Buffalo Boys, with Yoshi Sudarso, is available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime.
Always a fan of Clint Eastwood movies, Indonesian-born Yoshi Sudarso got his first real taste of western films when he was cast as one half of a pair of gun-slinging brothers in Buffalo Boys. Shot in Indonesia with some U.S. exteriors of historic California, and with both English and Indonesian dialogue and subtitles, Buffalo Boys is an action-packed revenge tale that bridges East and West.
As the story of Buffalo Boys goes, brothers Suwo (Sudarso) and Jamar (Ario Bayu) grew up in California’s Wild West of the 1880s and travel back to their birthplace, the island of Java, to seek revenge against Dutch colonists who murdered their sultan father.
Sudarso relates to the East-West narrative, having moved from Jakarta to Southern California when he was just 9 years old. Loving the cowboy lifestyle since childhood, he got his start in western entertainment in Knott’s Berry Farm’s Wild West Stunt Show playing a cowboy.
“I was still in college and not sure that I wanted to be an actor,” Sudarso says. “The stunt show was comprised of five actors and I played three of them during my time there: starting as Dan, who was a bit of a lackey and had no lines but did high falls and got lit on fire; moving up to Sarge, who had both lines and stunts; and finally landing the lead role of Elmo, who had lots of lines but few stunts to master.”
Fast-forward five years to his starring role in Buffalo Boys. Director Mike Wiluan (co-producer Crazy Rich Asians, executive producer Serangoon Road) was looking for an actor with boyish charm and a confident swagger. After viewing Sudarso’s stunts and acrobatic videos and having a brief Skype chat, Wiluan cast him in the role.
Surdarso describes his character, Suwo, as “the youngest son of the king of Indonesia who is a bit of an artist and more playful than [brother] Jamar.” See what he means, why “vengeance will be theirs,” and why the movie was Singapore’s entry in the foreign-language category for the 91st Academy Awards when you rent or buy Buffalo Boys on Amazon Prime.
Watch the trailer here.
Photography: Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films/Infinite Studios