Sam Hoi

The movie Sam Hoi (Repentance) is quite good. I've watched thousands of 4- and 5-star movies on Netflix and Amazon Videos, and I give Sam Hoi 3.5 stars. My 14 year old daughter (born in the US) gives it 4 stars. (For us, 5 stars are only for extremely good ones.)

I want to give it 4 stars because I like the content and the movie gives many surprises. I like surprises because it's clever. I like the content because it tells insurmountable sacrifices a father must do for his child.

At first I thought this movie was a martial arts action movie because the director comes from martial arts roles and also because the teaser shows boxing. The genre of the movie is also "action". After watching for about 10 minutes, at the end of the first fight scene, I shook my head and whispered to my friend, "The fighting was not spectacular at all." But not long after, I realized that this is not a martial arts movie but a drama.

The reason I don't give 4 stars is because there are some things I don't like. Here are some: 1/ The little girl with cancer looks horrible, like in a Halloween movie. I think it's better to just put on simple makeup and let the child act to show her illness. 2/ It's absurd for a father to bring his child to a sports competition and win the first prize. In my opinion, just finishing in 3rd place would be reasonable, or the competing athletes pretend to slow down to let the father and child win the first prize--that would make more sense and causes more emotions for viewers. 3/ The main actor doesn't act very well. Being beaten up he must show the pain better than relying on makeup blood and bruises. He could have acted in such a way that the audience immerses themselves in the role and imagines themselves being hurt. 4/ The title Sam Hoi (Repentance) is not clear. The boxer and the boss both have Sam Hoi in the end, but that is not the main point of the film. The English title Living Sandbag is more reasonable but also not reflective enough.

Because of the good content, I texted my acquaintance to let them know the show schedule. I also bought tickets for my parents and daughter. My parents liked it. So Sam Hoi won the approval of 3 generations. They said the theater was crowded and it's hard to find seats.

I asked some friends in Vietnam if they had watched the film. To my surprises, they said they didn't hear about this movie. Could it be that the movie was released at the time when Vietnam was fighting COVID and no one wished to go to the theaters? If that's the case, this film should be replayed. It has a lot of entertainment value. After watching it, children will love their fathers more. My daughter even said, "I think it would be greater for the movie if you played that father role..."