My review on the movie Nyab Siab Zoo
Posted on 19 January 2009
Here is my review on the movie “Nyab Siab Zoo” (The Good Hearted Daughter in Law)
picture found at HMB
(click the above to watch trailer)
This movie was well casted and it was well written. “Nyab Siab Zoo” was set during a time after the Vietnam War when many Hmong men went to war and few never returned home. This movie was based on a set of relationship between an elderly mother and her daughter in law. The elderly lady has two daughters in law, whom all their husband had die due to the war. The mother in law had requested that her daughter in laws return home to their mother as she will return to the village of her late husband. One daughter in law returned home to her parent’s home as for the other who decided to follow the mother in law and remain with her. The mother and the nyab travel back to the village of which the father lived before his death. When they came to the village the nyab decides to work for rice and take care of her elderly mother in law. While the nyab was working the fields for rice, the son of the rice owners ends up falling in love with her. His family and the mother in law’s family had a history of caring for one another. A family elder wanted to marry the nyab in claim that he needs to take care of the family member who has no one else to help. Because of this decision the mother in law was offended, the mother in law had never received help from any of her husband’s family, all the help that ever was received was from the help of Pachoua and his family.
I thought that this movie was well casted and was well written as I had stated earlier. The daughter in law starring Ia Lee did a great job portraying the kind daughter in law who refused to abandon her mother in law and suffer her life along with her mother in law in a new village in which she did not know anyone. Pha Thao who played as Pachoua was also well casted; he played as a man who was in love with the widow in which married a family friend. He decides to help the two widowed lady by bringing them food and helping them when in needs.
This movie was mainly voiceover by the daughter in law which I thought was a good idea, but it gave the movie a strong since of documentary instead of a movie but nonetheless it also gave the movie a strong feel. I just wish they would have given more dept to the relationship between Pachoua and the nyab (I do not remember catching her name since they called her “nyab” and or called her by the relation of her late husband throughout the movie). I feel like their relationship did not have a beginning but went straight to the end. If only they would of focus a bit more on his feelings for her and maybe a little more “romance” it would have been superb. They show that he had a “crush” on her, but there were no courting involved, he indicated his feelings for her by bringing things to them and by helping out. I wish they would have at least showed more of his feelings and show him trying to pursue her a bit more.
There were few parts of the movie that was a big dragging mostly after the voiceover when they were trying to show of what she was referring to. There was very little action just a lot of mellow moments to show what she was doing. I had a sense that this movie really didn’t have a real climax. The only climax I felt towards this movie was when the close cousin called all the cousins over and had a family meeting to indicate that he wants to marry the nyab as his niam yau (second wife) so that he can take care of the two widows. But that was 10 minutes before the movie ended. Of course the cousin didn’t marry the nyab because the mother in law refused to let it happen.
They indicate to us that Pachoua married the nyab because of the request by the mother in law right before her death; I just wish that they could have extended the movie a bit longer to show to the audience that Pachoua and the nyab are going to build a relationship instead of just letting the audience believe they did.
Over all I’ll give this movie an 8 out of 10. I thought the story line was very strong and there is a great deal of history in this movie also they made it very believable that this moment in time was taken place after the war. Their costume, the rice fields and the village fit the time period perfectly and all the acting was very good.
I will be looking forward to many more great Hmong movies to come out soon in the near future. I have seen that our entertainment industry has been improving.
13 responses to My review on the movie Nyab Siab Zoo
I’ve yet to see a Hmong movie. Are there any good ones streaming online?
LADYOFDARKNESS- There’s not too many good Hmong movies out there. Alot of them have bad acting,but the few better movies are the classic ones, but I have seen few good improvements. You can download them, but not streaming nor does it have subtitles.
hey where did you get this movie. i have become a fan of hmong movies. yes they are improving a lot.
Neena, I got this movie from a friend, I am not sure where she got the movie from. Try your local Hmong stores they might have it there. I am hoping that within the mere future, out hmong entertainment industry will be as great as hollywood, but for now, we can take a step at a time. Seeing these improvements means alot to me. I also have a friend who is also working on getting into the hmong entertainment industry so I am looking forward to what they’ll be like in the future.
I’ve heard that in the Hmong culture, if your husband passed away, then you’ve to marry his younger or older brother, is that true?
gosh you took every word out of my mouth..i felt the same exact way you did about the movie..i reallie like the casting…and was blushing even though their relationship wasn’t played out…i wish they would have gone into depth w/ it..argh!
This one looks like a tearjerker. It looks so sad. The trailer looked interesting. I couldn’t watch it on Myspace, the site you offered, but there’s one on YouTube. The person that uploaded the trailer said that it just came out during the Fresno new year. Make me want to buy one too.
That reminds me, I bought Nkauj Nyab and I haven’t even watched the whole thing. That’s what I need to do first. LOL
But to Ginger, Yes, it is true. We like to keep it in the family. j/k That’s gross. But the more traditional families still do that.
GINGER, yes that is true, but it depends on the wife, if she refused there is nothing they can do. This only happens when she wants to keep her childrens. ALot of time she is not allow to take her children with her if she goes and remarry someone else b/c the children are born under her late husband’s clan thus they need to stay with their clan. I know weird right.. But this is America, no one keeps that tradition anymore.
KASHIE, I am glad I wasn’t alone with the feeling of this movie. But it was good over all so i am happy. It wasn’t a waste of my time.
LOVELY, I don’t have the link to the one on youtube, I tried looking for it there, but wasn’t able to find it. If you dont mind please do give me the link. As for Nkauj Nyab I hope you enjoy it as well.
I saved the clip under my favorites on youtube but it’s not there anymore. I tried looking for it again but the person who uploaded it took the clip out. Darn it!
Lovely, it’s oka. thanks anyways. I guess everyone will have to do with the myspace clip that I had shared on this post.
Lome there is subtitle to this movie. The movie is very mellow and slow. If you don’t mind much… give it a try. I have a copy I can rip for you if you want. Hehehehe! First of all I got to figure how to rip DVD, lol.
Superwoman–There is a subtitled for this movie? humm. If you need help and need a program to rip your dvd’s let me know, I am more than glad to help since I rip and upload few movies before. But the way I do it, you must split and host the movies elsewhere to be shared. Let me know
yes Please DO I have really wanted to watch this movie and can’t find it anywhere. I should have just gotten it at the Hmong New Years
(and yeah there are subtitles for it cause I got to see just a little bit of it)
and just to let you guys know this story was adapted from a story in the BIBLE, so they really didn’t write it but it still looks good….I hope someone will upload it soon!! ^_^