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Rice People Movie Review

Rice People (Neak sre) is a 1994 Cambodian drama film directed by Rithy Panh and starring Peng Panh. It’s a slow film that has its problems, but it’s still a moving enough family affair.

In Cambodian refugee camps, when children are asked where rice comes from, they answer, “from UN lorries”. They have never seen a rice field. One day, these children will have to learn to live in Cambodia, meaning that they will have to learn to cultivate and to work the land. The movie itself focuses on one Cambodian family that is dependent on these paddies to survive and it tracks all of their hardships that they endure along the way.

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My main issue with this type of movie is the lack of stronger character development. Whenever you have a movie that is all about one family and their struggles, the first and foremost thing this movie should do is develop each and every member of the family in question properly. This movie fails to do that, well, at least for the most part.

The one family member that definitely was well developed was the mother. A strong matriarchal figure, she loses her husband and becomes the person responsible for her entire family. The movie is at its best when it’s about her and her acceptance of the new rule that she has to follow in order for her family to live their lives peacefully.

The performance from Peng Panh is so terrific and the sequences with her are so moving (especially touching are her prayers) that the rest of the movie almost felt like an afterthought in my opinion. The other characters all needed better treatment in this instance.

Rice People is very well shot, scored and solidly directed. The film’s slice-of-life approach was done for better and for worse. On the one hand, it captured its time, place and family very strongly, but on the other hand, it was sluggishly paced and as a result not that engaging to watch. Still, getting to know Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge regime and how agriculture is crucial to their way of life was wonderfully insightful.

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Rice People is a family drama about their struggles to survive during uncertain times. As such, it needed strong character development of each family member, which is something that this movie unfortunately did not manage to do. The mother, however, is excellent and following this matriarchal figure and her struggles to help her family was quite moving. The movie is sluggishly paced, but it’s still a sweet slice-of-life tale about the rural life in Cambodia.

My Rating – 3.5