64%User score 64 percent
Jacknife
1989 · Drama · War
User Score
12 votes
Pronounced WHA-BIN...so you won't forget it.
A young Vietnamese boy's life is thrown into turmoil by the war raging in his country. The ten year old remains with his mother and baby sister as his father goes off to fight for the Viet Cong. During his father's absence, his mother dies from overwork and the inability to find proper medical care for her illness. He cares for his baby sister and struggles to earn a living by shining shoes and doing other odd jobs before his father returns. Both an American soldier and a Viet Cong regular are shown defending their country's political agenda. Also shown are guerilla tactics and bombings in this feature directed by veteran combat photographer Raoul Coutard.
Recommendations based on this film
CinemaSerf
August 2, 2025
This is quite a poignant wartime drama that’s told largely from the perspective of the young “Hung” (Phi Lan). With his father away at the war, he lives with his little sister “Xuan” (Huynh Cazenas) and their ailing mother (Xuan Ha) but with the flames of war getting ever closer, their lives are becoming more dangerous. For safety, they relocate to their cousins, but they don’t really have any interest in this little…
Read the full review on TMDBReviews are written by the TMDB community, not by The Bamboo Incident's publisher.
