frankly, I am surprised I hung with this movie because it's pretty slow. It's not a real "entertainer," except for two things: 1 - the camera-work is nice at times; 2 - the story is quite different from anything we are accustomed to in the West. But after two-thirds of this story had elapsed, it was tough going the rest of the way. It's not an uplifting story, either. It left me feeling depressed. Yet, it IS a memorable film and I'm glad I watched it.

I mean, as one reviewer says here "Vietnamese dude leads a bunch of buffaloes in search of grass. That's it."

Yes, in one sense he's right, but obviously there is more to it than that. We get glimpses of this guy's father and mother, friends, enemies, thieves, sex, loyalty and abandonment and generally what life must be like for those in this story of people who live in this odd environment. With all the water around them, they couldn't bury their loved ones until the dry season came. They wrapped them up and put them on poles, and hopes the crows didn't peck away at the bodies.

Yes, you wouldn't want to live here, at the southern tip of Vietnam with these rainy, long flood season. Lugging a couple of Water Buffaloes through waist-deep muddy water for miles can't be a great existence, either.

I agree with another critic here who labels this story as "lyrical." For the most part, I liked watching and listening to "Kim" (The Lu Le) give his outlook on various topics and the dialog between he and his father often was humorous. Hey, how many times have you/did you sit around and smoke "weed" and play the flute with your dad?

This is a culture far removed from mine, which is one reason why I stayed with this film - to learn something while witnessing some very foreign sights and sounds to me. I would recommend this only to people who know what they are getting into (something slow, and very different) or who just plain love most Asian films.

A Great Film

[cvinson-51825 · 8/10 · 19 February 2021]

The film, Buffalo Boy, was first aired in 2004 and was produced by Jean Brehat and directed by Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh. It was filmed in Ca Mau Province, Vietnam, and took place during the French occupation of Vietnam in the 1940s. It won the Vietnamese Golden Kite Award for Best Foreign Collaboration Feature Film and Vietnam Film Festival Award for Best Feature Film (Silver Lotus Award). It also won the director, Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh, the Vietnam Film Festival Award for Best Director. The main character is an elderly man named Kim as he reflects on his past and tells his granddaughter his story. In his story, we follow his 15 year old self who seems very hardworking despite some questionable acts he chose to undertake in his life. We can see that he values family and believes in the importance of family through his retelling of his story to his granddaughter and the acceptance of Thieu into his makeshift family when Thieu's mother asked. As stated above, the story follows Kim, as he tells his granddaughter stories from his past after she finds her father's bones. The scene then changes to Kim's perspective as we follow 15 year old Kim as he makes the trek inland with his two buffalo to find food for and protect during the flood season. Once he returns, he starts his own business with help of his new friend Det. However, after some time he sets out on another journey to find his missing father where he discovers a hidden and dark secret about his family. Kim is forced to confront this truth and just when he thought he could move on he makes a decision that brings him to where he is now with a makeshift family of his own. The theme of family is heavy in this movie and is a good movie for anyone who wants to take a look into what Vietnamese culture was during the 1940s. Especially in the fact that this whole movie is him telling his granddaughter his story so that she can be able to understand the significance of the bones that she had found as well as understand the life that her great grandfather and grandfather had lived. I would recommend this movie to anyone interested in understanding more about the culture of Southeast Asia and Vietnam specifically.

An elegant representation of Vietnam poverty in the 1940's.

[ledwards-79308 · 7/10 · 19 February 2021]

Set in Southern Vietnam in the 1940's, Buffalo Boy is an elegant film that highlights the struggles of living in always flooded, rural Vietnam. Kim, a teenage boy, lives with his impoverished parents, but is religious, extremely kind and well-meaning. His life is changed forever one flood season when he is forced to learn the buffalo herding profession to protect his families' well being. Soon thereafter, the poverty his family lives in becomes too much to handle and his parents move away. Kim is then left to fend for himself and choose his livelihood. Throughout this film we watch Kim grow and assume many characteristics of the corrupt people he's working with, such as treating women more poorly. We see this theme of the internal struggle between his new way of life and his old morals throughout the story. Distributed by Global Lens Initiative and directed by Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh, this artistic display of Vietnam poverty is perfect for anyone interested in the history of Southeast Asia or someone who just wants to know more about the area. Although the story can be slow developing, the lessons it teaches about Vietnamese culture at this time are valuable and the graceful nature of the film is undeniable. The film was also Vietnam's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards.

A stunningly beautiful film!

[mandy-1 · 10/10 · 16 January 2006]

When I saw this film at the Palm Springs Film Festival I was prepared for a nice slice-of-life movie about a time and place I would never visit in any other way. This stunningly beautiful film delivers that and so much more. Set in Vietnam during the occupation by the French in the 1930's Bufalo Boy tells the story of a teenage boy who becomes a man when he leads his family's only hope for survival, two water buffalo, out of their flooded homeland to forage on higher ground. With this debut, the director combines riveting action/adventure, poignant relationships, powerful performances and excellent photography. He immerses us in a way of life that requires more courage in order to survive one day than most of us will have to summon in a life-time. Like a character with a starring role, the water is always there, always changing, always influencing the lives of those who depend on it to nurture them and fight with it to keep it from destroying them. Out soon in DVD but well worth the effort to see it on a large screen if you can.

Lyrical account of farm life in the Mekong Delta in the 1930s

[roland-104 · 9/10 · 23 November 2005]

Lyrical, beautifully filmed story of the difficult lives of poor rice farmers in the Mekong Delta flood plain in the years immediately preceding the Japanese occupation of WW II. Kim (The Lu Le) is a young man who must take on extra responsibilities when his father grows too ill to work.

The immediate problem is getting the family's two water buffalo to higher ground so they will have grass to eat, as the entire area surrounding their farm is experiencing one of the worst flood seasons in years and the animals are at risk for starving to death. Kim throws in with the notorious Lap and his "gang" – buffalo herders who move many animals each year for all the farmers in the area, for a hefty fee.

The film features buffalo drives, gang rivalries and warfare, drunken, cannabis laced parties, raped women, love, honor and duty to one's family. But the most vivid theme depicted here is the very hard life lived by people entirely at the mercy of the river.

Many important themes are expressed with subtlety, lightly touched upon. For example, we see evidence of the admixture of Catholicism and Buddhism, when one character or another makes simple reference to "God and Buddha" in everyday conversation. The heavy hand of the French colonizers is discerned just once, when a boatload of armed, uniformed officers comes around to check on tax matters. As Kim digs a grave for an old woman, we see in the background a procession of men pass by. Those in the front and rear wear caps with sun protective cloth at the back: the classic caps of Japanese soldiers. The others are French. It's the only reference to the occupation.

We gain insight into problems unique to this culture. We learn of the precious value of the water buffalo, without which spring tilling for rice cannot be accomplished. The problem of disposing properly of bodies of the dead during flood season is confronted at length. We get a sense of the pervasiveness and power of the delta floods through underwater scenes that show us vague forms of dead humans and swimming water buffalo, among other sights.

The music is sporadic and spare, hauntingly gorgeous. Flute playing and group singing by intoxicated gang members are delightful surprises. This film is part of the Global Lens 2005 series. It deserves far wider screening. (In Vietnamese) Grade: 8.5/10 (A-). (Seen on 04/14/05). If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.

what I'm saying is this...

[giapvu · 10/10 · 25 February 2007]

A beautiful yet poignant narrative of mans paradoxical existence in relation to each other and the honest forces of nature, i.e., the duality of man as virtuous parasites. The themes of life and death are juxtaposed into a realization of powers greater than our own opinions or ethos. Director Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh successfully enlightens of the psyche of fatalistic and enduring Vietnamese people. "Mua Len Trau" needs to be placed in the top 10 best Vietnamese directed full features of all times, or at least trading-places with less then average film fest winners like "Ba Mua"; where the cinematography fools the viewer into accepting an inexplicable story.

a film of quiet power--lyrical but realistic

[marta2046 · 9/10 · 7 September 2006]

A film of quiet power, beautifully shot and well-acted.

The deceptively simple story takes place during the French Occupation of Vietnam, shortly before the beginning of World War II.

Kim, the 15-year old son of impoverished Vietnamese rice farmers, must take the family's two starving buffaloes on a river journey to an area where there is still grass for them to eat.

Despite the tiny budget, the execution of the film is lyrical but realistic. It's hard to believe that this is the director's first film.

The images lingered in my mind long after the film ended. Hope to see more from this director.

A subtle poetic of nature, human, life and death

[ngoctansq · 10/10 · 12 September 2006]

I'm so what not a casual film watcher, meaning movie like spider-man or superman or x-man or maybe even Titanic doesn't really score much of impression to me.

This movie, is a somewhat similar to the movie "Legend of the fall" (but of course not that close, but that's the style). The technique of the movie is kind of similar to Green Papaya or "Vertical ray of sun", but it's more on the rural side, more mainstream (a favorite struggle story) rather than a contemporary city life.

And yet, this is one of the rarest Vietnamese movie that truly depict what is the society / life look like in 1930, in its fully details.

Very good first movie

[f-boutin · 8/10 · 27 July 2006]

I saw this movie in a small theater in Paris in presence of the Director. What surprised me most at the beginning was the violation of basic rules such as framings that were not what we're usually used to. But you know the rule, better know it before you break it! So the result is visually quite pleasing. As for the story, that is quite dark, I remember the underwater scenes with skeletons that are focus point of the whole story: as far as I remember, the whole story is spinning about how fragile our existence maybe and how straight one can become when being in such conditions. I mean the main character is about to perform rape but would you blame him? Yes, of course. I've been a couple of months in Vietnam, but not in that special place. Next time I hope. I hope the director will still be shooting so that we can watch a movie that flavors the very feel of that Country and its people.

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Overwhelming and Inspiring

[agrant-97483 · 8/10 · 19 February 2021]

Directed by Nguyen-Vô Nghiem-Minh, Buffalo Bill is a unique film that shows the harsh realities of living in Southeast Asia during rough seasons of flooding. Taking place along the coast of Vietnam during the French occupation in the 1940s, the lesson-enhanced film follows a coming-of-age journey. The film follows Kim, who is 15 years old. Kim's father and step-mother are two buffalo owners who play their lifeline role as they are struggling rice farmers. However, when heavy rain hits their homeland, there is no healthy grass for their buffalo, causing the animals to starve. Kim volunteers to take the animals inland to search for food. On his journey, he witnesses the brutality of others' lives and how the French is further adding to the distress of the impoverished individuals. While struggling to survive in his homeland, dark secrets and tragedy strike Kim as his family's dark past comes to light. While the beginning starts slow, Buffalo Boy is an overwhelming and well-put-together film that shows the themes of life, tradition, and family. In 2006, the movie was declared an official entry from Vietnam in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 78th Academy Awards. Along with the previously mentioned award, the film was also nominated for a Vietnamese Golden Kite Award for Best Feature Film.