WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Sameeha Pugh It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

evening1 Can a teenager find his identity if he's always scraping to locate his next meal? This unusual and extremely exotic coming-of-age film seems to tackle this question amidst the subsistence rice paddies of 1940s Vietnam. The Lu Le is excellent as Kim, a shirtless and angry 15-year-old. His father, Det, taught Kim to play the flute in happier days but now serves mainly to keep him (and his machete) in line. Kim's mother is cold and rejecting. We learn a lot about why at Det's pivotal death-boat scene. Kim's unfolding epiphany is powerful. This psychological struggle takes place in a highly threatening environment. On the human side you have French-backed soldiers demanding high taxes, and local herder-gangsters practicing cut-throat competition, rape, and abduction. Nature is equally brutal. The primitive, unlighted terrain has its attractions but is also hellish with torrential downpours, oceanic floods, and a tremendous amount of mud. I'm glad I caught this on the TV channel of the City University of New York. At least now I understand why they call those beasts "water" buffalo!

giapvu 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.

f-boutin 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..

mandy-1 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.