Movies

There's a new Vietnamese movie called Bố Già, which is a hit in Vietnam and is now released in the US as a subtitled version. It's based on a Youtube series that I've never heard of, and it's partly comedy, partly soap opera. When I watched it I found it episodic and meandering at first, until it finally focused on its core story between Sang and his son Woan. Then the tone shifts to the conflicted family melodrama. Eventually there's a tragic need for an organ transplant, but I found that this health crisis dragged on too long to milk the drama and suspense. It definitely felt too long to me, and I would have liked it to be more concise. Still, it's intriguing that the film is doing so well at the box office, probably due to all the Vietnamese immigrant community turning out to see it. My dad seems to like it, anyway. Plus its focus on fatherhood is appealing with Father's Day coming up.

There's a new Spirit horse movie out now, but it's not exactly a sequel. I saw the first movie almost 20 years ago, and back then it had a strong Native American story from John Fusco. At the end of that movie, the Lakota character Little Creek sets the horse free to live in the wild with his mare Rain. The new movie has a clean slate, with new characters interacting with the horse, who doesn't have a narrating voice. Therefore it is more related to the Netflix TV show, than to the previous film. Wikipedia also claims that this Spirit is son of the original stallion Spirit-Who-Could-Not-Be-Broken. I guess that makes sense, because original Spirit did not want people to ride him, while this new Spirit is going to let girls ride him. It looks more like a kiddie movie for young girls who love ponies, so I don't think I'll see it, but I did hear the soundtrack of the first movie playing at my local mall.