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.
Review of Buffalo Boy
