Not the first time that Netflix is releasing a father-daughter sentimental tale but the Vietnamese My Father is a Playboy (Dan Choi Khong So Con Roi) inadequately delves into this relationship with a predictable end. Inspired by the Mexican script of Instructions Not Included and directed by Huynh Dong, the film premiered on the OTT platform on October 30, 2022 with a runtime of 1 hour 28 minutes.
Starring as the titular womanizer, Tien Luat leads as the single father who must raise his daughter alone after her mother abandons her as a child. Having no knowledge about the same, he’s assisted by his friend’s family as he struggles to find a stable job to provide for his daughter.
A ladies’ man is forced to change his ways when he’s suddenly saddled with the daughter he never knew about
Infamous as a philanderer, Quan’s (who was himself left alone with his father early on) life is shaken up when he sees his past repeating itself, but with him in the shoes of the single father this time. One of his previous partners dumps their daughter’s responsibility on him and flees the scene. Without any kind of grasp of the situation as he barely knows how to handle himself, he takes on the responsibility to raise her after his initial denial.
As fate has it, he often finds his paths collided with an assistant director who hires him for temporary roles that pay off well. However, other than, he doesn’t even have any official documents or means to support his daughter but still manages to sustain both of their lives somehow. Later, the girl’s mother (now wealthy) steps back into their life and the child is compelled to choose between either of her parents.
The plot couldn’t have been more direct than this. Additionally, the second half of the movie involves a fateful interference as well to quantify the depth of the overemotional storyline. Being posed primarily as a heartfelt comedy, the film’s highlight has to be the moments shared between Tien Luat’s Quan and young Be Bao Thi’s Bunny. If the focus had stuck to building up the relationship between the two instead of introducing the over the top hackneyed plot reversal that probably all of us who watched the movie saw coming, then it would’ve been better off.
The struggles and hardships faced by them in their daily life alone could’ve delved into transforming their developments over the course and naturally brought the movie to its close. However, the director’s choice of forcing the storyline so that Bunny can be granted the solution of peacefully living both of her parents is rushed and underdeveloped. Though it forwards the answer to her queries, it barely taps into the characters’ dynamics and individual reaction of being put under the same roof. Even their relationship in the past isn’t harked at, barely leaving room for their individualities to create a chaotic face-off.
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Moreover, the inner turmoil is barely brought to the top, especially with the ideas the film seeks to raise. It never establishes the characters as rounded entities of their own. While it’s true that Quan’s development is intrinsically connected to the part played by Bunny in his life, we’re unable to feel for his character. Even the essence of him being a ‘playboy’ isn’t dissected and we’re just expected to magically believe in this quality’s retrieval with the tragic news making the headline.
My Father is a Playboy: Final thoughts
The mother’s character (Van Trang) is unabashedly tokenistic. A lot of elements therein are used to stimulate the action on part of the main character but their impact on him is never unpacked. Despite the choice of the sensitive subject matter, the movie is only projected as a superficial attempt at attaining the means of painting the Vietnamese film product as a holistic result as opposed to the mainstream reactions of vulgar comedies.
The mere adorable charm of the child actress is not sufficient to pull this feat off, and honestly, her cuteness is what kept me watching the film till the end as well, other than that the film kept on stretching beyond its elasticity even when nothing was affectionately brought alive in the first place.
For a ‘heartfelt’ content, this film barely had me rooting for the family because the sense of a family was hardly there to begin with. Even the conflict of being forced to live together under the circumstances wasn’t brought up and the characters put on an illusion that isn’t complicated by the storytelling, thus, reducing any redeemable conclusion for their respective arcs and only taking it further downhill in the second half.
My Father is a Playboy is now streaming on Netflix.
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Not exactly Oscar nominee but this movie isn’t as bad as you say it is. The translations really simplify the dialogue and the depth of the writing in Vietnamese isn’t really expressed in the subtitles.
Movie could have definitely dug deeper into the back story of the characters but I think it really hits the mark for what it is trying to be. Emotionally sappy movie about a father and his child.