Buffalo Boy
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C Feature: B-
Set back in 1940s Vietnam, Nguyen-Vo Nghiem-Minh’s Buffalo
Boy (2004) is about the journey of a young, lonely man who has to find
grass for his family’s buffalo so they will not parish. Instead, he lands up meeting some wild guys
for better or worse, but the experience outside of family and faith causes his
perceptions to slightly crack, helping him see freedom in a way he never
imagined.
This leads to the uncovering of other truths, but the
story is more than a coming of age or portrait of an earlier Vietnam, but of
the nature of nature and how we do and do not connect with it. The answers and situations are not that
simple, but Nghiem-Minh does his best to explore this world and by setting it
in a Vietnam before the French and United States arrived, gives himself the
most opportunities to wonder about lives that might be and might have been.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image was shot on
digital video, is soft and Video Black is easily an issue, but color is not bad
within its realm. The Dolby Digital 2.0
Vietnamese Stereo has no surrounds, but is recorded well enough. Extras include a few brief pieces on the
Global Lens series, brief interview with the director, director’s text
statement, PDF-format DVD-ROM discussion guide and text bios on the directors.
- Nicholas Sheffo
