BUFFALO BOYS: The Western Meets the Far East, With Mixed Results

When powerhouse film producer Mike Wiluan began planning his feature directorial debut, his goal was to make a film set during Southeast Asia’s colonial period that didn’t feel like a history lesson or a political statement. He explained his reasoning in an interview: “We sit in the cinema for one or two hours, not to jump into class or study again. For those two hours, we have to jump into dreams, lost in the world of imagination.”

The result of Wiluan’s efforts is the rollicking Buffalo Boys, which follows two young men raised in America who return to their homeland of Java to avenge their father’s death. It’s a wonderfully refreshing take on the Western genre thanks to the culturally significant setting and the awesome action sequences, even if other aspects of the film fall short.

The Prodigal Sons Return

Jamar (Ario Bayu) and Suwo (Yoshi Sudarso) were raised on the railroads in the American West by their uncle, Arana (Tio Pakusadewo). But one day, Arana decides it is time to return home to Java and avenge the boys’ father and his brother: a Sultan who was murdered by a coldhearted Dutch colonizer named Von Trach (Reinout Bussemaker).

Upon their arrival, the men learn that Von Trach and his cronies still maintain an iron grip on the Javanese, branding them with Von Trach’s initials as though they are his property and forcing them to destroy their rice crops and plant opium instead. Teaming up with a tough young woman named Kiona (Pevita Pearce) and her younger sister, Sri (Mikha Tambayong), Jamar and Suwo wage bloody war on Von Trach and his men for the sake of their people past, present and future.

A Taste of the Satay Western

Jamar and Suwo are disdainfully christened “buffalo boys” by Von Trach, a reference to the Javanese custom of riding buffalo and the boys’ Far East-meets-American-West fighting style. Yet while Von Trach might mean this as an insult, it’s the vibrant, vicious fight sequences combining martial arts with the most iconic tropes of the Western – including shootouts, showdowns, and one particularly wild bar fight – that are the strength of Buffalo Boys.

It definitely helps that at least one of the main actors – Yoshi Sudarso, who plays the younger, more sensitive and positively dreamy Suwo to Ario Bayu’s older, more hardened Jamar – is an experienced stuntman.

When Jamar and Suwo are waging war, Buffalo Boys is a blood-drenched delight. However, the majority of the scenes meant to push the story along between battles are a bit boring in comparison. While Pearce has a lovely screen presence, Kiona is your stereotypical damsel-in-distress meets Strong Female Character; the story seesaws between her and her sister getting rescued by the men and fighting alongside them, seemingly whatever best suits the male characters and their character arcs at that time.

Another storyline involving Arana and his long-lost wife, who has been kept as a maid-slash-sex-slave by Von Trach for all these years, also feels too stereotypical to be truly engaging. It doesn’t help that Von Trach himself is as generic a villain as they come, with too little of the charisma that one needs to be a truly memorable menace.

Despite recycling so many elements from other films in the genre (both good and bad), Buffalo Boys is still an eye-opening take on the Western thanks to the time and place in which it is set. The film shines a bright light on the colonial era of Southeast Asia, a time that many in the western hemisphere – myself included – remain woefully ignorant about.

One can understand why Singapore chose Buffalo Boys as the country’s submission for this year’s Foreign Language Film Oscar, as the film functions as a representative of Southeast Asia’s history as well as its growing film industry. The open ending of Buffalo Boys implies that the adventures of Jamar and Suwo are not over yet; one can only hope that Wiluan continues to refine his craft as a director and stops leaning on his crutch of clichés for further installments.

Buffalo Boys: Conclusion

With Buffalo Boys, Wiluan succeeds in his mission of taking an important piece of his people’s history and rendering it into an entertaining film with international appeal.

What do you think? Does Buffalo Boys sound like a unique take on the Western genre? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Buffalo Boys was released in the U.S. on January 11, 2019. You can find more international release dates here.