…mozemoua…

My movie review: Diam Duab

Posted on 11 July 2009

I’ll try to make some movie caps later on if I am not so lazy and also if I finish doing my science HW and reading the darn 3 chapters from the Botany textbook.

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Ever since I’ve heard that this movie was coming out back in 2008, I had been waiting for it. I am not a fan of action movies, but hey, it’s a Hmong movie and I do like to review movies to give my thoughts and opinion, so I made myself sit through an action movie and try to review it. I do have plenty to say about this movie, as I always have things to say about everything and anything. Again, I am not a professional and I only do this for the viewers who may want to know what others think about the movie, and maybe the actors, actresses, producers, editors and etc can use my words and reviews as a type of constructive criticism, it makes the world go round.

This movie is a Wiseguy Production, starring Dao Vue (Dr. Tom 7), Houa Lee (Tou & Mai) and Yia Moua (a championship boxer?), hey Yia might be related to me, I am a Moua too, hence moze-MOUA.. ahaha Okay that was for joke only, but I am a Moua as well. My friends and I always joke that we Hmong people, if we have the same last name, we are all related one way or another, which for the most part, it is true. But then Yia is of Green Hmong dialect, I am of White Hmong dialect, I am not sure if I know any cousins who are of Green dialect. But, yes back to my review. LOL, gosh so unprofessional, I am always sidetracking. Well I did say I am NOT a professional, I only do this for fun and for the viewers and readers.

If you guys remember a while back I did a movie review on the movie “Ib Zaug Ntxiv” starring Cher Peek Lee back in February of ‘09, for this movie “Daim Duab”, Cher Peek Lee had moved from Kollusion Pictures to Wiseguys Production and was part of the movie production crew for “Daim Duab” as I believe the director and editor of this movie (correct me if I am wrong).

This movie is based on a psycho boyfriend who had been released out of jail for abusing his girlfriend. Because his girlfriend and the people he called friends put him in jail, he decided to go on a killing rampage to seek revenge for putting him in jail for two years. 

“Daim Duab” started with a voice over of Fong, a man who had just recently gotten out of jail. Right after the voiceover the action started, I honestly thought to myself, humm why the heck is the psycho guy going around killing people he don’t know and then chasing after another, but then if you go on further you do realized that in fact, he does know the guy he had just killed, humm all over a girl? Anyways, Fong chase the guy into a club, uhh, how in the heck was Fong able to get inside the club with a damn knife in his hand? They should have omitted the club scene entirely. I was once a clubber myself during my clubbing days, and I don’t know about other clubs, but the clubs I’ve been to here in GA, they are pretty good with security check, and a guy with a knife will never be able to get into a club, more like he’ll be taken to jail and be questioned instantly. There was no way for the knife to be hidden, it’s huge. It is until Fong caught up with the guy he was chasing in the club when we realized that he does know the two guys he had just killed. Dude’s on a killing rampage!  

We then met our P’ek, our main hero of the movie, Xiong. He gets called into his boss’s office and get question about stealing customer’s unwanted pictures. Funny thing is does Long’s Drug (the store) really have an office like that with a boss just sitting around with paper works? I don’t work at one so I wouldn’t know. I think I am asking too much questions. LOL Anyways, back to the review. Xiong is from “ib tsev neeg mauj meej mom”, which means he is from a higher class family, but if he is, why is he only working at Long’s Drug? Humm okay, sure why not, it is only a movie. 

We then finally meet our N’ek, or heroine PaYing, a girl who lives in a troubled family, her mother is an opium user who is in debt to this guy. She found herself in trouble with the guy her mother is indebt with and was chased after then Xiong, our hero tried to safe her, but then she ends up saving herself since Xiong pretty much just distract the guys.

Let’s rant about our characters for a bit shall we. Let me start with PaYing, her acting skills is pretty convincing, not bad, not bad at all, she’s beautiful and what not, but dang it, it bugs me, yes it bugs me that her Hmong isn’t so clear, no, no, no, she can’t speak Hmong correctly. Sorry guys, that had always been a pet peeve of mine, can’t help it. But the good thing is, her Hmong is much better than some of the characters from the movie “3 lub tooj npab”. Whew, glad I was able to get this off my chest. So I’ve been told she’s also a singer, umm anyone care to share some of her music? I would love to hear and support if I can. I’ve never seen the movie “Tou & Mai” so I can’t comment much if her acting skills had improved.

Moving onto the character Xiong played by Dao Vue, humm is it just me or did he put on a bit weight on the face or was it the camera angle?  It seems like each time they pulled a close shot of him his face was a bit chubby. His acting since “Dr. Tom 7” has improved a whole lot. Honestly that’s the only other movie I’ve seen him star in and had never seen any of his other movies if there are any out there. Is it possible to fall in love with a girl you’ve never met before through her pictures? Just asking, cos Xiong sure did.

Our character Fong, the psychotic killer, whew, he was scary! He’s always having that one knife with him, at one point it looks like a Hmong knife, at another point it doesn’t. I can’t say much about him, all I got to say is, he is pretty convincing and scary, ahh scares me and I hope my Hmong Moua brothers are not psychotic like that. LOL Okay that was meant for a joke.

The acting skills were pretty good, except for the elders, they were not so convincing, they didn’t show enough emotions for their characters, it would had been nice to have more from them, but then again they did a great job. The fighting and killing scenes were pretty brutally convincing. The story was developed nicely, humm I don’t recall any potholes. But it does make me wonder, why didn’t Xiong take PaYing home after he dropped off his friend? He just left her stranded at his house. At least drop her off somewhere. In real life he would have taken her home or drop her off elsewhere before taking his friend home. Editing was good, camera was good, and a lot about this movie was good.

The thing that did bugged me was their voice, it makes me wonder if they dubbed over their voices, especially the elder’s voices. Their voices seemed too much as if it was dubbed over and not their real voices. I think the only one that seemed real was PaYing’s voice, besides that all the other voices seems like it was dubbed.

 Another thing that bugged me a bit was the “Phab Ej” shirts. Dao Had that shirt on, one of the bartender had that shirt on and few others had that shirt on, gosh, it’s overrated! It was a bit annoying when more than one character had a similar shirt on. Just a thought, but Hey I want a shirt that says “Nas Ej” too .

So over all, I say this movie was pretty good, pretty interesting and the fighting looks real, the acting was convincing, quality of the movie was good and it’s not a waste of time watching this movie. Believe me Hmong entertainment is definitely improving. Before long, Hmong people will be producing really good movies! I’ll give this movie a rating of 4 out of 5!