“Song of the South” is a patriotic and picaresque Vietnamese parable set just as the French occupation (“Protectorate,” they called it.) was winding down in Southeast Asia.
A newly-orphaned but timid and coddled ten year-old comes of age on a quest to find his long-absent father in the South of the country that the French considered part of French Indochina.
So it’s a “road picture,” taking us through 1940s Vietnam, a history lesson about the brawling factions simmering their way towards unity and a fight for independence, and a thriller with violent clashes, prison escapes and just a hint of magical realism.
Based on a 1957 novel “Đất rừng phương Nam” by the late Đoàn Giỏi, “South” is a sprawling but intimate vehicle for relating Vietnamese history, traditions and country and city life during those years. But it’s also a ripping good yarn, with action and suspense, humor and pathos.
Misbehaving An (Huynh Hao Khang) is yanked out of school by his teacher (Vin Ha Hua), but not because of the ruckus he was stirring. The teacher, who dashes down the street sharing secret hand signals with comrades, is taking the boy to his fleeing mother (Anh Hong).
The jig is up, the soldiers are coming for her. She just has time to grab a couple of things and fling a few bills around their apartment (clever touch) to slow her pursuers. They’re fleeing South.
“If you can’t learn from school, learn from life,” his teacher advises (in Vietnamese with English subtitles) on the way to the station. “Be a sheep if you must, a strong one. Never back down from any wolf.”
The “hero’s journey”has begun.
But there’s nothing heroic about An. He clings to mom, is mortally afraid of snakes and bugs and can’t swim, among other shortcomings. We figure all this out just as he loses his mother in a clash at a bridge checkpoint.
An is on his own, with the chap who picked mom’s pocket (Tuan Tran) the only person who might take him in.
An has to be dragged along by this fellow, who refers to himself as “Ut the Boss.” The boy will learn and resist learning along the way to find the kid’s real father many days journey south.
An will fall in with a healer/chiropractor/busker (Tiến Luật) and his age-appropriate-for-a-crush daughter (Bui Ly Bao Ngoc) and a mudskippers fisherboy in the Mekong Delta. An will drunkenly get caught up in a daring raid to free the hairy and homocidal folk hero/freedom fighter Võ Tòng (Mai Tai Phen).
With or without finding his father, a boy’s sure to come of age after going through all that.
The ambushes and riots that lead to massacres and French-backed executions are furious and visceral, with a little wirework/stuntwork assisting freedom-fighting archers and knife-throwers as they pop up and hurtle down upon their oppressors.
We get a hint of how divided Vietnam was, and not just via the collaboraters who play a role in the plot, propping up French control.
And we see a lot of this picturesque land of rivers and rice paddies, jungles and towns, not all of it torn by war.
Our little leading man is game and believable in the part. Tuan Tran, as an An Giang Province artful dodger, is the scene-and-movie-stealing comic relief.
As the film is titled “Part 1” of this life journey, director Quang Dung Nguyen can be forgiven for not being able to manage a graceful finale. And a lot of the tropes of the genre are a tad too on-the-nose to surprise Western audiences.
But “Song of the South” makes a pretty travelogue, a poetic foundation myth (No sign of “Uncle Ho.” Yet.), a nicely-detailed period piece and a thoroughly entertaining saga.
Rating: TV-14, lots of violence
Cast:Huynh Hao Khang, Anh Hong, Tuan Tran, Vi Van Hua, Tiến Luật, Bui Ly Bao Ngoc, Bang Di and Mai Tai Phen
Credits: Directed by Quang Dung Nguyen, scripted by Tran Khanh Hoang, based on the novel by Đoàn Giỏi. A Netflix release.
Running time: 1:50
